[PATCH v2] random: spread out jitter callback to different CPUs

[Jason A. Donenfeld]

Rather than merely hoping that the callback gets called on another CPU,
arrange for that to actually happen, by round robining which CPU the
timer fires on. This way, on multiprocessor machines, we exacerbate
jitter by touching the same memory from multiple different cores.

There's a little bit of tricky bookkeeping involved here, because using
timer_setup_on_stack() + add_timer_on() + del_timer_sync() is a recipe
for disaster. See this sample code: <https://xn--4db.cc/xBdEiIKO/c>.

Mitigating this by calling del_timer_sync() (or try_to_del_timer_sync())
before each add_timer_on() also isn't satisfactory, because that halts
the main entropy collecting loop while it waits, trying to acquire the
timer base spinlock.

So instead, poll a boolean inside of the main loop to indicate when the
timer callback has finished executing. This serializes the callbacks
while still ensuring the main loop continues.

Cc: Sultan Alsawaf <sultan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Dominik Brodowski <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Jason A. Donenfeld <Jason@xxxxxxxxx>
---
 drivers/char/random.c | 39 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
 1 file changed, 30 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/char/random.c b/drivers/char/random.c
index 7b71cea6a6ab..40d0395ea566 100644
--- a/drivers/char/random.c
+++ b/drivers/char/random.c
@@ -1232,7 +1232,9 @@ void __cold rand_initialize_disk(struct gendisk *disk)
 struct entropy_timer_state {
 	unsigned long entropy;
 	struct timer_list timer;
-	unsigned int samples, samples_per_bit;
+	atomic_t samples;
+	unsigned int samples_per_bit;
+	bool is_running;
 };
 
 /*
@@ -1250,10 +1252,9 @@ static void __cold entropy_timer(struct timer_list *timer)
 {
 	struct entropy_timer_state *state = container_of(timer, struct entropy_timer_state, timer);
 
-	if (++state->samples == state->samples_per_bit) {
+	if (atomic_inc_return(&state->samples) % state->samples_per_bit == 0)
 		credit_init_bits(1);
-		state->samples = 0;
-	}
+	smp_store_release(&state->is_running, false);
 }
 
 /*
@@ -1263,9 +1264,10 @@ static void __cold entropy_timer(struct timer_list *timer)
 static void __cold try_to_generate_entropy(void)
 {
 	enum { NUM_TRIAL_SAMPLES = 8192, MAX_SAMPLES_PER_BIT = HZ / 15 };
-	struct entropy_timer_state stack;
+	struct entropy_timer_state stack = { 0 };
 	unsigned int i, num_different = 0;
 	unsigned long last = random_get_entropy();
+	int cpu = -1;
 
 	for (i = 0; i < NUM_TRIAL_SAMPLES - 1; ++i) {
 		stack.entropy = random_get_entropy();
@@ -1277,19 +1279,38 @@ static void __cold try_to_generate_entropy(void)
 	if (stack.samples_per_bit > MAX_SAMPLES_PER_BIT)
 		return;
 
-	stack.samples = 0;
 	timer_setup_on_stack(&stack.timer, entropy_timer, 0);
 	while (!crng_ready() && !signal_pending(current)) {
-		if (!timer_pending(&stack.timer))
-			mod_timer(&stack.timer, jiffies);
+		/*
+		 * Check both !timer_pending() and state->is_running to ensure that any previous
+		 * callback has finished executing, before queueing the next one.
+		 */
+		if (!timer_pending(&stack.timer) && !smp_load_acquire(&stack.is_running)) {
+			preempt_disable();
+
+			/* Basic CPU round-robin, which avoids the current CPU. */
+			do {
+				cpu = cpumask_next(cpu, cpu_online_mask);
+				if (cpu == nr_cpumask_bits)
+					cpu = cpumask_first(cpu_online_mask);
+			} while (cpu == smp_processor_id() && cpumask_weight(cpu_online_mask) > 1);
+
+			/* Expiring the timer at `jiffies` means it's the next tick. */
+			stack.timer.expires = jiffies;
+
+			smp_store_release(&stack.is_running, true);
+			add_timer_on(&stack.timer, cpu);
+
+			preempt_enable();
+		}
 		mix_pool_bytes(&stack.entropy, sizeof(stack.entropy));
 		schedule();
 		stack.entropy = random_get_entropy();
 	}
+	mix_pool_bytes(&stack.entropy, sizeof(stack.entropy));
 
 	del_timer_sync(&stack.timer);
 	destroy_timer_on_stack(&stack.timer);
-	mix_pool_bytes(&stack.entropy, sizeof(stack.entropy));
 }
 
 
-- 
2.38.1