Fwd: Memory corruption in multithreaded user space program while calling fork

Bagas Sanjaya
2023-07-02T12:27:43Z

Hi,

I notice a regression report on Bugzilla [1]. Quoting from it:

> After upgrading to kernel version 6.4.0 from 6.3.9, I noticed frequent but random crashes in a user space program. After a lot of reduction, I have come up with the following reproducer program:
>
> $ uname -a
> Linux jacob 6.4.1-gentoo #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sat Jul 1 19:02:42 EDT 2023 x86_64 AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16-Core Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
> $ cat repro.c
> #define _GNU_SOURCE
> #include <sched.h>
> #include <sys/wait.h>
> #include <unistd.h>
>
> void *threadSafeAlloc(size_t n) {
> static size_t end_index = 0;
> static char buffer[1 << 25];
> size_t start_index = __atomic_load_n(&end_index, __ATOMIC_SEQ_CST);
> while (1) {
> if (start_index + n > sizeof(buffer)) _exit(1);
> if (__atomic_compare_exchange_n(&end_index, &start_index, start_index + n, 1, __ATOMIC_SEQ_CST, __ATOMIC_SEQ_CST)) return buffer + start_index;
> }
> }
>
> int thread(void *arg) {
> size_t i;
> size_t n = 1 << 7;
> char *items;
> (void)arg;
> while (1) {
> items = threadSafeAlloc(n);
> for (i = 0; i != n; i += 1) items[i] = '@';
> for (i = 0; i != n; i += 1) if (items[i] != '@') _exit(2);
> }
> }
>
> int main(void) {
> static size_t stacks[2][1 << 9];
> size_t i;
> for (i = 0; i != 2; i += 1) clone(&thread, &stacks[i] + 1, CLONE_THREAD | CLONE_VM | CLONE_SIGHAND, NULL);
> while (1) {
> if (fork() == 0) _exit(0);
> (void)wait(NULL);
> }
> }
> $ cc repro.c
> $ ./a.out
> $ echo $?
> 2
>
> After tuning the various parameters for my computer, exit code 2, which indicates that memory corruption was detected, occurs approximately 99% of the time. Exit code 1, which occurs approximately 1% of the time, means it ran out of statically-allocated memory before reproducing the issue, and increasing the memory usage any more only leads to diminishing returns. There is also something like a 0.1% chance that it segfaults due to memory corruption elsewhere than in the statically-allocated buffer.
>
> With this reproducer in hand, I was able to perform the following bisection:
>
> git bisect start
> # status: waiting for both good and bad commits
> # bad: [6995e2de6891c724bfeb2db33d7b87775f913ad1] Linux 6.4
> git bisect bad 6995e2de6891c724bfeb2db33d7b87775f913ad1
> # status: waiting for good commit(s), bad commit known
> # good: [457391b0380335d5e9a5babdec90ac53928b23b4] Linux 6.3
> git bisect good 457391b0380335d5e9a5babdec90ac53928b23b4
> # good: [d42b1c47570eb2ed818dc3fe94b2678124af109d] Merge tag 'devicetree-for-6.4-1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/robh/linux
> git bisect good d42b1c47570eb2ed818dc3fe94b2678124af109d
> # bad: [58390c8ce1bddb6c623f62e7ed36383e7fa5c02f] Merge tag 'iommu-updates-v6.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/joro/iommu
> git bisect bad 58390c8ce1bddb6c623f62e7ed36383e7fa5c02f
> # good: [888d3c9f7f3ae44101a3fd76528d3dd6f96e9fd0] Merge tag 'sysctl-6.4-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mcgrof/linux
> git bisect good 888d3c9f7f3ae44101a3fd76528d3dd6f96e9fd0
> # bad: [86e98ed15b3e34460d1b3095bd119b6fac11841c] Merge tag 'cgroup-for-6.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/cgroup
> git bisect bad 86e98ed15b3e34460d1b3095bd119b6fac11841c
> # bad: [7fa8a8ee9400fe8ec188426e40e481717bc5e924] Merge tag 'mm-stable-2023-04-27-15-30' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm
> git bisect bad 7fa8a8ee9400fe8ec188426e40e481717bc5e924
> # bad: [0120dd6e4e202e19a0e011e486fb2da40a5ea279] zram: make zram_bio_discard more self-contained
> git bisect bad 0120dd6e4e202e19a0e011e486fb2da40a5ea279
> # good: [fce0b4213edb960859dcc65ea414c8efb11948e1] mm/page_alloc: add helper for checking if check_pages_enabled
> git bisect good fce0b4213edb960859dcc65ea414c8efb11948e1
> # bad: [59f876fb9d68a4d8c20305d7a7a0daf4ee9478a8] mm: avoid passing 0 to __ffs()
> git bisect bad 59f876fb9d68a4d8c20305d7a7a0daf4ee9478a8
> # good: [0050d7f5ee532f92e8ab1efcec6547bfac527973] afs: split afs_pagecache_valid() out of afs_validate()
> git bisect good 0050d7f5ee532f92e8ab1efcec6547bfac527973
> # good: [2ac0af1b66e3b66307f53b1cc446514308ec466d] mm: fall back to mmap_lock if vma->anon_vma is not yet set
> git bisect good 2ac0af1b66e3b66307f53b1cc446514308ec466d
> # skip: [0d2ebf9c3f7822e7ba3e4792ea3b6b19aa2da34a] mm/mmap: free vm_area_struct without call_rcu in exit_mmap
> git bisect skip 0d2ebf9c3f7822e7ba3e4792ea3b6b19aa2da34a
> # skip: [70d4cbc80c88251de0a5b3e8df3275901f1fa99a] powerc/mm: try VMA lock-based page fault handling first
> git bisect skip 70d4cbc80c88251de0a5b3e8df3275901f1fa99a
> # good: [444eeb17437a0ef526c606e9141a415d3b7dfddd] mm: prevent userfaults to be handled under per-vma lock
> git bisect good 444eeb17437a0ef526c606e9141a415d3b7dfddd
> # bad: [e06f47a16573decc57498f2d02f9af3bb3e84cf2] s390/mm: try VMA lock-based page fault handling first
> git bisect bad e06f47a16573decc57498f2d02f9af3bb3e84cf2
> # skip: [0bff0aaea03e2a3ed6bfa302155cca8a432a1829] x86/mm: try VMA lock-based page fault handling first
> git bisect skip 0bff0aaea03e2a3ed6bfa302155cca8a432a1829
> # skip: [cd7f176aea5f5929a09a91c661a26912cc995d1b] arm64/mm: try VMA lock-based page fault handling first
> git bisect skip cd7f176aea5f5929a09a91c661a26912cc995d1b
> # good: [52f238653e452e0fda61e880f263a173d219acd1] mm: introduce per-VMA lock statistics
> git bisect good 52f238653e452e0fda61e880f263a173d219acd1
> # bad: [c7f8f31c00d187a2c71a241c7f2bd6aa102a4e6f] mm: separate vma->lock from vm_area_struct
> git bisect bad c7f8f31c00d187a2c71a241c7f2bd6aa102a4e6f
> # only skipped commits left to test
> # possible first bad commit: [c7f8f31c00d187a2c71a241c7f2bd6aa102a4e6f] mm: separate vma->lock from vm_area_struct
> # possible first bad commit: [0d2ebf9c3f7822e7ba3e4792ea3b6b19aa2da34a] mm/mmap: free vm_area_struct without call_rcu in exit_mmap
> # possible first bad commit: [70d4cbc80c88251de0a5b3e8df3275901f1fa99a] powerc/mm: try VMA lock-based page fault handling first
> # possible first bad commit: [cd7f176aea5f5929a09a91c661a26912cc995d1b] arm64/mm: try VMA lock-based page fault handling first
> # possible first bad commit: [0bff0aaea03e2a3ed6bfa302155cca8a432a1829] x86/mm: try VMA lock-based page fault handling first
>
> I do not usually see any kernel log output while running the program, just occasional logs about user space segfaults.

See Bugzilla for the full thread.

Jacob: Can you repeat bisection please? Why did you skip VMA lock-based
page fault commits in your bisection?

Anyway, I'm adding it to regzbot:

#regzbot introduced: 0bff0aaea03e2a..c7f8f31c00d187 https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=217624
#regzbot title: Memory corruption in multithreaded user space program while calling fork (possibly caused by trying VMA lock-based page fault)

Thanks.

[1]: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=217624

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