linux-kernel - Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/5] do not dereference NULL pools in pools' destroy() functions

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:	Tue, 9 Jun 2015 20:11:25 -0500 (CDT)
From:	Christoph Lameter <cl@...ux.com>
To:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
cc:	Sergey Senozhatsky <sergey.senozhatsky@...il.com>,
	Minchan Kim <minchan@...nel.org>,
	Pekka Enberg <penberg@...nel.org>,
	Joonsoo Kim <iamjoonsoo.kim@....com>,
	Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.cz>,
	David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>, linux-mm@...ck.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, sergey.senozhatsky.work@...il.com,
	Joe Perches <joe@...ches.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/5] do not dereference NULL pools in pools' destroy()
 functions

On Tue, 9 Jun 2015, Andrew Morton wrote:

> Well I like it, even though it's going to cause a zillion little cleanup
> patches.
>
> checkpatch already has a "kfree(NULL) is safe and this check is
> probably not required" test so I guess Joe will need to get busy ;)
>
> I'll park these patches until after 4.1 is released - it's getting to
> that time...

Why do this at all? I understand that kfree/kmem_cache_free can take a
null pointer but this is the destruction of a cache and it usually
requires multiple actions to clean things up and these actions have to be
properly sequenced. All other processors have to stop referencing this
cache before it can be destroyed. I think failing if someone does
something strange like doing cache destruction with a NULL pointer is
valuable.

--
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/