Re: SET_PERSONALITY and TASK_SIZE

From: Andrew Morton
Date: Tue Jan 20 2009 - 11:10:07 EST


> On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:18:31 +0100 Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Andrew,
>
> while debugging I noticed the following comment in fs/binfmt_elf.c:
>
> /*
> * The early SET_PERSONALITY here is so that the lookup
> * for the interpreter happens in the namespace of the
> * to-be-execed image. SET_PERSONALITY can select an
> * alternate root.
> *
> * However, SET_PERSONALITY is NOT allowed to switch
> * this task into the new images's memory mapping
> * policy - that is, TASK_SIZE must still evaluate to
> * that which is appropriate to the execing application.
> * This is because exit_mmap() needs to have TASK_SIZE
> * evaluate to the size of the old image.
> *
> * So if (say) a 64-bit application is execing a 32-bit
> * application it is the architecture's responsibility
> * to defer changing the value of TASK_SIZE until the
> * switch really is going to happen - do this in
> * flush_thread(). - akpm
> */

Cripes, that must have been a different akpm.

> At least s390 isn't doing the deferred TASK_SIZE switch. Also it seems like
> MIPS, PARISC and IA64 don't do it either. However from a quick a view I
> couldn't see that exit_mmap depends on TASK_SIZE. So is this still necessary?
>
> And the bug I was looking for is this one: in SET_PERSONALITY we do this:
>
> if (current->personality != PER_LINUX32)
> set_personality(PER_LINUX);
>
> However we should use the PER_MASK if we want to check for PER_LINUX32,
> since there are more bits in the personality flags. In case any of the
> 'extra' bits is set we may incorrectly set personality to PER_LINUX even
> when we want PER_LINUX32.
>
> Looks like more architectures should do something like:
>
> if (personality(current->personality) != PER_LINUX32)
> ...

I'm stuck in planes and hotels for the rest of the week and don't have a
git tree to dig through, sorry. I'd prefer to hold off until next week
before diving into that one.
--
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/