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From: Al Viro <viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk>
To: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: rth@twiddle.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: alpha: potential race around hae_cache in RESTORE_ALL
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 20:18:36 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20100925191836.GW19804@ZenIV.linux.org.uk> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTi=XURM0hOiitvNSiacd9+7Vx8s7V0KZ+oZQsDDQ@mail.gmail.com>

On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 11:42:41AM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> Ok, so it's been absolutely ages since I touched the HAE stuff, but I
> think the logic was that interrupts will always restore HAE to the
> pre-interrupt state on exit, so reading it was always supposedly
> race-free and didn't need any protection from normal code.
> 
> But yes, any actual _changes_ to HAE had better protect against
> interrupts, so that they don't see the half-done state.
> 
> So yes, I think you found a bug.
> 
> I also don't see why that crazy RESTORE_ALL code does that reload of
> $0 and $1 when it updates HAE. Is that just legacy from it having
> _used_ to do the swipl PAL-call and that trashed those registers?

Looks like...  swpipl takes argument in $16 and returns value in $0;
trashes $1, $16, $22--$25.  Out of those, RESTORE_ALL deals with $22--$25
later in the sequence and $16 it handled by rti.

> Anyway, I think the fix should be that we really always do have
> interrupts disabled in RESTORE_ALL, rather than re-introduce the swipl
> into the RESTORE_ALL sequence. A lot of the critical sequences already
> do that - notably the normal return-to-user space code sequence that
> is the really critical one.

Agreed.  There are only two places that need change (return to kernel path
in ret_from_syscall and kernel_thread essentially jumping to the same path),
so I'll just add
ret_to_kernel:
        lda     $16, 7
        call_pal PAL_swpipl
	br	restore_all
and make these two places go to ret_to_kernel instead of restore_all.

BTW, another bug on alpha: coredump puts rdusp() result into regsets for
_all_ threads.  Should be ti->pcb.usp for everything except current, a-la
KSTK_ESP logics...

I'll send fixes shortly

  reply	other threads:[~2010-09-25 19:18 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 15+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2010-09-25 18:13 alpha: potential race around hae_cache in RESTORE_ALL Al Viro
2010-09-25 18:42 ` Linus Torvalds
2010-09-25 19:18   ` Al Viro [this message]
2010-09-25 19:25     ` Al Viro
     [not found]       ` <AANLkTikEVr6wA6D_f2Z6OEFu6SCP_-89u0-k-K-wKgb=@mail.gmail.com>
2010-09-25 21:33         ` Linus Torvalds
2010-09-27  7:58       ` Ivan Kokshaysky
2010-09-27 12:12         ` Al Viro
2010-09-27 12:46           ` Al Viro
2010-09-27 16:26             ` Ivan Kokshaysky
2010-09-27 17:10               ` Linus Torvalds
2010-09-27 18:05                 ` Richard Henderson
2010-09-27 19:01                 ` Al Viro
2010-09-27 21:21                   ` Ivan Kokshaysky
2010-09-25 20:07   ` [PATCH] alpha: fix hae_cache race " Al Viro
2010-09-25 20:07   ` [PATCH] alpha: fix usp value in multithreaded coredumps Al Viro

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