Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2024 17:38:09 +0100
From: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>
To: Bernd Edlinger <bernd.edlinger@...mail.de>
Cc: Alexander Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
	Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@...il.com>,
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	Hans Liljestrand <ishkamiel@...il.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v14] exec: Fix dead-lock in de_thread with ptrace_attach

On 01/17, Bernd Edlinger wrote:
>
> >>
> >> The problem happens when a tracer tries to ptrace_attach
> >> to a multi-threaded process, that does an execve in one of
> >> the threads at the same time, without doing that in a forked
> >> sub-process.  That means: There is a race condition, when one
> >> or more of the threads are already ptraced, but the thread
> >> that invoked the execve is not yet traced.  Now in this
> >> case the execve locks the cred_guard_mutex and waits for
> >> de_thread to complete.  But that waits for the traced
> >> sibling threads to exit, and those have to wait for the
> >> tracer to receive the exit signal, but the tracer cannot
> >> call wait right now, because it is waiting for the ptrace
> >> call to complete, and this never does not happen.
> >> The traced process and the tracer are now in a deadlock
> >> situation, and can only be killed by a fatal signal.
> >
> > This looks very confusing to me. And even misleading.
> >
> > So IIRC the problem is "simple".
> >
> > de_thread() sleeps with cred_guard_mutex waiting for other threads to
> > exit and pass release_task/__exit_signal.
> >
> > If one of the sub-threads is traced, debugger should do ptrace_detach()
> > or wait() to release this tracee, the killed tracee won't autoreap.
> >
>
> Yes. but the tracer has to do its job, and that is ptrace_attach the
> remaining treads, it does not know that it would avoid a dead-lock
> when it calls wait(), instead of ptrace_attach.  It does not know
> that the tracee has just called execve in one of the not yet traced
> threads.

Hmm. I don't understand you.

I agree we have a problem which should be fixed. Just the changelog
looks confusing to me, imo it doesn't explain the race/problem clearly.

> > Now. If debugger tries to take the same cred_guard_mutex before
> > detach/wait we have a deadlock. This is not specific to ptrace_attach(),
> > proc_pid_attr_write() takes this lock too.
> >
> > Right? Or are there other issues?
> >
>
> No, proc_pid_attr_write has no problem if it waits for cred_guard_mutex,
> because it is only called from one of the sibling threads,

OK, thanks, I was wrong. I forgot about "A task may only write its own attributes".
So yes, ptrace_attach() is the only source of problematic mutex_lock() today.
There were more in the past.

> >> +		if (unlikely(t->ptrace)
> >> +		    && (t != tsk->group_leader || !t->exit_state))
> >> +			unsafe_execve_in_progress = true;
> >
> > The !t->exit_state is not right... This sub-thread can already be a zombie
> > with ->exit_state != 0 but see above, it won't be reaped until the debugger
> > does wait().
> >
>
> I dont think so.
> de_thread() handles the group_leader different than normal threads.

I don't follow...

I didn't say that t is a group leader. I said it can be a zombie sub-thread
with ->exit_state != 0.

> That means normal threads have to wait for being released from the zombie
> state by the tracer:
> sig->notify_count > 0, and de_thread is woken up by __exit_signal

That is what I said before. Debugger should release a zombie sub-thread,
it won't do __exit_signal() on its own.

> >> +	if (unlikely(unsafe_execve_in_progress)) {
> >> +		spin_unlock_irq(lock);
> >> +		sig->exec_bprm = bprm;
> >> +		mutex_unlock(&sig->cred_guard_mutex);
> >> +		spin_lock_irq(lock);
> >
> > I don't understand why do we need to unlock and lock siglock here...
>
> That is just a precaution because I did want to release the
> mutexes exactly in the reverse order as they were acquired.

To me this adds the unnecessary complication.

> > But my main question is why do we need the unsafe_execve_in_progress boolean.
> > If this patch is correct and de_thread() can drop and re-acquire cread_guard_mutex
> > when one of the threads is traced, then why can't we do this unconditionally ?
> >
>
> I just wanted to keep the impact of the change as small as possible,

But the unsafe_execve_in_progress logic increases the impact and complicates
the patch.

I think the fix should be as simple as possible. (to be honest, right now
I don't think this is a right approach).

> including
> possible performance degradation due to double checking of credentials.

Not sure I understand, but you can add the performance improvements later.
Not to mention that this should be justified, and the for_other_threads()
loop added by this patch into de_thread() is not nice performance-wise.

Oleg.

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