Re: [PATCH 2/3] livepatch/rcu: Warn when system consistency is broken in RCU code

Josh Poimboeuf
2017-05-09T16:18:38Z

On Mon, May 08, 2017 at 03:36:00PM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> On Mon, May 08, 2017 at 05:16:09PM -0500, Josh Poimboeuf wrote:
> > On Mon, May 08, 2017 at 02:07:54PM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> > > This would be a problem if step 2's NMI hit rcu_irq_enter(),
> > > rcu_irq_exit(), and friends in just the wrong place.
> > >
> > > I would suggest that ftrace() do something like this...
> > >
> > > if (in_nmi())
> > > rcu_nmi_enter();
> > > else
> > > rcu_irq_enter();
> > >
> > > Except that, as Steven will quickly point out, this won't work at the
> > > very edges of the NMI, when NMI_MASK won't be set in preempt_count().
> > >
> > > Other thoughts?
> >
> > Ok. So I think the livepatch ftrace handler would need the in_nmi()
> > check, in case it's called early in the NMI.
> >
> > But on x86, rcu_nmi_enter() is also called in some non-NMI exception
> > cases, from ist_enter(). So it appears that the in_nmi() check wouldn't
> > be sufficient. We might instead need something like:
> >
> > if (in_nmi() || in_some_other_exception())
> > rcu_nmi_enter();
> > else
> > rcu_irq_enter();
> >
> > But unfortunately the in_some_other_exception() function doesn't
> > currently exist.
> >
> > So, one more question. Would it work if we just always called
> > rcu_nmi_enter()?
>
> I am a bit nervous about this. It would -at- -least- be necessary to have
> interrupts disabled throughout the entire time from the rcu_nmi_enter()
> through the matching rcu_nmi_exit(). And there might be other failure
> modes that I don't immediately see.

Ok, let's forget about that idea for now then :-)

> But do we really need this, given the in_nmi() check that Steven
> pointed out?

The in_nmi() check doesn't work for non-NMI exceptions. An exception
can come from anywhere, which is presumably why ist_enter() calls
rcu_nmi_enter(), even though it might not have been in NMI context. The
exception could, for example, happen while you're twiddling important
bits in rcu_irq_enter(). Or it could happen early in do_nmi(), before
it had a chance to set NMI_MASK or call rcu_nmi_enter(). In either
case, in_nmi() would be false, yet calling rcu_irq_enter() would be bad.

I think I have convinced myself that, as long as the user doesn't patch
ist_enter() or rcu_dynticks_eqs_enter(), it'll be fine. So the
following should be sufficient:

if (in_nmi())
rcu_nmi_enter(); /* in case we're called before nmi_enter() */
else
rcu_irq_enter_irqson();

if (unlikely(!rcu_is_watching())) {
klp_block_patch_removal = true;
WARN_ON_ONCE(1); /* this presumably means */
}

I think the alternative, calling rcu_irq_enter_disabled() beforehand,
isn't sufficient, because it only checks the rcu_dynticks_eqs_enter()
case. It doesn't check the IST exception ist_enter() case, before
rcu_nmi_enter() has been called.

--
Josh