Re: [PATCH V2 2/3] arch_topology: Avoid use-after-free for scale_freq_data

[Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 12:18:08PM +0530, Viresh Kumar wrote:
> Currently topology_scale_freq_tick() may end up using a pointer to
> struct scale_freq_data, which was previously cleared by
> topology_clear_scale_freq_source(), as there is no protection in place
> here. The users of topology_clear_scale_freq_source() though needs a
> guarantee that the previous scale_freq_data isn't used anymore.
> 
> Since topology_scale_freq_tick() is called from scheduler tick, we don't
> want to add locking in there. Use the RCU update mechanism instead
> (which is already used by the scheduler's utilization update path) to
> guarantee race free updates here.
> 
> Cc: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>
> Signed-off-by: Viresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@linaro.org>

So this is a bugfix for problems in the current codebase?  What commit
does this fix?  Should it go to the stable kernels?

> ---
>  drivers/base/arch_topology.c | 27 +++++++++++++++++++++------
>  1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/base/arch_topology.c b/drivers/base/arch_topology.c
> index c1179edc0f3b..921312a8d957 100644
> --- a/drivers/base/arch_topology.c
> +++ b/drivers/base/arch_topology.c
> @@ -18,10 +18,11 @@
>  #include <linux/cpumask.h>
>  #include <linux/init.h>
>  #include <linux/percpu.h>
> +#include <linux/rcupdate.h>
>  #include <linux/sched.h>
>  #include <linux/smp.h>
>  
> -static DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct scale_freq_data *, sft_data);
> +static DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct scale_freq_data __rcu *, sft_data);
>  static struct cpumask scale_freq_counters_mask;
>  static bool scale_freq_invariant;
>  
> @@ -66,16 +67,20 @@ void topology_set_scale_freq_source(struct scale_freq_data *data,
>  	if (cpumask_empty(&scale_freq_counters_mask))
>  		scale_freq_invariant = topology_scale_freq_invariant();
>  
> +	rcu_read_lock();
> +
>  	for_each_cpu(cpu, cpus) {
> -		sfd = per_cpu(sft_data, cpu);
> +		sfd = rcu_dereference(*per_cpu_ptr(&sft_data, cpu));
>  
>  		/* Use ARCH provided counters whenever possible */
>  		if (!sfd || sfd->source != SCALE_FREQ_SOURCE_ARCH) {
> -			per_cpu(sft_data, cpu) = data;
> +			rcu_assign_pointer(per_cpu(sft_data, cpu), data);
>  			cpumask_set_cpu(cpu, &scale_freq_counters_mask);
>  		}
>  	}
>  
> +	rcu_read_unlock();
> +
>  	update_scale_freq_invariant(true);
>  }
>  EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(topology_set_scale_freq_source);
> @@ -86,22 +91,32 @@ void topology_clear_scale_freq_source(enum scale_freq_source source,
>  	struct scale_freq_data *sfd;
>  	int cpu;
>  
> +	rcu_read_lock();
> +
>  	for_each_cpu(cpu, cpus) {
> -		sfd = per_cpu(sft_data, cpu);
> +		sfd = rcu_dereference(*per_cpu_ptr(&sft_data, cpu));
>  
>  		if (sfd && sfd->source == source) {
> -			per_cpu(sft_data, cpu) = NULL;
> +			rcu_assign_pointer(per_cpu(sft_data, cpu), NULL);
>  			cpumask_clear_cpu(cpu, &scale_freq_counters_mask);
>  		}
>  	}
>  
> +	rcu_read_unlock();
> +
> +	/*
> +	 * Make sure all references to previous sft_data are dropped to avoid
> +	 * use-after-free races.
> +	 */
> +	synchronize_rcu();

What race is happening?  How could the current code race?  Only when a
cpu is removed?

thanks,

greg k-h