Re: [PATCH v2 3/4] rust: devres: get rid of Devres' inner Arc

Boqun Feng
2025-06-23T01:54:11Z

On Sun, Jun 22, 2025 at 06:40:40PM +0200, Danilo Krummrich wrote:
> So far Devres uses an inner memory allocation and reference count, i.e.
> an inner Arc, in order to ensure that the devres callback can't run into
> a use-after-free in case where the Devres object is dropped while the
> devres callback runs concurrently.
>
> Instead, use a completion in order to avoid a potential UAF: In
> Devres::drop(), if we detect that we can't remove the devres action
> anymore, we wait for the completion that is completed from the devres
> callback. If, in turn, we were able to successfully remove the devres
> action, we can just go ahead.
>
> This, again, allows us to get rid of the internal Arc, and instead let

I like the idea ;-)

> Devres consume an `impl PinInit<T, E>` in order to return an
> `impl PinInit<Devres<T>, E>`, which enables us to get away with less
> memory allocations.
>
> Additionally, having the resulting explicit synchronization in
> Devres::drop() prevents potential subtle undesired side effects of the
> devres callback dropping the final Arc reference asynchronously within
> the devres callback.
>
> Signed-off-by: Danilo Krummrich <dakr@kernel.org>
> ---
[...]
> +impl<T> Devres<T> {
[...]
>
> #[allow(clippy::missing_safety_doc)]
> unsafe extern "C" fn devres_callback(ptr: *mut kernel::ffi::c_void) {
> - let ptr = ptr as *mut DevresInner<T>;
> - // Devres owned this memory; now that we received the callback, drop the `Arc` and hence the
> - // reference.
> - // SAFETY: Safe, since we leaked an `Arc` reference to devm_add_action() in
> - // `DevresInner::new`.
> - let inner = unsafe { Arc::from_raw(ptr) };
> + // SAFETY: In `Self::new` we've passed a valid pointer to `Inner` to `devm_add_action()`,
> + // hence `ptr` must be a valid pointer to `Inner`.

I think you also need to mention that `inner` only remains valid until
`inner.devm.complete_all()` unblocks `Devres::drop()`, because after
`Devres::drop()`'s `devm.wait_for_completion()` returns, `inner` may be
dropped or freed.

Regards,
Boqun

> + let inner = unsafe { &*ptr.cast::<Inner<T>>() };
>
> if !inner.data.revoke() {
> // If `revoke()` returns false, it means that `Devres::drop` already started revoking
> - // `inner.data` for us. Hence we have to wait until `Devres::drop()` signals that it
> - // completed revoking `inner.data`.
> + // `data` for us. Hence we have to wait until `Devres::drop` signals that it
> + // completed revoking `data`.
> inner.revoke.wait_for_completion();
> }
[...]
> + // Signal that we're done using `inner`.
> + inner.devm.complete_all();
> + } …