linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 4/4] sigaltstack: allow disabling and re-enabling sas within sighandler

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Date:	Sun, 31 Jan 2016 09:00:59 -0800
From:	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>
To:	Stas Sergeev <stsp@...t.ru>
Cc:	Linux kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Linux API <linux-api@...r.kernel.org>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>,
	"Amanieu d'Antras" <amanieu@...il.com>,
	Richard Weinberger <richard@....at>, Tejun Heo <tj@...nel.org>,
	"Kirill A. Shutemov" <kirill.shutemov@...ux.intel.com>,
	Jason Low <jason.low2@...com>,
	Heinrich Schuchardt <xypron.glpk@....de>,
	Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@...hat.com>,
	Konstantin Khlebnikov <khlebnikov@...dex-team.ru>,
	Josh Triplett <josh@...htriplett.org>,
	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
	Aleksa Sarai <cyphar@...har.com>,
	Paul Moore <pmoore@...hat.com>,
	Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@...belt.com>,
	Vladimir Davydov <vdavydov@...allels.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 4/4] sigaltstack: allow disabling and re-enabling sas
 within sighandler

On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 8:28 AM, Stas Sergeev <stsp@...t.ru> wrote:
>
> linux implements the sigaltstack() in a way that makes it impossible to
> use with swapcontext(). Per the man page, sigaltstack is allowed to return
> EPERM if the process is altering its sigaltstack while running on
> sigaltstack.
> This is likely needed to consistently return oss->ss_flags, that indicates
> whether the process is being on sigaltstack or not.
> Unfortunately, linux takes that permission to return EPERM too literally:
> it returns EPERM even if you don't want to change to another sigaltstack,
> but only want to temporarily disable sigaltstack with SS_DISABLE.
> You can't use swapcontext() without disabling sigaltstack first, or the
> stack will be re-used and overwritten by a subsequent signal.
>
> With this patch, disabling sigaltstack inside a signal handler became
> possible, and the swapcontext() can then be used safely. After switching
> back to the sighandler, the app can re-enable the sigatlstack.
> The oss->ss_flags will correctly indicate the current use of sigaltstack,
> even if it is temporarily disabled. Any attempt to modify the sigaltstack
> (rather than to disable or re-enable it) within the sighandler, will still
> be punished with EPERM as suggested by POSIX.

This seems considerably more complicated than my previous proposal to
add an SS_FORCE flag to say "I know what I'm doing.  Ignore POSIX and
let me change the sigaltstack configuration even if it's in use".
What's the advantage?

--Andy