Re: [PATCH] rcu/kprobes: Comment why rcu_nmi_enter() is marked NOKPROBE

Paul E. McKenney
2020-02-19T17:41:35Z

On Wed, Feb 19, 2020 at 12:16:09PM -0500, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> From: Steven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
>
> It's confusing that rcu_nmi_enter() is marked NOKPROBE and
> rcu_nmi_exit() is not. One may think that the exit needs to be marked
> for the same reason the enter is, as rcu_nmi_exit() reverts the RCU
> state back to what it was before rcu_nmi_enter(). But the reason has
> nothing to do with the state of RCU.
>
> The breakpoint handler (int3 on x86) must not have any kprobe on it
> until the kprobe handler is called. Otherwise, it can cause an infinite
> recursion and crash the machine. It just so happens that
> rcu_nmi_enter() is called by the int3 handler before the kprobe handler
> can run, and therefore needs to be marked as NOKPROBE.
>
> Comment this to remove the confusion to why rcu_nmi_enter() is marked
> NOKPROBE but rcu_nmi_exit() is not.
>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20200213163800.5c51a5f1@gandalf.local.home
> Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@goodmis.org>

Reviewed-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>

> ---
> diff --git a/kernel/rcu/tree.c b/kernel/rcu/tree.c
> index 1694a6b57ad8..ada7b2b638fb 100644
> --- a/kernel/rcu/tree.c
> +++ b/kernel/rcu/tree.c
> @@ -846,6 +846,14 @@ void rcu_nmi_enter(void)
> {
> rcu_nmi_enter_common(false);
> }
> +/*
> + * All functions called in the breakpoint trap handler (e.g. do_int3()
> + * on x86), must not allow kprobes until the kprobe breakpoint handler
> + * is called, otherwise it can cause an infinite recursion.
> + * On some archs, rcu_nmi_enter() is called in the breakpoint handler
> + * before the kprobe breakpoint handler is called, thus it must be
> + * marked as NOKPROBE.
> + */
> NOKPROBE_SYMBOL(rcu_nmi_enter);
>
> /**