Re: [PATCH] markers: fix unchecked format

From: Mathieu Desnoyers
Date: Wed Oct 08 2008 - 00:05:24 EST


* Lai Jiangshan (laijs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
>
> when the second, third... probe is registered, its format is
> not checked, this patch fix it.
>

It's already checked here :

marker_update_probes
marker_update_probe_range
set_marker

if ((*entry)->format) {
if (strcmp((*entry)->format, elem->format) != 0) {
printk(KERN_NOTICE
"Format mismatch for probe %s "
"(%s), marker (%s)\n",
(*entry)->name,
(*entry)->format,
elem->format);
return -EPERM;
}
} else {
ret = marker_set_format(entry, elem->format);
if (ret)
return ret;
}

Given that marker_probe_register can be called to connect a probe to a
marker which does not exist yet (e.g. marker in a module not loaded), I
am not sure it makes sense to check for format string mismatch so early
in marker_probe_register (the moment it adds the marker to the hash
table). That's actually why I chose to leave it in later stage which
does the actual connection of the probes to the markers
(marker_update_probes).

If you really want to check it earlier, how do you plan to deal with
this scenario ?

1 - a marker probe is registered for markerA with format string
"field1 %s"
2 - a module is loaded, which contains a marker markerA with format
string "field1 %d"

I think it would be _really_ bad to make the module load fail because of
a marker format string mismatch... this is why I chose just to give a
warning in set_marker, which is shown when the markers are updated,
which happens when the module is loaded and when the marker hash table
is modified.

Mathieu

> Signed-off-by: Lai Jiangshan <laijs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> diff --git a/kernel/marker.c b/kernel/marker.c
> index 4440a09..1196a6b 100644
> --- a/kernel/marker.c
> +++ b/kernel/marker.c
> @@ -651,11 +651,17 @@ int marker_probe_register(const char *name, const char *format,
> entry = get_marker(name);
> if (!entry) {
> entry = add_marker(name, format);
> - if (IS_ERR(entry)) {
> + if (IS_ERR(entry))
> ret = PTR_ERR(entry);
> - goto end;
> - }
> + } else if (format) {
> + if (!entry->format)
> + ret = marker_set_format(&entry, format);
> + else if (strcmp(entry->format, format))
> + ret = -EPERM;
> }
> + if (ret)
> + goto end;
> +
> /*
> * If we detect that a call_rcu is pending for this marker,
> * make sure it's executed now.
>
>

--
Mathieu Desnoyers
OpenPGP key fingerprint: 8CD5 52C3 8E3C 4140 715F BA06 3F25 A8FE 3BAE 9A68
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