linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] mm: remove unnecessary __get_user_pages

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:   Wed, 26 Oct 2016 08:59:52 +0100
From:   Lorenzo Stoakes <lstoakes@...il.com>
To:     linux-mm@...ck.org
Cc:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Michal Hocko <mhocko@...nel.org>, Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>,
        Hugh Dickins <hughd@...gle.com>,
        Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com>,
        Rik van Riel <riel@...hat.com>,
        Mel Gorman <mgorman@...hsingularity.net>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        Radim Krčmář <rkrcmar@...hat.com>,
        kvm@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] mm: remove unnecessary __get_user_pages_unlocked() calls

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 12:36:09AM +0100, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote:
> In hva_to_pfn_slow() we are able to replace __get_user_pages_unlocked() with
> get_user_pages_unlocked() since we can now pass gup_flags.
>
> In async_pf_execute() we need to pass different tsk, mm arguments so
> get_user_pages_remote() is the sane replacement here (having added manual
> acquisition and release of mmap_sem.)
>
> Since we pass a NULL pages parameter the subsequent call to
> __get_user_pages_locked() will have previously bailed any attempt at
> VM_FAULT_RETRY, so we do not change this behaviour by using
> get_user_pages_remote() which does not invoke VM_FAULT_RETRY logic at all.
>
> Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lstoakes@...il.com>

Note that the use of get_user_pages_remote() in async_pf_execute() reintroduces
the use of the FOLL_TOUCH flag - I don't think this is a problem as this flag
was dropped by 1e987790 ("mm/gup: Introduce get_user_pages_remote()") which
states 'Without protection keys, this patch should not change any behavior', so
I don't think this was intentional.