Re: [PATCH] nvdimm-btt: fix a potential memleak in btt_freelist_init

From: Ira Weiny
Date: Thu Dec 07 2023 - 15:46:47 EST


Dave Jiang wrote:
>

[snip]

First off thanks for the patch. This code seems to have a few things to
clean up.

>
> On 12/6/23 20:43, Dinghao Liu wrote:
> > When an error happens in btt_freelist_init(), its caller
> > discover_arenas() will directly free arena, which makes
> > arena->freelist allocated in btt_freelist_init() a leaked
> > memory. Fix this by freeing arena->freelist in all error
> > handling paths of btt_freelist_init().
> >
> > Fixes: 5212e11fde4d ("nd_btt: atomic sector updates")
> > Signed-off-by: Dinghao Liu <dinghao.liu@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> How about use the new scope based resource management and we can avoid the goto mess altogether?
> https://lwn.net/Articles/934679/
>

The freelist is returned as part of arena. I've not traced both paths of
btt_freelist_init() completely but devm_kcalloc() looks like a better
solution here because this memory needs to live past the function scope.

That said, this patch does not completely fix freelist from leaking in the
following error path.

discover_arenas()
btt_freelist_init() -> ok (memory allocated)
btt_rtt_init() -> fail
goto out;
(leak because arena is not yet on btt->arena_list)
OR
btt_maplocks_init() -> fail
goto out;
(leak because arena is not yet on btt->arena_list)

This error could be fixed by adding to arena_list earlier but devm_*()
also takes care of this without having to worry about that logic.

On normal operation all of this memory can be free'ed with the
corresponding devm_kfree() and/or devm_add_action_*() calls if arenas come
and go. I'm not sure off the top of my head.

In addition, looking at this code. discover_arenas() could make use of
the scoped based management for struct btt_sb *super!

Dinghao would you be willing to submit a series of 2 or 3 patches to fix
the above issues?

Thanks!
Ira