[RFC PATCH v2] mm/filemap: avoid buffered read/write race to read inconsistent data

[Baokun Li]

The following concurrency may cause the data read to be inconsistent with
the data on disk:

             cpu1                           cpu2
------------------------------|------------------------------
                               // Buffered write 2048 from 0
                               ext4_buffered_write_iter
                                generic_perform_write
                                 copy_page_from_iter_atomic
                                 ext4_da_write_end
                                  ext4_da_do_write_end
                                   block_write_end
                                    __block_commit_write
                                     folio_mark_uptodate
// Buffered read 4096 from 0          smp_wmb()
ext4_file_read_iter                   set_bit(PG_uptodate, folio_flags)
 generic_file_read_iter            i_size_write // 2048
  filemap_read                     unlock_page(page)
   filemap_get_pages
    filemap_get_read_batch
    folio_test_uptodate(folio)
     ret = test_bit(PG_uptodate, folio_flags)
     if (ret)
      smp_rmb();
      // Ensure that the data in page 0-2048 is up-to-date.

                               // New buffered write 2048 from 2048
                               ext4_buffered_write_iter
                                generic_perform_write
                                 copy_page_from_iter_atomic
                                 ext4_da_write_end
                                  ext4_da_do_write_end
                                   block_write_end
                                    __block_commit_write
                                     folio_mark_uptodate
                                      smp_wmb()
                                      set_bit(PG_uptodate, folio_flags)
                                   i_size_write // 4096
                                   unlock_page(page)

   isize = i_size_read(inode) // 4096
   // Read the latest isize 4096, but without smp_rmb(), there may be
   // Load-Load disorder resulting in the data in the 2048-4096 range
   // in the page is not up-to-date.
   copy_page_to_iter
   // copyout 4096

In the concurrency above, we read the updated i_size, but there is no read
barrier to ensure that the data in the page is the same as the i_size at
this point, so we may copy the unsynchronized page out. Hence adding the
missing read memory barrier to fix this.

This is a Load-Load reordering issue, which only occurs on some weak
mem-ordering architectures (e.g. ARM64, ALPHA), but not on strong
mem-ordering architectures (e.g. X86). And theoretically the problem
doesn't only happen on ext4, filesystems that call filemap_read() but
don't hold inode lock (e.g. btrfs, f2fs, ubifs ...) will have this
problem, while filesystems with inode lock (e.g. xfs, nfs) won't have
this problem.

Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Baokun Li <libaokun1@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
V1->V2:
	Change the comment to the one suggested by Jan Kara.	

 mm/filemap.c | 9 +++++++++
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)

diff --git a/mm/filemap.c b/mm/filemap.c
index 71f00539ac00..10c4583c06ce 100644
--- a/mm/filemap.c
+++ b/mm/filemap.c
@@ -2607,6 +2607,15 @@ ssize_t filemap_read(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *iter,
 			goto put_folios;
 		end_offset = min_t(loff_t, isize, iocb->ki_pos + iter->count);
 
+		/*
+		 * Pairs with a barrier in
+		 * block_write_end()->mark_buffer_dirty() or other page
+		 * dirtying routines like iomap_write_end() to ensure
+		 * changes to page contents are visible before we see
+		 * increased inode size.
+		 */
+		smp_rmb();
+
 		/*
 		 * Once we start copying data, we don't want to be touching any
 		 * cachelines that might be contended:
-- 
2.31.1