linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 25/20] sysfs: Only support removing emtpy sysfs directories.

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite for Android: free password hash cracker in your pocket

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Wed, 27 May 2009 17:38:50 -0400 (EDT)
From:	Alan Stern <stern@...land.harvard.edu>
To:	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>
cc:	Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@...y.org>,
	James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@...senpartnership.com>,
	SCSI development list <linux-scsi@...r.kernel.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...e.de>,
	Kernel development list <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Tejun Heo <tj@...nel.org>,
	Cornelia Huck <cornelia.huck@...ibm.com>,
	<linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...stanetworks.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 25/20] sysfs: Only support removing emtpy sysfs  directories.

On Wed, 27 May 2009, Eric W. Biederman wrote:

> Alan Stern <stern@...land.harvard.edu> writes:
> 
> >
> > As fas as I know, they can't.  Instead, they can cause the SCSI layer 
> > to unregister a sysfs directory containing a child directory.  :-)
> >
> > Basically, a user program can delay removal of the child (i.e., the
> > target) directory indefinitely, because currently the target isn't
> > unregistered when all its children are removed -- it's unregistered
> > when all its children are _released_.
> 
> Ok.  Is this opens of /dev/sda1 and the like that are being held open by
> userspace that are potentially causing problems?

Yes, plus any other mechanism for preventing a struct device's refcount 
from going to 0.

> I think I have the fix to that...

The fix is to delete the target when its children are deleted, and not
wait until the children are released.

Alan Stern

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/