[PATCH] kcmp: Fix standard comparison bug

[Rasmus Villemoes]

The C operator <= defines a perfectly fine total ordering on the set
of values representable in a long. However, unlike its namesake in the
integers, it is not translation invariant, meaning that we do not have
"b <= c" iff "a+b <= a+c" for all a,b,c.

This means that it is always wrong to try to boil down the
relationship between two longs to a question about the sign of their
difference, because the resulting relation [a LEQ b iff a-b <= 0] is
neither anti-symmetric or transitive. The former is due to
-LONG_MIN==LONG_MIN (take any two a,b with a-b = LONG_MIN; then a LEQ
b and b LEQ a, but a != b). The latter can either be seen observing
that x LEQ x+1 for all x, implying x LEQ x+1 LEQ x+2 ... LEQ x-1 LEQ
x; or more directly with the simple example a=LONG_MIN, b=0, c=1, for
which a-b < 0, b-c < 0, but a-c > 0.

Note that it makes absolutely no difference that a transmogrying
bijection has been applied before the comparison is done. In fact, had
the obfuscation not been done, one could probably not observe the bug
(assuming all values being compared always lie in one half of the
address space, the mathematical value of a-b is always representable
in a long). As it stands, one can easily obtain three file descriptors
exhibiting the non-transitivity of kcmp().

Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Rasmus Villemoes <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---

Side note 1: I can't see that ensuring the MSB of the multiplier is
set serves any purpose other than obfuscating the obfuscating code.

Side note 2:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <sys/syscall.h>

enum kcmp_type {
        KCMP_FILE,
        KCMP_VM,
        KCMP_FILES,
        KCMP_FS,
        KCMP_SIGHAND,
        KCMP_IO,
        KCMP_SYSVSEM,

        KCMP_TYPES,
};

pid_t pid;

int kcmp(pid_t pid1, pid_t pid2, int type,
	 unsigned long idx1, unsigned long idx2)
{
	return syscall(SYS_kcmp, pid1, pid2, type, idx1, idx2);
}

int cmp_fd(int fd1, int fd2)
{
	int c = kcmp(pid, pid, KCMP_FILE, fd1, fd2);
	if (c < 0) {
		perror("kcmp");
		exit(1);
	}
	assert(0 <= c && c < 3);
	return c;
}

int cmp_fdp(const void *a, const void *b)
{
	static const int normalize[] = {0, -1, 1};
	return normalize[cmp_fd(*(int*)a, *(int*)b)];
}

#define MAX 100 /* This is plenty; I've seen it trigger for MAX==3 */
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
	int r, s, count = 0;
	int REL[3] = {0,0,0};
	int fd[MAX];
	pid = getpid();

	while (count < MAX) {
		r = open("/dev/null", O_RDONLY);
		if (r < 0)
			break;
		fd[count++] = r;
	}
	printf("opened %d file descriptors\n", count);

	for (r = 0; r < count; ++r) {
		for (s = r+1; s < count; ++s) {
			REL[cmp_fd(fd[r], fd[s])]++;
		}
	}
	printf("== %d\t< %d\t> %d\n", REL[0], REL[1], REL[2]);

	qsort(fd, count, sizeof(fd[0]), cmp_fdp);
	memset(REL, 0, sizeof(REL));

	for (r = 0; r < count; ++r) {
		for (s = r+1; s < count; ++s) {
			REL[cmp_fd(fd[r], fd[s])]++;
		}
	}
	printf("== %d\t< %d\t> %d\n", REL[0], REL[1], REL[2]);

	return (REL[0] + REL[2] != 0);
}




 kernel/kcmp.c | 7 ++++---
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/kcmp.c b/kernel/kcmp.c
index e30ac0f..0aa69ea 100644
--- a/kernel/kcmp.c
+++ b/kernel/kcmp.c
@@ -44,11 +44,12 @@ static long kptr_obfuscate(long v, int type)
  */
 static int kcmp_ptr(void *v1, void *v2, enum kcmp_type type)
 {
-	long ret;
+	long t1, t2;
 
-	ret = kptr_obfuscate((long)v1, type) - kptr_obfuscate((long)v2, type);
+	t1 = kptr_obfuscate((long)v1, type);
+	t2 = kptr_obfuscate((long)v2, type);
 
-	return (ret < 0) | ((ret > 0) << 1);
+	return (t1 < t2) | ((t1 > t2) << 1);
 }
 
 /* The caller must have pinned the task */
-- 
2.0.4

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