[PATCH] ksm: fix race between ksmd and exiting task

From: Chris Wright
Date: Thu Jun 02 2011 - 13:36:30 EST


Andrea Righi reported a case where an exiting task can race against
ksmd.

ksm_scan.mm_slot == the only registered mm
CPU 1 (bug program) CPU 2 (ksmd)
list_empty() is false
lock
ksm_scan.mm_slot
list_del
unlock
slot == &ksm_mm_head (but list is now empty_)

Close this race by revalidating that the new slot is not simply the list
head again.

Reported-by: Andrea Righi <andrea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Hugh Dickins <hughd@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Chris Wright <chrisw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/ksm.c | 3 +++
1 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/ksm.c b/mm/ksm.c
index 942dfc7..0373ce4 100644
--- a/mm/ksm.c
+++ b/mm/ksm.c
@@ -1301,6 +1301,9 @@ static struct rmap_item *scan_get_next_rmap_item(struct page **page)
slot = list_entry(slot->mm_list.next, struct mm_slot, mm_list);
ksm_scan.mm_slot = slot;
spin_unlock(&ksm_mmlist_lock);
+ /* We raced against exit of last slot on the list */
+ if (slot == &ksm_mm_head)
+ return NULL;
next_mm:
ksm_scan.address = 0;
ksm_scan.rmap_list = &slot->rmap_list;
--
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