Re: [PATCH] vhost: fix vhost_vq_access_ok() log check

From: Linus Torvalds
Date: Mon Apr 09 2018 - 12:52:21 EST


On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 6:10 AM, Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> @@ -1246,7 +1246,7 @@ int vhost_vq_access_ok(struct vhost_virtqueue *vq)
> {
> int ret = vq_log_access_ok(vq, vq->log_base);
>
> - if (ret || vq->iotlb)
> + if (!ret || vq->iotlb)
> return ret;

That logic is still very non-obvious.

This code already had one bug because of an odd illegible test
sequence. Let's not keep the crazy code.

Why not just do the *obvious* thing, and get rid of "ret" entirely,
and make the damn thing return a boolean, and then just write it all
as

/* Caller should have vq mutex and device mutex */
bool vhost_vq_access_ok(struct vhost_virtqueue *vq)
{
if (!vq_log_access_ok(vq, vq->log_base))
return false;

if (vq->iotlb || vq_access_ok(vq, vq->num, vq->desc,
vq->avail, vq->used);
}

which makes the logic obvious: if vq_log_access_ok() fails, then then
vhost_vq_access_ok() fails unconditionally.

Otherwise, we need to have an iotlb, or a successful vq_access_ok() check.

Doesn't that all make more sense, and avoid the insane "ret" value use
that is really quite subtle?

Linus