linux-kernel - Re: [RFC] situation with fput() locking (was Re: [PULL REQUEST] : ima-appraisal patches)

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: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

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

Date:	Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:56:57 -0700
From:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
To:	Al Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>
Cc:	linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, James Morris <jmorris@...ei.org>,
	linux-security-module@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	David Safford <safford@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	Dmitry Kasatkin <dmitry.kasatkin@...el.com>,
	Mimi Zohar <zohar@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>
Subject: Re: [RFC] situation with fput() locking (was Re: [PULL REQUEST] :
 ima-appraisal patches)

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 1:09 AM, Al Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk> wrote:
>
> Note that we do *not* need to bother with fput_light() - even if it does
> fput(), that fput() won't usually be the final one.

Ack. Most of the time the fput_light()->fput will just decrement the use count.

> We also get something else out of that - AFAICS, the kludge in __scm_destroy()
> can be killed after that.  We did it to prevent recursion on fput(), right?
> Now that recursion will be gone...

Hmm.. That points out that we may have a *lot* of these pending final
fput's, though. So the deferral queueing should be fairly light. What
were your particular plans for it?

This actually sounds like a fairly good usage-case for Oleg's new
task_work_add() thing. That would defer the final fput, but at the
same time guarantee that it gets done before returning to user space -
in case there are any issues with synchronous actions. Have you looked
at Oleg's series? You weren't cc'd because it didn't affect you, but
look at lkml for "task_work_add()" to find it.

NOTE! If pure kernel threads do fput() deferral (and maybe they do -
I'm thinking nfsd etc), then the task-work thing might need some extra
thought.

                     Linus
--
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/