linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] tracing: Fix tracing_marker may trigger page fault during preempt

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Message-ID: <aLWalJm3cdfBS70l@J2N7QTR9R3>
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2025 14:07:32 +0100
From: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@....com>
To: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@....com>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	Luo Gengkun <luogengkun@...weicloud.com>, mhiramat@...nel.org,
	mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-trace-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Will Deacon <will@...nel.org>,
	linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org,
	Al Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] tracing: Fix tracing_marker may trigger page fault
 during preempt_disable

On Mon, Sep 01, 2025 at 01:28:01PM +0100, Catalin Marinas wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 01, 2025 at 10:56:47AM +0100, Mark Rutland wrote:
> > On Sat, Aug 30, 2025 at 11:22:51AM +0100, Catalin Marinas wrote:
> > > On Fri, Aug 29, 2025 at 06:13:11PM -0400, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 29 Aug 2025 20:53:40 +0100
> > > > Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@....com> wrote:
> > > > valid user address.
> > > > > BTW, arm64 also bails out early in do_page_fault() if in_atomic() but I
> > > > > suspect that's not the case here.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Adding Al Viro since since he wrote a large part of uaccess.h.
> > > > 
> > > > So, __copy_from_user_inatomic() is supposed to be called if
> > > > pagefault_disable() has already been called? If this is the case, can we
> > > > add more comments to this code? I've been using the inatomic() version this
> > > > way in preempt disabled locations since 2016.
> > > 
> > > This should work as long as in_atomic() returns true as it's checked in
> > > the arm64 fault code. With PREEMPT_NONE, however, I don't think this
> > > works.
> > 
> > Sorry, what exactly breaks for the PREEMPT_NONE case?
> 
> This code would trigger a warning:
> 
> 	preempt_disable();
> 	WARN_ON(!in_atomic());
> 	preempt_enable();

Ah, you mean in the absence of pagefault_disable()..pagefault_enable().

The page fault handling code uses faulthandler_disabled(), which checks
whether either pagefault_disabled() or in_atomic() are true, and aborts
if either are. Given that, using pagefault_disable() should work fine on
PREEMPT_NONE.

> More importantly, a faulting __copy_from_user_inatomic() between
> get/put_cpu() could trigger migration.

Yep, in the absence of pagefault_disable().

> > > > I just wanted to figure out why __copy_from_user_inatomic() wasn't atomic.
> > > > If anything, it needs to be better documented.
> > > 
> > > Yeah, I had no idea until I looked at the code. I guess it means it can
> > > be safely used if in_atomic() == true (well, making it up, not sure what
> > > the intention was).
> > 
> > I think that was the intention -- it's the caller asserting that they
> > know the access won't fault (and hence won't sleep), and that's why
> > __copy_to_user_inatomic() and __copy_to_user() only differ by the latter
> > calling might_sleep().
> > 
> > It looks like other inconsistencies have crept in by accident. AFAICT
> > the should_fail_usercopy() check in __copy_from_user() was accidentally
> > missed from __copy_from_user_inatomic() when it was introduced in
> > commit:
> 
> I was wondering about that but some code comment for the inatomic
> variant states that it's the responsibility of the caller to ensure it
> doesn't fault.

I think you mean the kerneldoc comment for __copy_to_user_inatomic(),
which says:

| The caller should also make sure he pins the user space address
| so that we don't result in page fault and sleep.

... and I think the key aspect is to avoid the sleeping, and actually
taking a fault (and failing the uaccess) has to be fine, or the _nofault
API (which uses the _inatomic API) is broken by design.

I think the bit about pinning the address space is misleading.

> Not sure one can do other than pinning the page _and_ taking the mm
> lock. So I agree we should add the fault injection here as well.

Cool.

> > ... so there's a bunch of scope for cleanup, and we could probably have:
> > 
> > 	/*
> > 	 * TODO: comment saying to only call this directly when you know
> > 	 * that the fault handler won't sleep.
> > 	 */
> > 	static __always_inline __must_check unsigned long
> > 	__copy_from_user_inatomic(void *to, const void __user *from, unsigned long n)
> > 	{
> > 		...
> > 	}
> > 
> > 	static __always_inline __must_check unsigned long
> > 	__copy_from_user(void *to, const void __user *from, unsigned long n)
> > 	{
> > 		might_fault();
> > 		return __copy_from_user_inatomic();
> > 	}
> > 
> > ... to avoid the inconsistency.
> 
> I think the _inatomic variant should be reserved to arch code that knows
> the conditions. Generic code/drivers may not necessarily be aware of
> what the arch fault handler does. The _nofault API I think is better
> suited in generic code.

I agree. In almost all situations it's better for code to use the
_nofault API.

Mark.