[PATCH 3/3] Revert "KVM: Prevent module exit until all VMs are freed"

[Sean Christopherson]

Revert KVM's misguided attempt to "fix" a use-after-module-unload bug that
was actually due to failure to flush a workqueue, not a lack of module
refcounting.  Pinning the KVM module until kvm_vm_destroy() doesn't
prevent use-after-free due to the module being unloaded, as userspace can
invoke delete_module() the instant the last reference to KVM is put, i.e.
can cause all KVM code to be unmapped while KVM is actively executing said
code.

Generally speaking, the many instances of module_put(THIS_MODULE)
notwithstanding, outside of a few special paths, a module can never safely
put the last reference to itself without creating deadlock, i.e. something
external to the module *must* put the last reference.  In other words,
having VMs grab a reference to the KVM module is futile, pointless, and as
evidenced by the now-reverted commit 70375c2d8fa3 ("Revert "KVM: set owner
of cpu and vm file operations""), actively dangerous.

This reverts commit 405294f29faee5de8c10cb9d4a90e229c2835279 and commit
5f6de5cbebee925a612856fce6f9182bb3eee0db.

Fixes: 405294f29fae ("KVM: Unconditionally get a ref to /dev/kvm module when creating a VM")
Fixes: 5f6de5cbebee ("KVM: Prevent module exit until all VMs are freed")
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
 virt/kvm/kvm_main.c | 7 -------
 1 file changed, 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
index 1e65a506985f..3b1b9e8dd70c 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
@@ -115,8 +115,6 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(kvm_debugfs_dir);
 
 static const struct file_operations stat_fops_per_vm;
 
-static struct file_operations kvm_chardev_ops;
-
 static long kvm_vcpu_ioctl(struct file *file, unsigned int ioctl,
 			   unsigned long arg);
 #ifdef CONFIG_KVM_COMPAT
@@ -1157,9 +1155,6 @@ static struct kvm *kvm_create_vm(unsigned long type, const char *fdname)
 	if (!kvm)
 		return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
 
-	/* KVM is pinned via open("/dev/kvm"), the fd passed to this ioctl(). */
-	__module_get(kvm_chardev_ops.owner);
-
 	KVM_MMU_LOCK_INIT(kvm);
 	mmgrab(current->mm);
 	kvm->mm = current->mm;
@@ -1279,7 +1274,6 @@ static struct kvm *kvm_create_vm(unsigned long type, const char *fdname)
 out_err_no_srcu:
 	kvm_arch_free_vm(kvm);
 	mmdrop(current->mm);
-	module_put(kvm_chardev_ops.owner);
 	return ERR_PTR(r);
 }
 
@@ -1348,7 +1342,6 @@ static void kvm_destroy_vm(struct kvm *kvm)
 	preempt_notifier_dec();
 	hardware_disable_all();
 	mmdrop(mm);
-	module_put(kvm_chardev_ops.owner);
 }
 
 void kvm_get_kvm(struct kvm *kvm)
-- 
2.42.0.655.g421f12c284-goog