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  1. 01 Nov, 2012 1 commit
    • Thomas Gleixner's avatar
      futex: Handle futex_pi OWNER_DIED take over correctly · 59fa6245
      Thomas Gleixner authored 
      Siddhesh analyzed a failure in the take over of pi futexes in case the
owner died and provided a workaround.
See: http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=14076

The detailed problem analysis shows:

Futex F is initialized with PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT and
PTHREAD_MUTEX_ROBUST_NP attributes.

T1 lock_futex_pi(F);

T2 lock_futex_pi(F);
   --> T2 blocks on the futex and creates pi_state which is associated
       to T1.

T1 exits
   --> exit_robust_list() runs
       --> Futex F userspace value TID field is set to 0 and
           FUTEX_OWNER_DIED bit is set.

T3 lock_futex_pi(F);
   --> Succeeds due to the check for F's userspace TID field == 0
   --> Claims ownership of the futex and sets its own TID into the
       userspace TID field of futex F
   --> returns to user space

T1 --> exit_pi_state_list()
       --> Transfers pi_state to waiter T2 and wakes T2 via
       	   rt_mutex_unlock(&pi_state->mutex)

T2 --> acquires pi_state->mutex and gains real ownership of the
       pi_state
   --> Claims ownership of the futex and sets its own TID into the
       userspace TID field of futex F
   --> returns to user space

T3 --> observes inconsistent state

This problem is independent of UP/SMP, preemptible/non preemptible
kernels, or process shared vs. private. The only difference is that
certain configurations are more likely to expose it.

So as Siddhesh correctly analyzed the following check in
futex_lock_pi_atomic() is the culprit:

	if (unlikely(ownerdied || !(curval & FUTEX_TID_MASK))) {

We check the userspace value for a TID value of 0 and take over the
futex unconditionally if that's true.

AFAICT this check is there as it is correct for a different corner
case of futexes: the WAITERS bit became stale.

Now the proposed change

-	if (unlikely(ownerdied || !(curval & FUTEX_TID_MASK))) {
+       if (unlikely(ownerdied ||
+                       !(curval & (FUTEX_TID_MASK | FUTEX_WAITERS)))) {

solves the problem, but it's not obvious why and it wreckages the
"stale WAITERS bit" case.

What happens is, that due to the WAITERS bit being set (T2 is blocked
on that futex) it enforces T3 to go through lookup_pi_state(), which
in the above case returns an existing pi_state and therefor forces T3
to legitimately fight with T2 over the ownership of the pi_state (via
pi_state->mutex). Probelm solved!

Though that does not work for the "WAITERS bit is stale" problem
because if lookup_pi_state() does not find existing pi_state it
returns -ERSCH (due to TID == 0) which causes futex_lock_pi() to
return -ESRCH to user space because the OWNER_DIED bit is not set.

Now there is a different solution to that problem. Do not look at the
user space value at all and enforce a lookup of possibly available
pi_state. If pi_state can be found, then the new incoming locker T3
blocks on that pi_state and legitimately races with T2 to acquire the
rt_mutex and the pi_state and therefor the proper ownership of the
user space futex.

lookup_pi_state() has the correct order of checks. It first tries to
find a pi_state associated with the user space futex and only if that
fails it checks for futex TID value = 0. If no pi_state is available
nothing can create new state at that point because this happens with
the hash bucket lock held.

So the above scenario changes to:

T1 lock_futex_pi(F);

T2 lock_futex_pi(F);
   --> T2 blocks on the futex and creates pi_state which is associated
       to T1.

T1 exits
   --> exit_robust_list() runs
       --> Futex F userspace value TID field is set to 0 and
           FUTEX_OWNER_DIED bit is set.

T3 lock_futex_pi(F);
   --> Finds pi_state and blocks on pi_state->rt_mutex

T1 --> exit_pi_state_list()
       --> Transfers pi_state to waiter T2 and wakes it via
       	   rt_mutex_unlock(&pi_state->mutex)

T2 --> acquires pi_state->mutex and gains ownership of the pi_state
   --> Claims ownership of the futex and sets its own TID into the
       userspace TID field of futex F
   --> returns to user space

This covers all gazillion points on which T3 might come in between
T1's exit_robust_list() clearing the TID field and T2 fixing it up. It
also solves the "WAITERS bit stale" problem by forcing the take over.

Another benefit of changing the code this way is that it makes it less
dependent on untrusted user space values and therefor minimizes the
possible wreckage which might be inflicted.

As usual after staring for too long at the futex code my brain hurts
so much that I really want to ditch that whole optimization of
avoiding the syscall for the non contended case for PI futexes and rip
out the maze of corner case handling code. Unfortunately we can't as
user space relies on that existing behaviour, but at least thinking
about it helps me to preserve my mental sanity. Maybe we should
nevertheless :)
Reported-and-tested-by: default avatarSiddhesh Poyarekar <siddhesh.poyarekar@gmail.com>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/alpine.LFD.2.02.1210232138540.2756@ionosAcked-by: default avatarDarren Hart <dvhart@linux.intel.com>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: default avatarThomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
      59fa6245
  3. 31 Oct, 2012 20 commits
  5. 30 Oct, 2012 19 commits
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