On Sat, Sep 28, 2024 at 09:51:27AM -0400, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
Compiler CSE and SSA GVN optimizations can cause the address dependency
of addresses returned by rcu_dereference to be lost when comparing those
pointers with either constants or previously loaded pointers.
Introduce ptr_eq() to compare two addresses while preserving the address
dependencies for later use of the address. It should be used when
comparing an address returned by rcu_dereference().
This is needed to prevent the compiler CSE and SSA GVN optimizations
from replacing the registers holding @a or @b based on their
"Replacing" isn't the right word. What the compiler does is use one
rather than the other. Furthermore, the compiler can play these games
even with values that aren't in registers.
You should just say: "... from using @a (or @b) in places where the
source refers to @b (or @a) (based on the fact that after the
comparison, the two are known to be equal), which does not ..."
equality, which does not preserve address dependencies and allows the
following misordering speculations:
- If @b is a constant, the compiler can issue the loads which depend
on @a before loading @a.
- If @b is a register populated by a prior load, weakly-ordered
CPUs can speculate loads which depend on @a before loading @a.
It shouldn't matter whether @a and @b are constants, registers, or
anything else. All that matters is that the compiler uses the wrong
one, which allows weakly ordered CPUs to speculate loads you wouldn't
expect it to, based on the source code alone.
[...]
The same logic applies with @a and @b swapped.
The compiler barrier() is ineffective at fixing this issue.
It does not prevent the compiler CSE from losing the address dependency:
int fct_2_volatile_barriers(void)
{
int *a, *b;
do {
a = READ_ONCE(p);
asm volatile ("" : : : "memory");
b = READ_ONCE(p);
} while (a != b);
asm volatile ("" : : : "memory"); <----- barrier()
return *b;
}
With gcc 14.2 (arm64):
fct_2_volatile_barriers:
adrp x0, .LANCHOR0
add x0, x0, :lo12:.LANCHOR0
.L2:
ldr x1, [x0] <------ x1 populated by first load.
ldr x2, [x0]
cmp x1, x2
bne .L2
ldr w0, [x1] <------ x1 is used for access which should depend on b.
ret
On weakly-ordered architectures, this lets CPU speculation use the
result from the first load to speculate "ldr w0, [x1]" before
"ldr x2, [x0]".
Based on the RCU documentation, the control dependency does not prevent
the CPU from speculating loads.
diff --git a/include/linux/compiler.h b/include/linux/compiler.h
index 2df665fa2964..f26705c267e8 100644
--- a/include/linux/compiler.h
+++ b/include/linux/compiler.h
@@ -186,6 +186,68 @@ void ftrace_likely_update(struct ftrace_likely_data *f, int val,
__asm__ ("" : "=r" (var) : "0" (var))
#endif
+/*
+ * Compare two addresses while preserving the address dependencies for
+ * later use of the address. It should be used when comparing an address
+ * returned by rcu_dereference().
+ *
+ * This is needed to prevent the compiler CSE and SSA GVN optimizations
+ * from replacing the registers holding @a or @b based on their
+ * equality, which does not preserve address dependencies and allows the
+ * following misordering speculations:
+ *
+ * - If @b is a constant, the compiler can issue the loads which depend
+ * on @a before loading @a.
+ * - If @b is a register populated by a prior load, weakly-ordered
+ * CPUs can speculate loads which depend on @a before loading @a.
+ *
+ * The same logic applies with @a and @b swapped.
This could be more concise, and it should be more general (along the
same lines as the description above).