[PATCH 3.16 33/72] configfs: fix a deadlock in configfs_symlink()

Ben Hutchings
2019-12-08T13:57:11Z

From: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>

commit 351e5d869e5ac10cb40c78b5f2d7dfc816ad4587 upstream.

Configfs abuses symlink(2). Unlike the normal filesystems, it
wants the target resolved at symlink(2) time, like link(2) would've
done. The problem is that ->symlink() is called with the parent
directory locked exclusive, so resolving the target inside the
->symlink() is easily deadlocked.

Short of really ugly games in sys_symlink() itself, all we can
do is to unlock the parent before resolving the target and
relock it after. However, that invalidates the checks done
by the caller of ->symlink(), so we have to
* check that dentry is still where it used to be
(it couldn't have been moved, but it could've been unhashed)
* recheck that it's still negative (somebody else
might've successfully created a symlink with the same name
while we were looking the target up)
* recheck the permissions on the parent directory.

Signed-off-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
[bwh: Backported to 3.16: open-code inode_{,un}lock()]
Signed-off-by: Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>
---
fs/configfs/symlink.c | 33 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 32 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

--- a/fs/configfs/symlink.c
+++ b/fs/configfs/symlink.c
@@ -157,11 +157,42 @@ int configfs_symlink(struct inode *dir,
!type->ct_item_ops->allow_link)
goto out_put;

+ /*
+ * This is really sick. What they wanted was a hybrid of
+ * link(2) and symlink(2) - they wanted the target resolved
+ * at syscall time (as link(2) would've done), be a directory
+ * (which link(2) would've refused to do) *AND* be a deep
+ * fucking magic, making the target busy from rmdir POV.
+ * symlink(2) is nothing of that sort, and the locking it
+ * gets matches the normal symlink(2) semantics. Without
+ * attempts to resolve the target (which might very well
+ * not even exist yet) done prior to locking the parent
+ * directory. This perversion, OTOH, needs to resolve
+ * the target, which would lead to obvious deadlocks if
+ * attempted with any directories locked.
+ *
+ * Unfortunately, that garbage is userland ABI and we should've
+ * said "no" back in 2005. Too late now, so we get to
+ * play very ugly games with locking.
+ *
+ * Try *ANYTHING* of that sort in new code, and you will
+ * really regret it. Just ask yourself - what could a BOFH
+ * do to me and do I want to find it out first-hand?
+ *
+ * AV, a thoroughly annoyed bastard.
+ */
+ mutex_unlock(&dir->i_mutex);
ret = get_target(symname, &path, &target_item, dentry->d_sb);
+ mutex_lock(&dir->i_mutex);
if (ret)
goto out_put;

- ret = type->ct_item_ops->allow_link(parent_item, target_item);
+ if (dentry->d_inode || d_unhashed(dentry))
+ ret = -EEXIST;
+ else
+ ret = inode_permission(dir, MAY_WRITE | MAY_EXEC);
+ if (!ret)
+ ret = type->ct_item_ops->allow_link(parent_item, target_item);
if (!ret) {
mutex_lock(&configfs_symlink_mutex);
ret = create_link(parent_item, target_item, dentry);