[PATCH v2] rmap: fix theoretical race between do_wp_page and shrink_active_list

From: Vladimir Davydov
Date: Tue May 12 2015 - 06:19:00 EST


As noted by Paul the compiler is free to store a temporary result in a
variable on stack, heap or global unless it is explicitly marked as
volatile, see:

http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2015/n4455.html#sample-optimizations

This can result in a race between do_wp_page() and shrink_active_list()
as follows.

In do_wp_page() we can call page_move_anon_rmap(), which sets
page->mapping as follows:

anon_vma = (void *) anon_vma + PAGE_MAPPING_ANON;
page->mapping = (struct address_space *) anon_vma;

The page in question may be on an LRU list, because nowhere in
do_wp_page() we remove it from the list, neither do we take any LRU
related locks. Although the page is locked, shrink_active_list() can
still call page_referenced() on it concurrently, because the latter does
not require an anonymous page to be locked:

CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
do_wp_page shrink_active_list
lock_page page_referenced
PageAnon->yes, so skip trylock_page
page_move_anon_rmap
page->mapping = anon_vma
rmap_walk
PageAnon->no
rmap_walk_file
BUG
page->mapping += PAGE_MAPPING_ANON

This patch fixes this race by explicitly forbidding the compiler to
split page->mapping store in page_move_anon_rmap() with the aid of
WRITE_ONCE.

Signed-off-by: Vladimir Davydov <vdavydov@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Kirill A. Shutemov" <kirill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Rik van Riel <riel@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Hugh Dickins <hughd@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v2:
- do not add READ_ONCE to PageAnon and WRITE_ONCE to
__page_set_anon_rmap and __hugepage_set_anon_rmap (Kirill)

mm/rmap.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/mm/rmap.c b/mm/rmap.c
index 24dd3f9fee27..8b18fd4227d1 100644
--- a/mm/rmap.c
+++ b/mm/rmap.c
@@ -950,7 +950,7 @@ void page_move_anon_rmap(struct page *page,
VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(page->index != linear_page_index(vma, address), page);

anon_vma = (void *) anon_vma + PAGE_MAPPING_ANON;
- page->mapping = (struct address_space *) anon_vma;
+ WRITE_ONCE(page->mapping, (struct address_space *) anon_vma);
}

/**
--
1.7.10.4

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