linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] kernel/exit.c: call read_unlock() when failure occurs after already called read_lock() in do

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]

Message-ID: <20131005063431.GU13318@ZenIV.linux.org.uk>
Date:	Sat, 5 Oct 2013 07:34:32 +0100
From:	Al Viro <viro@...IV.linux.org.uk>
To:	Chen Gang <gang.chen@...anux.com>
Cc:	Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com>,
	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>,
	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] kernel/exit.c: call read_unlock() when failure occurs
 after already called read_lock() in do_wait().

On Sat, Oct 05, 2013 at 01:53:26PM +0800, Chen Gang wrote:
> If failure occurs after called read_lock(), need call read_unlock() too.
> 
> It can fail in multiple position, so add new tag 'fail_lock' for it
> (also can let 'if' only content one jump statement).

You know, this is getting too frequent...  You really need to do
something about it.  OK, you've formed a hypothesis (in this case,
that ptrace_do_wait() returns non-zero with tasklist_lock still held).
If that hypothesis was correct, you would've found a bug and yes,
this patch would probably be more or less a fix for that bug.

Do you see what's missing?  That's right, verifying that hypothesis.
Which isn't hard to do, either by slapping a printk into these
exits, or by trying to build a proof.  As it is, hypothesis is
incorrect and your patch introduces breakage.  The same would have
happened if _some_ exits from that function returned non-zero
values with tasklist_lock held and some returned non-zero values
with tasklist_lock released.

You really need to realize that pattern-matching is not enough - you
need to prove that your fix is correct and that requires an analysis
of what's there.

"I see something odd" is a good reason to ask or to try and figure out
what's going on.  It's not a good reason for blindly making changes
like that - not until you've done the analysis and can at least show
that it won't _break_ things.
--
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/