Re: [PATCH 41/41] mm: replace rw_semaphore with atomic_t in vma_lock
From: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
Date: 2023-01-17 19:30:17
Also in:
linux-arm-kernel, linux-mm, lkml
On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 10:26:32AM -0800, Suren Baghdasaryan wrote:
On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 10:12 AM Jann Horn [off-list ref] wrote:quoted
On Mon, Jan 9, 2023 at 9:55 PM Suren Baghdasaryan [off-list ref] wrote:quoted
rw_semaphore is a sizable structure of 40 bytes and consumes considerable space for each vm_area_struct. However vma_lock has two important specifics which can be used to replace rw_semaphore with a simpler structure:[...]quoted
static inline void vma_read_unlock(struct vm_area_struct *vma) { - up_read(&vma->vm_lock->lock); + if (atomic_dec_and_test(&vma->vm_lock->count)) + wake_up(&vma->vm_mm->vma_writer_wait); }I haven't properly reviewed this, but this bit looks like a use-after-free because you're accessing the vma after dropping your reference on it. You'd have to first look up the vma->vm_mm, then do the atomic_dec_and_test(), and afterwards do the wake_up() without touching the vma. Or alternatively wrap the whole thing in an RCU read-side critical section if the VMA is freed with RCU delay.vm_lock->count does not control the lifetime of the VMA, it's a counter of how many readers took the lock or it's negative if the lock is write-locked.
Yes, but ...
Task A:
atomic_dec_and_test(&vma->vm_lock->count)
Task B:
munmap()
write lock
free VMA
synchronize_rcu()
VMA is really freed
wake_up(&vma->vm_mm->vma_writer_wait);
... vma is freed.
Now, I think this doesn't occur. I'm pretty sure that every caller of
vma_read_unlock() is holding the RCU read lock. But maybe we should
have that assertion?