Re: [PATCH] mm/sparsemem: fix race in accessing memory_section->usage

From: Paul E. McKenney
Date: Thu Jan 25 2024 - 08:20:58 EST


On Thu, Jan 18, 2024 at 10:43:06AM +0100, Marco Elver wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 18, 2024 at 10:01AM +0100, Alexander Potapenko wrote:
> > >
> > > Hrm, rcu_read_unlock_sched_notrace() can still call
> > > __preempt_schedule_notrace(), which is again instrumented by KMSAN.
> > >
> > > This patch gets me a working kernel:
> > >
> [...]
> > > Disabling interrupts is a little heavy handed - it also assumes the
> > > current RCU implementation. There is
> > > preempt_enable_no_resched_notrace(), but that might be worse because it
> > > breaks scheduling guarantees.
> > >
> > > That being said, whatever we do here should be wrapped in some
> > > rcu_read_lock/unlock_<newvariant>() helper.
> >
> > We could as well redefine rcu_read_lock/unlock in mm/kmsan/shadow.c
> > (or the x86-specific KMSAN header, depending on whether people are
> > seeing the problem on s390 and Power) with some header magic.
> > But that's probably more fragile than adding a helper.
> >
> > >
> > > Is there an existing helper we can use? If not, we need a variant that
> > > can be used from extremely constrained contexts that can't even call
> > > into the scheduler. And if we want pfn_valid() to switch to it, it also
> > > should be fast.
>
> The below patch also gets me a working kernel. For pfn_valid(), using
> rcu_read_lock_sched() should be reasonable, given its critical section
> is very small and also enables it to be called from more constrained
> contexts again (like KMSAN).
>
> Within KMSAN we also have to suppress reschedules. This is again not
> ideal, but since it's limited to KMSAN should be tolerable.
>
> WDYT?

I like this one better from a purely selfish RCU perspective. ;-)

Thanx, Paul

> ------ >8 ------
>
> diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/kmsan.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/kmsan.h
> index 8fa6ac0e2d76..bbb1ba102129 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/kmsan.h
> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/kmsan.h
> @@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ static inline bool kmsan_virt_addr_valid(void *addr)
> {
> unsigned long x = (unsigned long)addr;
> unsigned long y = x - __START_KERNEL_map;
> + bool ret;
>
> /* use the carry flag to determine if x was < __START_KERNEL_map */
> if (unlikely(x > y)) {
> @@ -79,7 +80,21 @@ static inline bool kmsan_virt_addr_valid(void *addr)
> return false;
> }
>
> - return pfn_valid(x >> PAGE_SHIFT);
> + /*
> + * pfn_valid() relies on RCU, and may call into the scheduler on exiting
> + * the critical section. However, this would result in recursion with
> + * KMSAN. Therefore, disable preemption here, and re-enable preemption
> + * below while suppressing rescheduls to avoid recursion.
> + *
> + * Note, this sacrifices occasionally breaking scheduling guarantees.
> + * Although, a kernel compiled with KMSAN has already given up on any
> + * performance guarantees due to being heavily instrumented.
> + */
> + preempt_disable();
> + ret = pfn_valid(x >> PAGE_SHIFT);
> + preempt_enable_no_resched();
> +
> + return ret;
> }
>
> #endif /* !MODULE */
> diff --git a/include/linux/mmzone.h b/include/linux/mmzone.h
> index 4ed33b127821..a497f189d988 100644
> --- a/include/linux/mmzone.h
> +++ b/include/linux/mmzone.h
> @@ -2013,9 +2013,9 @@ static inline int pfn_valid(unsigned long pfn)
> if (pfn_to_section_nr(pfn) >= NR_MEM_SECTIONS)
> return 0;
> ms = __pfn_to_section(pfn);
> - rcu_read_lock();
> + rcu_read_lock_sched();
> if (!valid_section(ms)) {
> - rcu_read_unlock();
> + rcu_read_unlock_sched();
> return 0;
> }
> /*
> @@ -2023,7 +2023,7 @@ static inline int pfn_valid(unsigned long pfn)
> * the entire section-sized span.
> */
> ret = early_section(ms) || pfn_section_valid(ms, pfn);
> - rcu_read_unlock();
> + rcu_read_unlock_sched();
>
> return ret;
> }