Re: [PATCH v1 03/11] fs/proc/vmcore: disallow vmcore modifications after the vmcore was opened

David Hildenbrand
2024-12-03T10:51:46Z

On 03.12.24 11:42, Baoquan He wrote:
> On 11/29/24 at 11:38am, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>> On 25.11.24 15:41, Baoquan He wrote:
>>> On 11/22/24 at 10:30am, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>>> On 22.11.24 10:16, Baoquan He wrote:
>>>>> On 10/25/24 at 05:11pm, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>>>> ......snip...
>>>>>> @@ -1482,6 +1470,10 @@ int vmcore_add_device_dump(struct vmcoredd_data *data)
>>>>>> return -EINVAL;
>>>>>> }
>>>>>> + /* We'll recheck under lock later. */
>>>>>> + if (data_race(vmcore_opened))
>>>>>> + return -EBUSY;
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>>> As I commented to patch 7, if vmcore is opened and closed after
>>>>> checking, do we need to give up any chance to add device dumping
>>>>> as below?
>>>>>
>>>>> fd = open(/proc/vmcore);
>>>>> ...do checking;
>>>>> close(fd);
>>>>>
>>>>> quit any device dump adding;
>>>>>
>>>>> run makedumpfile on s390;
>>>>> ->fd = open(/proc/vmcore);
>>>>> -> try to dump;
>>>>> ->close(fd);
>>>>
>>>> The only reasonable case where this could happen (with virtio_mem) would be
>>>> when you hotplug a virtio-mem device into a VM that is currently in the
>>>> kdump kernel. However, in this case, the device would not provide any memory
>>>> we want to dump:
>>>>
>>>> (1) The memory was not available to the 1st (crashed) kernel, because
>>>> the device got hotplugged later.
>>>> (2) Hotplugged virtio-mem devices show up with "no plugged memory",
>>>> meaning there wouldn't be even something to dump.
>>>>
>>>> Drivers will be loaded (as part of the kernel or as part of the initrd)
>>>> before any kdump action is happening. Similarly, just imagine your NIC
>>>> driver not being loaded when you start dumping to a network share ...
>>>>
>>>> This should similarly apply to vmcoredd providers.
>>>>
>>>> There is another concern I had at some point with changing the effective
>>>> /proc/vmcore size after someone already opened it, and might assume the size
>>>> will stay unmodified (IOW, the file was completely static before vmcoredd
>>>> showed up).
>>>>
>>>> So unless there is a real use case that requires tracking whether the file
>>>> is no longer open, to support modifying the vmcore afterwards, we should
>>>> keep it simple.
>>>>
>>>> I am not aware of any such cases, and my experiments with virtio_mem showed
>>>> that the driver get loaded extremely early from the initrd, compared to when
>>>> we actually start messing with /proc/vmcore from user space.
>
> It's OK, David, I don't have strong opinion about the current
> implementation. I raised this concern because
>
> 1) I saw the original vmcoredd only warn when doing register if
> vmcore_opened is true;
>
> 2) in patch 1, it says vmcore_mutex is introduced to protect vmcore
> modifications from concurrent opening. If we are confident, the old
> vmcoredd_mutex can guarantee it, I could be wrong here.

I don't see how. We're protecting the list, but not the
vmcoredd_update_size(), which modifies sizes, offsets and all that.

>
> Anyway, it's just a tiny concern, I believe it won't cause issue at
> present. So it's up to you.

I can keep allowing to add stuff after the vmcore was opened and closed
again (but not while it is open). It doesn't make any sense IMHO, but it
seems to be easy to add.

Thanks!

--
Cheers,

David / dhildenb