Re: System crash with perf_fuzzer (kernel: 5.0.0-rc3)

From: Vince Weaver
Date: Fri Jan 25 2019 - 10:11:34 EST


On Fri, 25 Jan 2019, Ravi Bangoria wrote:

> I'm seeing a system crash while running perf_fuzzer with upstream kernel
> on an Intel machine. I hit the crash twice (out of which I don't have log
> of first crash so don't know if the reason is same for both the crashes).
> I've attached my .config with the mail.
> type = PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE;



> ========
>
> And, I'm running fuzzer in a loop with *root*. (Let me know if running
> as root is harmful ;-) ).


There's a known issue related to Intel BTS events that you can trigger
with the perf_fuzzer, even as a normal user. I reported it a few months
ago but I don't think it ever got resolved. The traces you get look
similar to some that you posted.

It's hard to track down as it doesn't seem to be a simple issue, but
rather it looks like the BTS event handling is stomping over memory it
shouldn't somehow.

Vince