Re: [Qemu-devel] javac crash in user-mode emulation: races on page_unprotect()

[Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>]

On 24/11/2017 18:18, Peter Maydell wrote:
>  * threads A & B both try to do a write to a page with code in it at
>    the same time (ie which we've made non-writeable, so SEGV)
>  * they race into the signal handler with this faulting address
>  * thread A happens to get to page_unprotect() first and takes the
>    mmap lock, so thread B sits waiting for it to be done
>  * A then finds the page, marks it PAGE_WRITE and mprotect()s it writable
>  * A can then continue OK (returns from signal handler to retry the
>    memory access)
>  * ...but when B gets the mmap lock it finds that the page is already
>    PAGE_WRITE, and so it exits page_unprotect() via the "not due to
>    protected translation" code path, and wrongly delivers the signal
>    to the guest rather than just retrying the access
> 
> I'm not sure how best to fix this. We could make page_unprotect()
> say "if PAGE_WRITE is set, assume this call raced with another one
> and say 'this was caused by protected translation' without doing
> anything".

Yes, I think this is the only solution since SIGSEGV is raised
asynchronously.  Even using a trylock would only narrow the race window
but not fix it.

> But I have a feeling that will mean we could end up looping
> endlessly if we get a SEGV for a write to a writeable page (not
> sure when this could happen, but maybe alignment issues?).

Those would have to be detected via si_code (for the specific case of
invalid address alignment, that would be a SIGBUS with
si_code==BUS_ADRALN, not a SIGSEGV).

In general, I think that only SIGSEGV/SEGV_ACCERR needs to go down the
page_unprotect path.

Paolo