Re: [PATCH] mm: save current->journal_info before calling fault/page_mkwrite

From: Andrew Morton
Date: Wed Dec 13 2017 - 19:59:32 EST


On Wed, 13 Dec 2017 11:58:36 +0800 "Yan, Zheng" <zyan@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> We recently got an Oops report:
>
> BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at (null)
> IP: jbd2__journal_start+0x38/0x1a2
> [...]
> Call Trace:
> ext4_page_mkwrite+0x307/0x52b
> _ext4_get_block+0xd8/0xd8
> do_page_mkwrite+0x6e/0xd8
> handle_mm_fault+0x686/0xf9b
> mntput_no_expire+0x1f/0x21e
> __do_page_fault+0x21d/0x465
> dput+0x4a/0x2f7
> page_fault+0x22/0x30
> copy_user_generic_string+0x2c/0x40
> copy_page_to_iter+0x8c/0x2b8
> generic_file_read_iter+0x26e/0x845
> timerqueue_del+0x31/0x90
> ceph_read_iter+0x697/0xa33 [ceph]
> hrtimer_cancel+0x23/0x41
> futex_wait+0x1c8/0x24d
> get_futex_key+0x32c/0x39a
> __vfs_read+0xe0/0x130
> vfs_read.part.1+0x6c/0x123
> handle_mm_fault+0x831/0xf9b
> __fget+0x7e/0xbf
> SyS_read+0x4d/0xb5
>
> The reason is that page fault can happen when one filesystem copies
> data from/to userspace, the filesystem may set current->journal_info.
> If the userspace memory is mapped to a file on another filesystem,
> the later filesystem may also want to use current->journal_info.
>

whoops.

A cc:stable will be needed here...

A filesystem doesn't "copy data from/to userspace". I assume here
we're referring to a read() where the source is a pagecache page for
filesystem A and the destination is a MAP_SHARED page in filesystem B?

But in that case I don't see why filesystem A would have a live
->journal_info? It's just doing a read.

So can we please have more detailed info on the exact scenario here?

> --- a/mm/memory.c
> +++ b/mm/memory.c
> @@ -2347,12 +2347,22 @@ static int do_page_mkwrite(struct vm_fault *vmf)
> {
> int ret;
> struct page *page = vmf->page;
> + void *old_journal_info = current->journal_info;
> unsigned int old_flags = vmf->flags;
>
> + /*
> + * If the fault happens during read_iter() copies data to
> + * userspace, filesystem may have set current->journal_info.
> + * If the userspace memory is mapped to a file on another
> + * filesystem, page_mkwrite() of the later filesystem may
> + * want to access/modify current->journal_info.
> + */
> + current->journal_info = NULL;
> vmf->flags = FAULT_FLAG_WRITE|FAULT_FLAG_MKWRITE;
>
> ret = vmf->vma->vm_ops->page_mkwrite(vmf);
> - /* Restore original flags so that caller is not surprised */
> + /* Restore original journal_info and flags */
> + current->journal_info = old_journal_info;
> vmf->flags = old_flags;
> if (unlikely(ret & (VM_FAULT_ERROR | VM_FAULT_NOPAGE)))
> return ret;
> @@ -3191,9 +3201,20 @@ static int do_anonymous_page(struct vm_fault *vmf)
> static int __do_fault(struct vm_fault *vmf)
> {
> struct vm_area_struct *vma = vmf->vma;
> + void *old_journal_info = current->journal_info;
> int ret;
>
> + /*
> + * If the fault happens during write_iter() copies data from
> + * userspace, filesystem may have set current->journal_info.
> + * If the userspace memory is mapped to a file on another
> + * filesystem, fault handler of the later filesystem may want
> + * to access/modify current->journal_info.
> + */
> + current->journal_info = NULL;
> ret = vma->vm_ops->fault(vmf);
> + /* Restore original journal_info */
> + current->journal_info = old_journal_info;
> if (unlikely(ret & (VM_FAULT_ERROR | VM_FAULT_NOPAGE | VM_FAULT_RETRY |
> VM_FAULT_DONE_COW)))
> return ret;

Can you explain why you chose these two sites? Rather than, for
example, way up in handle_mm_fault()?

It's hard to believe that a fault handler will alter ->journal_info if
it is handling a read fault, so perhaps we only need to do this for a
write fault? Although such an optimization probably isn't worthwhile.
The whole thing is only about three instructions.