linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] softirq: fix memory corruption when freeing tasklet

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Message-ID: <586ca4dd-f191-9ada-1bc3-e5672f17f7c@redhat.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2024 23:04:35 +0100 (CET)
From: Mikulas Patocka <mpatocka@...hat.com>
To: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
cc: Tejun Heo <tj@...nel.org>, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>, 
    linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, dm-devel@...ts.linux.dev, 
    Mike Snitzer <msnitzer@...hat.com>, Ignat Korchagin <ignat@...udflare.com>, 
    Damien Le Moal <damien.lemoal@....com>, Hou Tao <houtao1@...wei.com>, 
    Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] softirq: fix memory corruption when freeing
 tasklet_struct



On Thu, 25 Jan 2024, Linus Torvalds wrote:

> On Thu, 25 Jan 2024 at 10:30, Mikulas Patocka <mpatocka@...hat.com> wrote:
> >
> > There's a problem with the tasklet API - there is no reliable way how to
> > free a structure that contains tasklet_struct. The problem is that the
> > function tasklet_action_common calls task_unlock(t) after it called the
> > callback. If the callback does something that frees tasklet_struct,
> > task_unlock(t) would write into free memory.
> 
> Ugh.
> 
> I see what you're doing, but I have to say, I dislike this patch
> immensely. It feels like a serious misdesign that is then papered over
> with a hack.
> 
> I'd much rather see us trying to move away from tasklets entirely in
> cases like this. Just say "you cannot do that".

OK. I will delete tasklets from both dm-crypt and dm-verity - it will 
simplify them quite a bit.

BTW. Do you think that we should get rid of request-based device mapper as 
well? (that's another thing that looks like code bloat to me)

Mikulas