[Bug 11824][PATCH] ieee1394: raw1394: fix possible deadlock inmultithreaded clients

From: Stefan Richter
Date: Sun Oct 26 2008 - 07:08:07 EST


Regression in 2.6.28-rc1: When I added the new state_mutex which
prevents corruption of raw1394's internal state when accessed by
multithreaded client applications, the following possible though
highly unlikely deadlock slipped in:

Thread A: Thread B:
- acquire mmap_sem - raw1394_write() or raw1394_ioctl()
- raw1394_mmap() - acquire state_mutex
- acquire state_mutex - copy_to/from_user(), possible page fault:
acquire mmap_sem

The simplest fix is to use mutex_trylock() instead of mutex_lock() in
raw1394_mmap(). This changes the behavior under contention in a way
which is visible to userspace clients. However, since multithreaded
access was entirely buggy before state_mutex was added and libraw1394's
documentation advised application programmers to use a handle only in a
single thread, this change in behaviour should not be an issue in
practice at all.

Since we have to use mutex_trylock() in raw1394_mmap() regardless
whether /dev/raw1394 was opened with O_NONBLOCK or not, we now use
mutex_trylock() unconditionally everywhere for state_mutex, just to have
consistent behavior.

Reported-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Stefan Richter <stefanr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---

Background: That new state_mutex went only in because raw1394_ioctl()
already head some weak protection by the Big Kernel Lock, which I
removed for the general reasons pro BKL removal (get better performance
with local locks; make the locking clearer, easier to debug, more
reliable).

drivers/ieee1394/raw1394.c | 9 ++++++---
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

Index: linux/drivers/ieee1394/raw1394.c
===================================================================
--- linux.orig/drivers/ieee1394/raw1394.c
+++ linux/drivers/ieee1394/raw1394.c
@@ -2268,7 +2268,8 @@ static ssize_t raw1394_write(struct file
return -EFAULT;
}

- mutex_lock(&fi->state_mutex);
+ if (!mutex_trylock(&fi->state_mutex))
+ return -EAGAIN;

switch (fi->state) {
case opened:
@@ -2548,7 +2549,8 @@ static int raw1394_mmap(struct file *fil
struct file_info *fi = file->private_data;
int ret;

- mutex_lock(&fi->state_mutex);
+ if (!mutex_trylock(&fi->state_mutex))
+ return -EAGAIN;

if (fi->iso_state == RAW1394_ISO_INACTIVE)
ret = -EINVAL;
@@ -2669,7 +2671,8 @@ static long raw1394_ioctl(struct file *f
break;
}

- mutex_lock(&fi->state_mutex);
+ if (!mutex_trylock(&fi->state_mutex))
+ return -EAGAIN;

switch (fi->iso_state) {
case RAW1394_ISO_INACTIVE:

--
Stefan Richter
-=====-==--- =-=- ==-=-
http://arcgraph.de/sr/

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/