Re: [PATCH 01/10] perf,x86: Fix event/group validation

From: Stephane Eranian
Date: Fri May 22 2015 - 05:27:00 EST


On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 11:49 PM, Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> * Stephane Eranian <eranian@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 7:03 AM, Peter Zijlstra <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > On Thu, 2015-05-21 at 06:36 -0700, Stephane Eranian wrote:
> > >> On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 6:29 AM, Peter Zijlstra <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >> > On Thu, 2015-05-21 at 06:27 -0700, Stephane Eranian wrote:
> > >> >> Or are you talking about a preemption while executing x86_schedule_events()?
> > >> >
> > >> > That.
> > >> >
> > >> > And we can of course cure that by an earlier patch I send; but I find it
> > >> > a much simpler rule to just never allow modifying global state for
> > >> > validation.
> > >>
> > >> I can see validation being preempted, but not the context switch code path.
> > >> Is that what you are talking about?
> > >>
> > >> You are saying validate_group() is in the middle of x86_schedule_events()
> > >> using fake_cpuc, when it gets preempted. The context switch code when it loads
> > >> the new thread's PMU state calls x86_schedule_events() which modifies the
> > >> cpuc->event_list[]->hwc. But this is cpuc vs. fake_cpuc again. So yes, the calls
> > >> nest but they do not touch the same state.
> > >
> > > They both touch event->hw->constraint.
> > >
> > >> And when you eventually come back
> > >> to validate_group() you are back to using the fake_cpuc. So I am still not clear
> > >> on how the corruption can happen.
> > >
> > > validate_group()
> > > x86_schedule_events()
> > > event->hw.constraint = c; # store
> > >
> > > <context switch>
> > > perf_task_event_sched_in()
> > > ...
> > > x86_schedule_events();
> > > event->hw.constraint = c2; # store
> > >
> > > ...
> > >
> > > put_event_constraints(event); # assume failure to schedule
> > > intel_put_event_constraints()
> > > event->hw.constraint = NULL;
> > >
> > > <context switch end>
> > >
> > > c = event->hw.constraint; # read -> NULL
> > >
> > > if (!test_bit(hwc->idx, c->idxmsk)) # <- *BOOM* NULL deref
> > >
> > >
> > > This in particular is possible when the event in question is a cpu-wide
> > > event and group-leader, where the validate_group() tries to add an event
> > > to the group.
> >
> > Ok, I think I get it now. It is not related to fake_cpuc vs. cpuc,
> > it is related to the fact that the constraint is cached in the event
> > struct itself and that one is shared between validate_group() and
> > x86_schedule_events() because cpu_hw_event->event_list[] is an array
> > of pointers to events and not an array of events.
>
> Btw., comments and the code structure should be greatly enhanced to
> make all that very clear and hard to mess up.
>
Peter and I will clean this up.

>
> A month ago perf became fuzzing-proof, and now that's down the drain
> again...
>
It will be fixed this week.
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