Re: [PATCH 07/17] net: convert sock.sk_refcnt from atomic_t to refcount_t

[Kees Cook]

On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 7:03 PM, Eric Dumazet <eric.dumazet@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Tue, 2017-03-21 at 16:51 -0700, Kees Cook wrote:
>
>> Am I understanding you correctly that you'd want something like:
>>
>> refcount.h:
>> #ifdef UNPROTECTED_REFCOUNT
>> #define refcount_inc(x)   atomic_inc(x)
>> ...
>> #else
>> void refcount_inc(...
>> ...
>> #endif
>>
>> some/net.c:
>> #define UNPROTECTED_REFCOUNT
>> #include <refcount.h>
>>
>> or similar?
>
> At first, it could be something simple like that yes.
>
> Note that we might define two refcount_inc()  : One that does whole
> tests, and refcount_inc_relaxed() that might translate to atomic_inc()
> on non debug kernels.
>
> Then later, maybe provide a dynamic infrastructure so that we can
> dynamically force the full checks even for refcount_inc_relaxed() on say
> 1% of the hosts, to get better debug coverage ?

Well, this isn't about finding bugs in normal workflows. This is about
catching bugs that attackers have found and start exploiting to gain a
use-after-free primitive. The intention is for it to be always
enabled.

-Kees

-- 
Kees Cook
Pixel Security