Re: [PATCH] lib/test_vmalloc.c: avoid garbage in page array

Baoquan He
2023-05-26T08:57:51Z

On 05/26/23 at 08:13am, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote:
> On Fri, May 26, 2023 at 08:08:33AM +0800, Baoquan He wrote:
> > On 05/24/23 at 09:24am, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote:
> > > It turns out that alloc_pages_bulk_array() does not treat the page_array
> > > parameter as an output parameter, but rather reads the array and skips any
> > > entries that have already been allocated.
> >
> > I read __alloc_pages_bulk() carefully, it does store the allocated page
> > pointers into page_array[] and pass out, not just reads the array and
> > skips entry alreay allocated.
>
> Umm, the function literally opens with:-
>
> /*
> * Skip populated array elements to determine if any pages need
> * to be allocated before disabling IRQs.
> */
> while (page_array && nr_populated < nr_pages && page_array[nr_populated])
> nr_populated++;

OK, suppose page_array[] alreasy has three pages populated, if not
initialized and there's garbage data in page_array[], it could have
nr_populated > 3 finally? This is really risky.

>
> And then later:-
>
> /* Skip existing pages */
> if (page_array && page_array[nr_populated]) {
> nr_populated++;
> continue;
> }

This is interesting, I thought this place of nr_populated checking and
updating is meaningless, in fact it's skipping the element with vlaue
in the middle of page_array. I realize this when I recheck the code when
replying to your mail. Not sure if we should restrict that, or it's
really existing reasonablly.

[x][x][x][][][][x][x][][]
x marks the element pointing to page.

>
> This explicitly skips populated array entries and reads page_array to see
> if entries already exist, and literally documents this in the comments
> above each line, exactly as I describe.

OK, I misread your words in log. While page_array[] is still output
parameter, just not pure output parameter? Not sure if I understand
output parameter correctly.

>
> >
> > For the issue this patch is trying to fix, you mean __alloc_pages_bulk()
> > doesn't initialize page_array intentionally if it doesn't successfully
> > allocate desired number of pages. we may need add one sentence to notice
> > user that page_array need be initialized explicitly.
>
> It isn't 'trying' to fix it, it fixes it. I have this reproing locally.

Right, my wrong expression.

>
> What you're stating about 'successfully allocate desired number of pages'
> is irrelevant, we literally check the number of allocated pages in the
> caller.
>
> No sentences need to be added, I explicitly state that the issue is due to
> the array being uninitialised, the summary lines talks about reading
> garbage.

Well, I meant adding sentence above __alloc_pages_bulk() to tell:
page_array[] could have garbage data stored if you don't initialize
it explicitly before calling __alloc_pages_bulk();

This could happen in other place if they don't use kcalloc(),
kmalloc(GFP_ZERO) or something like this to allocate page_array[]?

>
> >
> > By the way, could you please tell in which line the test was referencing
> > uninitialized data and causing the PFN to not be valid and trigger the
> > WANR_ON? Please forgive my dumb head.
>
> Well, I showed you the lines above where __alloc_bulk_array() is accessing
> uninitialised data by reading page_array[].

I see now, thanks for these details.

>
> But ultimately this is called from vm_map_ram_test() in lib/test_vmalloc.c:-
>
> for (i = 0; i < test_loop_count; i++) {
> v_ptr = vm_map_ram(pages, map_nr_pages, NUMA_NO_NODE);
> ^--- triggers warning because we can't map the invalid PFN
> *v_ptr = 'a';
> ^--- NULL pointer deref
> vm_unmap_ram(v_ptr, map_nr_pages);
> }
>
> The warning is triggered in:-
>
> vm_map_ram()
> vmap_pages_range()
> vmap_pages_range_noflush()
> __vmap_pages_range_noflush()
> vmap_pages_p4d_range()
> vmap_pages_pud_range()
> vmap_pages_pmd_range()
> vmap_pages_pte_range()
>
> In:-
>
> if (WARN_ON(!pfn_valid(page_to_pfn(page))))
> return -EINVAL;
>
> The PFN is invalid because I happen to have garbage in an array entry such
> that page_to_pfn(garbage) >= max_pfn.
>
> > >
> > > This is somewhat unexpected and breaks this test, as we allocate the pages
> > > array uninitialised on the assumption it will be overwritten.
> > >
> > > As a result, the test was referencing uninitialised data and causing the
> > > PFN to not be valid and thus a WARN_ON() followed by a null pointer deref
> > > and panic.
> > >
> > > In addition, this is an array of pointers not of struct page objects, so we
> > > need only allocate an array with elements of pointer size.
> > >
> > > We solve both problems by simply using kcalloc() and referencing
> > > sizeof(struct page *) rather than sizeof(struct page).
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lstoakes@gmail.com>
> > > ---
> > > lib/test_vmalloc.c | 2 +-
> > > 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> > >
> > > diff --git a/lib/test_vmalloc.c b/lib/test_vmalloc.c
> > > index 9dd9745d365f..3718d9886407 100644
> > > --- a/lib/test_vmalloc.c
> > > +++ b/lib/test_vmalloc.c
> > > @@ -369,7 +369,7 @@ vm_map_ram_test(void)
> > > int i;
> > >
> > > map_nr_pages = nr_pages > 0 ? nr_pages:1;
> > > - pages = kmalloc(map_nr_pages * sizeof(struct page), GFP_KERNEL);
> > > + pages = kcalloc(map_nr_pages, sizeof(struct page *), GFP_KERNEL);
> > > if (!pages)
> > > return -1;
> > >
> > > --
> > > 2.40.1
> > >
> >
>
> A broader problem we might want to think about is how little anybody is
> running this test in order that it wasn't picked up before now... obviously
> there's an element of luck as to whether the page_array happens to be
> zeroed or not, but you'd think it'd be garbage filled at least a reasonable
> amount of the time.

Hmm, that's why we may need notice people that there's risk in
__alloc_pages_bulk() if page_array[] is not initialized and the garbage
could be mistaken as a effective page pointer. My personal opinion.
People may argue it's caller's responsibility to do that.

Thanks
Baoquan