linux-kernel - tmpfs returns incorrect data on concurrent pread() and truncate()

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Date:   Wed, 26 Oct 2016 19:05:22 +0200
From:   Jakob Unterwurzacher <jakobunt@...il.com>
To:     Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: tmpfs returns incorrect data on concurrent pread() and truncate()

tmpfs seems to be incorrectly returning 0-bytes when reading from
a file that is concurrently being truncated.

This is causing crashes in gocryptfs, a cryptographic FUSE overlay,
when it reads a nonce from disk that should absolutely positively
never be all-zero.

I have written a reproducer in C that triggers this issue on
both boxes I tested, Linux 4.7.2 and 3.16.7, both amd64.

It can be downloaded from here:

    https://gist.github.com/rfjakob/d01281c737db38075767f90bf03fc475

or, alternatively, I have attached it to this email at the bottom.

The reproducer:
1) Creates a 10MB file filled with 'x' at /dev/shm/x
2) Spawns a thread that truncates the file 3 bytes at a time
3) Spawns another thread that pread()s the file 1 byte at a time
   starting from the top
4) Prints "wrong data" whenever the pread() gets something that
   is not 'x' or an empty result.

Example run:

$ gcc -Wall -lpthread truncate_read.c && ./a.out
wrong data: 0
wrong data: 0
wrong data: 0
wrong data: 0
wrong data: 0
wrong data: 0
wrong data: 0
wrong data: 0
wrong data: 0
wrong data: 0
[...]

Best regards,
Jakob

---------------------------------------------------------------------
truncate_read.c
------------------------------8<---------------------------------------

// Compile and run:
// gcc -Wall -lpthread truncate_read.c && ./a.out

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <pthread.h>

int fd;
int l = 10*1024*1024;
pthread_t tid[2];

void* read_thread(void *arg){
	int o,n;
	char b;
	for(o=l; o>0; o--) {
		b = 'a';
		n = pread(fd, &b, 1, o);
		if(n==0) {
			continue;
		}
		if(b != 'x') {
			printf("wrong data: %x\n", b);
		}
	}
	return NULL;
}

void* truncate_thread(void *arg){
	// Parent = Truncater
	int o,n;
	// "3" seems to be the sweet spot to trigger the most errors.
	for(o=l; o>0; o-=3) {
		n = ftruncate(fd, o);
		if(n!=0) {
			perror("ftruncate err");
		}
	}
	return NULL;
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
	fd = open("/dev/shm/x", O_RDWR | O_TRUNC | O_CREAT, 0666);
	if(fd < 0) {
		printf("open failed\n");
		exit(1);
	}
	char* x = malloc(l);
	memset(x, 'x', l);
	write(fd, x, l);

	pthread_create(&(tid[0]), NULL, &read_thread, NULL);
	pthread_create(&(tid[1]), NULL, &truncate_thread, NULL);

	void *res;
	pthread_join(tid[0], &res);
	pthread_join(tid[1], &res);

	return 0;
}