Re: [PATCH v2] x86/nmi: Fix some races in NMI uaccess

[Rik van Riel]

On Tue, 2018-08-28 at 20:46 -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 28, 2018 at 10:56 AM, Rik van Riel <riel@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> > On Mon, 27 Aug 2018 16:04:16 -0700
> > Andy Lutomirski <luto@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > 
> > > The 0day bot is still chewing on this, but I've tested it a bit
> > > locally
> > > and it seems to do the right thing.
> > 
> > Hi Andy,
> > 
> > the version of the patch below should fix the bug we talked about
> > in email yesterday.  It should automatically cover kernel threads
> > in lazy TLB mode, because current->mm will be NULL, while the
> > cpu_tlbstate.loaded_mm should never be NULL.
> > 
> 
> That's better than mine.  I tweaked it a bit and added some
> debugging,
> and I got this:
> 
> 
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/luto/linux.git/commit/?h=x86/fixes&id=dd956eba16646fd0b15c3c0741269dfd84452dac
> 
> I made the loaded_mm handling a little more conservative to make it
> more obvious that switch_mm_irqs_off() is safe regardless of exactly
> when it gets called relative to switching current.

I am not convinced that the dance of writing
cpu_tlbstate.loaded_mm twice, with a barrier on
each end, is useful or necessary.

At the time switch_mm_irqs_off returns, nmi_uaccess_ok()
will still return false, because we have not switched
"current" to the task that owns the next mm_struct yet.

We just have to make sure to:
1) Change cpu_tlbstate.loaded_mm before we manipulate
   CR3, and
2) Change "current" only once enough of the mm stuff has
   been switched, __switch_to seems to get that right.

Between the time switch_mm_irqs_off() sets cpu_tlbstate
to the next mm, and __switch_to moves() over current,
nmi_uaccess_ok() will return false.

-- 
All Rights Reversed.

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