Re: NULL pointer dereference in sysfs_readdir

From: Maneesh Soni
Date: Mon Oct 30 2006 - 07:36:46 EST


On Sat, Oct 21, 2006 at 10:43:49AM +0200, Stefan Richter wrote:
> Here is a report about lockups and/or(?) oopses while HALD is obviously
> traversing sysfs files of FireWire devices, seen under Fedora Core
> kernels 2.6.{16,17,18} on an SMP setup:
>
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=188140
>
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000020
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: printing eip:
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: c019797d
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: *pde = 14924001
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: Oops: 0000 [#1]
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: SMP
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: last sysfs file: /class/net/eth0/address
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: Modules linked in: sunrpc xt_limit xt_state ip_conntrack nfnetlink xt_tcpudp iptable_filter ip_tables ip6table_filter ip6_tables x_tables ipv6 dm_multipath lp parport_pc parport floppy nvram ohci1394 ieee1394 uhci_hcd sg ohci_hcd ehci_hcd snd_emu10k1_synth snd_emux_synth snd_seq_virmidi snd_seq_midi_emul snd_emu10k1 snd_ac97_codec snd_ac97_bus snd_usb_audio snd_usb_lib snd_rawmidi snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi_event i2c_piix4 snd_seq i2c_core snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_seq_device snd_timer snd_page_alloc snd_util_mem emu10k1_gp snd_hwdep gameport snd soundcore e100 mii dm_snapshot dm_zero dm_mirror dm_mod ext3 jbd aic7xxx scsi_transport_spi sd_mod scsi_mod
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: CPU: 1
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: EIP: 0060:[<c019797d>] Not tainted VLI
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: EFLAGS: 00010282 (2.6.16-1.2111_FC5smp #1)
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: EIP is at sysfs_readdir+0x153/0x202
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: eax: 00000000 ebx: d56cd5a0 ecx: 0000000a edx: 00000002
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: esi: e3a2e6fc edi: e3a2e707 ebp: e2c08b14 esp: d55a7f50
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: ds: 007b es: 007b ss: 0068
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: Process hald (pid: 2512, threadinfo=d55a7000 task=d8bc7930)
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: Stack: <0>c0171894 d55a7f98 d4c73e60 e3b28a4c e2c08b18 0000000a c0362f80 d4c73e60
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: e3b2655c e3b265dc c0171a53 d55a7f98 c0171894 fffffff7 09e4f5d4 00000000
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: d4c73e60 c0171ae0 09e4f754 09e4f73c 00000e80 ffffffea 0000000d 09e4f5d4
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: Call Trace:
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: [<c0171894>] filldir64+0x0/0xc3 [<c0171a53>] vfs_readdir+0x66/0x90
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: [<c0171894>] filldir64+0x0/0xc3 [<c0171ae0>] sys_getdents64+0x63/0xa5
> > May 17 11:49:42 malbec kernel: [<c0103db9>] syscall_call+0x7/0xb <0>Code: 14 00 0f 84 ad 00 00 00 89 e8 e8 b3 e8 ff ff 89 c6 31 c0 83 c9 ff 89 f7 f2 ae f7 d1 49 89 4c 24 14 8b 45 20 85 c0 74 08 8b 40 18 <8b> 50 20 eb 11 ba 02 00 00 00 a1 20 24 48 c0 e8 2e 06 fe ff 89
>
> A quick look at linux-2.6.19-rc2/fs/sysfs/dir.c::sysfs_readdir shows a
> list_move, a traversal through a list, and some accesses to data with no
> apparent protection by mutexes.
>
Most of the sysfs locking is done by parent inode's i_mutex. And for
sysfs_readdir(), i_mutex is held at VFS layer in vfs_readdir().

If this is not happening during boot, could you please recreate the
oops with at kdump? I guess kdump should work well on FC.

(http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FC6KdumpKexecHowTo?highlight=%28FC6KdumpKexecHowTo%29)

> Is there reason to be worried...?

Though locking looks fine to me.. but oops is a reason enough to
be worried about.

Thanks
Maneesh
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