Re: [PATCHv4] exec: Fix a deadlock in ptrace

From: Bernd Edlinger
Date: Tue Mar 03 2020 - 06:23:41 EST


On 3/3/20 11:34 AM, Bernd Edlinger wrote:
> On 3/3/20 9:58 AM, Christian Brauner wrote:
>> So one issue I see with having to reacquire the cred_guard_mutex might
>> be that this would allow tasks holding the cred_guard_mutex to block a
>> killed exec'ing task from exiting, right?
>>
>
> Yes maybe, but I think it will not be worse than it is now.
> Since the second time the mutex is acquired it is done with
> mutex_lock_killable, so at least kill -9 should get it terminated.
>



> static void free_bprm(struct linux_binprm *bprm)
> {
> free_arg_pages(bprm);
> if (bprm->cred) {
> + if (!bprm->called_flush_old_exec)
> + mutex_lock(&current->signal->cred_guard_mutex);
> + current->signal->cred_locked_for_ptrace = false;
> mutex_unlock(&current->signal->cred_guard_mutex);


Hmm, cough...
actually when the mutex_lock_killable fails, due to kill -9, in flush_old_exec
free_bprm locks the same mutex, this time unkillable, but I should better do
mutex_lock_killable here, and if that fails, I can leave cred_locked_for_ptrace,
it shouldn't matter, since this is a fatal signal anyway, right?

Bernd.