linux-kernel - Re: [patch 2/4] task isolation: sync vmstats on return to userspace

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, 03 Aug 2021 17:13:03 +0200
From:   nsaenzju@...hat.com
To:     Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@...hat.com>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     Nitesh Lal <nilal@...hat.com>,
        Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@...nel.org>,
        Christoph Lameter <cl@...ux.com>,
        Juri Lelli <juri.lelli@...hat.com>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Alex Belits <abelits@...its.com>, Peter Xu <peterx@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [patch 2/4] task isolation: sync vmstats on return to userspace

On Fri, 2021-07-30 at 17:18 -0300, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:
> The logic to disable vmstat worker thread, when entering
> nohz full, does not cover all scenarios. For example, it is possible
> for the following to happen:
> 
> 1) enter nohz_full, which calls refresh_cpu_vm_stats, syncing the stats.
> 2) app runs mlock, which increases counters for mlock'ed pages.
> 3) start -RT loop
> 
> Since refresh_cpu_vm_stats from nohz_full logic can happen _before_
> the mlock, vmstat shepherd can restart vmstat worker thread on
> the CPU in question.
> 
> To fix this, use the task isolation prctl interface to quiesce 
> deferred actions when returning to userspace.

Even though this is mostly targeted at nohz_full users, I believe I haven't
seen anything in this series that forces the feature to be run on nohz_full
CPUs (this is a good thing IMO). So, I'd suggest to reword the patch
description so it doesn't imply nohz_full is necessary to use this.

-- 
Nicolás Sáenz