linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH sl-b 1/6] mm: Add kmem_last_alloc() to return last allocation for memory block

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: <20201207090243.GA20765@js1304-desktop>
Date:   Mon, 7 Dec 2020 18:02:53 +0900
From:   Joonsoo Kim <js1304@...il.com>
To:     paulmck@...nel.org
Cc:     rcu@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        kernel-team@...com, mingo@...nel.org, jiangshanlai@...il.com,
        akpm@...ux-foundation.org, mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com,
        josh@...htriplett.org, tglx@...utronix.de, peterz@...radead.org,
        rostedt@...dmis.org, dhowells@...hat.com, edumazet@...gle.com,
        fweisbec@...il.com, oleg@...hat.com, joel@...lfernandes.org,
        Christoph Lameter <cl@...ux.com>,
        Pekka Enberg <penberg@...nel.org>,
        David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>, linux-mm@...ck.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH sl-b 1/6] mm: Add kmem_last_alloc() to return last
 allocation for memory block

Hello, Paul.

On Fri, Dec 04, 2020 at 04:40:52PM -0800, paulmck@...nel.org wrote:
> From: "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...nel.org>
> 
> There are kernel facilities such as per-CPU reference counts that give
> error messages in generic handlers or callbacks, whose messages are
> unenlightening.  In the case of per-CPU reference-count underflow, this
> is not a problem when creating a new use of this facility because in that
> case the bug is almost certainly in the code implementing that new use.
> However, trouble arises when deploying across many systems, which might
> exercise corner cases that were not seen during development and testing.
> Here, it would be really nice to get some kind of hint as to which of
> several uses the underflow was caused by.
> 
> This commit therefore exposes a new kmem_last_alloc() function that
> takes a pointer to dynamically allocated memory and returns the return
> address of the call that allocated it.  This pointer can reference the
> middle of the block as well as the beginning of the block, as needed
> by things like RCU callback functions and timer handlers that might not
> know where the beginning of the memory block is.  These functions and
> handlers can use the return value from kmem_last_alloc() to give the
> kernel hacker a better hint as to where the problem might lie.

I agree with exposing allocation caller information to the other
subsystem to help the debugging. Some suggestions...

1. It's better to separate a slab object check (validity check) and
retrieving the allocation caller. Someone else would want to check
only a validity. And, it doesn't depend on the debug configuration so
it's not good to bind it to the debug function.

kmem_cache_valid_(obj|ptr)
kmalloc_valid_(obj|ptr)

2. rename kmem_last_alloc to ...

int kmem_cache_debug_alloc_caller(cache, obj, &ret_addr)
int kmalloc_debug_alloc_caller(obj, &ret_addr)

or debug_kmem_cache_alloc_caller()

I think that function name need to include the keyword 'debug' to show
itself as a debugging facility (enabled at the debugging). And, return
errno and get caller address by pointer argument.

3. If concrete error message is needed, please introduce more functions.

void *kmalloc_debug_error(errno)

Thanks.