linux-kernel - [PATCH v4] Fixing directly deferencing a _

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Date:   Mon, 13 Nov 2023 01:00:55 +0530
From:   Abhinav Singh <singhabhinav9051571833@...il.com>
To:     akpm@...ux-foundation.org, brauner@...nel.org, surenb@...gle.com,
        mst@...hat.com, michael.christie@...cle.com, mjguzik@...il.com,
        mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com, npiggin@...il.com,
        peterz@...radead.org
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel-mentees@...ts.linuxfoundation.org,
        Abhinav Singh <singhabhinav9051571833@...il.com>
Subject: [PATCH v4] Fixing directly deferencing a __rcu pointer warning

This patch fixes the sparse warning with this message 
"dereference of noderef expression" , in this context 
it means about directly dereferencing a pointer tagged 
with __rcu annotation.

Dereferencing the pointers tagged with __rcu directly should
always be avoided according to the docs. There is a rcu helper
function rcu_dereference(...) to use when dereferencing a __rcu
pointer inside rcu read side critical sections. This function
returns the non __rcu tagged pointer which can be dereferenced
just like a normal pointer.

I tested with `lockdep` enabled, with these config options
`CONFIG_PROVE_RCU` and `CONFIG_PROVE_LOCKING` enabled and it 
booted just fine. To confirm if lockdep was really enabled 
I found these paths inside the qemu virtual envirnoment.
/proc/lockdep
/proc/lockdep_chains
/proc/lockdep_stat
/proc/locks
/proc/lock_stats

I tested the above kernel using qemu with this command
qemu-system-x86_64 \
        -m 2G \
        -smp 2 \
        -kernel /home/abhinav/linux_work/linux/arch/x86/boot/bzImage \
        -append "console=ttyS0 root=/dev/sda earlyprintk=serial   net.ifnames=0" \
        -drive file=/home/abhinav/linux_work/boot_images/bullseye.img,format=raw \
        -net user,host=10.0.2.10,hostfwd=tcp:127.0.0.1:10021-:22 \
        -net nic,model=e1000 \
        -enable-kvm \
        -nographic \
        -pidfile vm.pid \
        2>&1 | tee vm.log

Signed-off-by: Abhinav Singh <singhabhinav9051571833@...il.com>
---

Link to original patch
 https://lore.kernel.org/all/20231025222811.855336-1-singhabhinav9051571833@gmail.com/

Change from original -> v2 :
 1. removed the null check before dereferencing the dereferenced rcu
    pointer at line 2372.
 2. added rcu_dereference(...) at line 2694

Changes from v2 -> v3
 1. added rcu_dereference(...) at line 2693

Changes from v3 -> v4
 1. added rcu_read_lock() and rcu_read_unlock() before and after
rcu_defereference() function to avoid race condition.

 kernel/fork.c | 17 ++++++++++++-----
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
index 10917c3e1f03..bb049b611015 100644
--- a/kernel/fork.c
+++ b/kernel/fork.c
@@ -2369,9 +2369,14 @@ __latent_entropy struct task_struct *copy_process(
 
 	retval = -EAGAIN;
 	if (is_rlimit_overlimit(task_ucounts(p), UCOUNT_RLIMIT_NPROC, rlimit(RLIMIT_NPROC))) {
-		if (p->real_cred->user != INIT_USER &&
-		    !capable(CAP_SYS_RESOURCE) && !capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN))
+		rcu_read_lock();
+		if (rcu_dereference(p->real_cred)->user != INIT_USER &&
+		    !capable(CAP_SYS_RESOURCE) && !capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN)) {
+			rcu_read_unlock();
 			goto bad_fork_cleanup_count;
+		} else {
+			rcu_read_unlock();
+		}
 	}
 	current->flags &= ~PF_NPROC_EXCEEDED;
 
@@ -2690,9 +2695,11 @@ __latent_entropy struct task_struct *copy_process(
 			 * tasklist_lock with adding child to the process tree
 			 * for propagate_has_child_subreaper optimization.
 			 */
-			p->signal->has_child_subreaper = p->real_parent->signal->has_child_subreaper ||
-							 p->real_parent->signal->is_child_subreaper;
-			list_add_tail(&p->sibling, &p->real_parent->children);
+			rcu_read_lock();
+			p->signal->has_child_subreaper = rcu_dereference(p->real_parent)->signal->has_child_subreaper ||
+							rcu_dereference(p->real_parent)->signal->is_child_subreaper;
+			list_add_tail(&p->sibling, &rcu_dereference(p->real_parent)->children);
+			rcu_read_unlock();
 			list_add_tail_rcu(&p->tasks, &init_task.tasks);
 			attach_pid(p, PIDTYPE_TGID);
 			attach_pid(p, PIDTYPE_PGID);
-- 
2.39.2