Re: [PATCH] dma/debug: Fix dma vs cow-page collision detection

From: Alexander Duyck
Date: Tue Nov 19 2019 - 19:02:22 EST


On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 9:49 AM Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> The debug_dma_assert_idle() infrastructure was put in place to catch a
> data corruption scenario first identified by the now defunct NET_DMA
> receive offload feature. It caught cases where dma was in flight to a
> stale page because the dma raced the cpu writing the page, and the cpu
> write triggered cow_user_page().
>
> However, the dma-debug tracking is overeager and also triggers in cases
> where the dma device is reading from a page that is also undergoing
> cow_user_page().
>
> The fix proposed was originally posted in 2016, and Russell reported
> "Yes, that seems to avoid the warning for me from an initial test", and
> now Don is also reporting that this fix is addressing a similar false
> positive report that he is seeing.
>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/CAPcyv4j8fWqwAaX5oCdg5atc+vmp57HoAGT6AfBFwaCiv0RbAQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Reported-by: Russell King <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Reported-by: Don Dutile <ddutile@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Fixes: 0abdd7a81b7e ("dma-debug: introduce debug_dma_assert_idle()")
> Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Christoph Hellwig <hch@xxxxxx>
> Cc: Marek Szyprowski <m.szyprowski@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Robin Murphy <robin.murphy@xxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@xxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> kernel/dma/debug.c | 2 +-
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/kernel/dma/debug.c b/kernel/dma/debug.c
> index 099002d84f46..11a6db53d193 100644
> --- a/kernel/dma/debug.c
> +++ b/kernel/dma/debug.c
> @@ -587,7 +587,7 @@ void debug_dma_assert_idle(struct page *page)
> }
> spin_unlock_irqrestore(&radix_lock, flags);
>
> - if (!entry)
> + if (!entry || entry->direction != DMA_FROM_DEVICE)
> return;
>
> cln = to_cacheline_number(entry);

If I am understanding right DMA_TO_DEVICE is fine, but won't you also
need to cover the DMA_BIDIRECTIONAL case since it is possible for a
device to also write the memory in that case?