Re: [PATCH] livepatch: fix race between enabled_store() and klp_unregister_patch()

[Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>]

On Tue 2015-12-01 15:28:19, Jiri Slaby wrote:
> On 12/01/2015, 03:13 PM, Petr Mladek wrote:
> > --- a/kernel/livepatch/core.c
> > +++ b/kernel/livepatch/core.c
> > @@ -612,7 +612,19 @@ static ssize_t enabled_store(struct kobject *kobj, struct kobj_attribute *attr,
> >  
> >  	patch = container_of(kobj, struct klp_patch, kobj);
> >  
> > -	mutex_lock(&klp_mutex);
> > +	/*
> > +	 * Avoid a deadlock with kobject_put(&patch->kobj) that is
> > +	 * called under klp_mutex. Bail out when the patch is not
> > +	 * longer registered.
> > +	 */
> > +	if (!mutex_trylock(&klp_mutex)) {
>
> This introduces false positives.
> Deleting/enabling/disabling/other_op_under_klp_mutex of an unrelated
> patch may now cause enabled_store to fail. Hence I don't like this
> approach at all.

Ah, there should have been

	while (!mutex_trylock(&klp_mutex)) {
		if (!klp_is_patch_registered(patch))
			return -EINVAL;
		/* Do not spin with trylock that bounce cache lines. */
		while (mutex_is_locked(&klp_mutex) &&
		       klp_is_patch_registered(patch))
			cond_resched();
	}

, so it should not produce false positives.

But I do not have a strong opinion about it.

Best Regards,
Petr