Re: [RFC, PATCH] ipc/util.c: use idr_alloc_cyclic() for ipc allocations

From: Waiman Long
Date: Tue Oct 02 2018 - 14:28:01 EST


On 10/02/2018 12:19 PM, Manfred Spraul wrote:
> A bit related to the patch series that increases IPC_MNI:
>
> (User space) id reuse create the risk of data corruption:
>
> Process A: calls ipc function
> Process A: sleeps just at the beginning of the syscall
> Process B: Frees the ipc object (i.e.: calls ...ctl(IPC_RMID)
> Process B: Creates a new ipc object (i.e.: calls ...get())
> <If new object and old object have the same id>
> Process A: is woken up, and accesses the new object
>
> To reduce the probability that the new and the old object
> have the same id, the current implementation adds a
> sequence number to the index of the object in the idr tree.
>
> To further reduce the probability for a reuse, switch from
> idr_alloc to idr_alloc_cyclic.
>
> The patch cycles over at least RADIX_TREE_MAP_SIZE, i.e.
> if there is only a small number of objects, the accesses
> continue to be direct.
>
> As an option, this could be made dependent on the extended
> mode: In extended mode, cycle over e.g. at least 16k ids.
>
> Signed-off-by: Manfred Spraul <manfred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>
> Open questions:
> - Is there a significant performance advantage, especially
> there are many ipc ids?
> - Over how many ids should the code cycle always?
> - Further review remarks?
>
> ipc/util.c | 22 +++++++++++++++++++++-
> 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/ipc/util.c b/ipc/util.c
> index 0af05752969f..6f83841f6761 100644
> --- a/ipc/util.c
> +++ b/ipc/util.c
> @@ -216,10 +216,30 @@ static inline int ipc_idr_alloc(struct ipc_ids *ids, struct kern_ipc_perm *new)
> */
>
> if (next_id < 0) { /* !CHECKPOINT_RESTORE or next_id is unset */
> + int idr_max;
> +
> new->seq = ids->seq++;
> if (ids->seq > IPCID_SEQ_MAX)
> ids->seq = 0;
> - idx = idr_alloc(&ids->ipcs_idr, new, 0, 0, GFP_NOWAIT);
> +
> + /*
> + * If a user space visible id is reused, then this creates a
> + * risk for data corruption. To reduce the probability that
> + * a number is reduced, two approaches are used:
reduced -> reused?

> + * 1) the idr index is allocated cyclically.
> + * 2) the use space id is build by concatenating the
> + * internal idr index with a sequence number
> + * To avoid that both numbers have the same cycle time, try
> + * to set the size for the cyclic alloc to an odd number.
> + */
> + idr_max = ids->in_use*2+1;
> + if (idr_max < RADIX_TREE_MAP_SIZE-1)
> + idr_max = RADIX_TREE_MAP_SIZE-1;
> + if (idr_max > IPCMNI)
> + idr_max = IPCMNI;
> +
> + idx = idr_alloc_cyclic(&ids->ipcs_idr, new, 0, idr_max,
> + GFP_NOWAIT);
> } else {
> new->seq = ipcid_to_seqx(next_id);
> idx = idr_alloc(&ids->ipcs_idr, new, ipcid_to_idx(next_id),


Each of IPC components have their own sysctl parameters limiting the max
number of objects that can be allocated. With cyclic allocation, you
will have to make sure that idr_max is not larger than the corresponding
IPC sysctl parameters. That may require moving the limits to the
corresponding ipc_ids structure so that it can be used in ipc_idr_alloc().

What is the point of comparing idr_max against RADIX_TREE_MAP_SIZE-1? Is
it for performance reason.

Cheers,
Longman