Re: [BUG] bugs in jbd2_dev_to_name() (was Re: [PATCH 00/11] [GITPULL] more updates for the tag format)

From: Theodore Tso
Date: Fri Jun 19 2009 - 08:32:49 EST


On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 04:14:23PM +0800, Li Zefan wrote:
> > rcu_read_lock();
> > if (devcache[i] && devcache[i]->device == device) {
> > ret = devcache[i]->devname;
> > rcu_read_unlock();
> > return ret;
>
> It doesn't seem safe to dereference @ret outside rcu read section.

Note the comments at the beginning of the function:

The caller should use rcu_read_lock() in order to make sure the
device name stays valid until its done with it. We use
rcu_read_lock() as well to make sure we're safe in case the caller
gets sloppy, and because rcu_read_lock() is cheap and can be safely
nested.

I suppose I should change the wording to indicate that it adds a bit
more safety (as in, the crash won't happen inside this function, but
as far as the caller is concerned, all bets are off!)

> > spin_lock(&devname_cache_lock);
> > if (devcache[i]) {
> > if (devcache[i]->device == device) {
> > ret = devcache[i]->devname;
> > spin_unlock(&devname_cache_lock);
> > return ret;
> > }
> > call_rcu(&devcache[i]->rcu, free_devcache);
> > }
> > devcache[i] = kmalloc(sizeof(struct devname_cache), GFP_KERNEL);
>
> kmalloc(GFP_KERNEL) called with spin_lock held..

Good catch, thanks. I'll get a patch in to fix this.

- Ted
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