netdev - [PATCH] net: fix possible deadlocks in rtnl

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Date:	Sat,  1 Dec 2012 18:29:51 +0100
From:	Simon Wunderlich <simon.wunderlich@...03.tu-chemnitz.de>
To:	davem@...emloft.net
Cc:	netdev@...r.kernel.org, b.a.t.m.a.n@...ts.open-mesh.org,
	Simon Wunderlich <siwu@....tu-chemnitz.de>
Subject: [PATCH] net: fix possible deadlocks in rtnl_trylock/unlock

If rtnl_trylock() is used to prevent circular dependencies, rtnl_unlock()
may destroy this attempt because it first unlocks rtnl_mutex but may
lock it again later. The callgraph roughly looks like:

rtnl_unlock()
   netdev_run_todo()
      __rtnl_unlock()
      netdev_wait_allrefs()
         rtnl_lock()
         ...
         __rtnl_unlock()

There are two users which have possible deadlocks and are fixed in this
patch: batman-adv and bridge. Their problematic access pattern is the same:

notifier_call handler:
 * holds rtnl lock when called
 * calls sysfs code at some point (acquiring sysfs locks)

sysfs code:
 * holds sysfs lock when called
 * calls rtnl_trylock() and rtnl_unlock(), rtnl_unlock() calls rtnl_lock
   implicitly

Fix this by exporting __rtnl_unlock() to just unlock the mutex without
implicitly locking again.

Reported-by: Sven Eckelmann <sven@...fation.org>
Signed-off-by: Simon Wunderlich <siwu@....tu-chemnitz.de>

---
Of course, an alternative would be to not lock again after unlocking
within rtnl_unlock(), or put the todo handling into the locked section.
I'm not familiar enough with this code to know what would be best.

There are others using rtnl_trylock(), but I'm not sure if they
are affected.
---
 net/batman-adv/sysfs.c   |    2 +-
 net/bridge/br_sysfs_br.c |    2 +-
 net/bridge/br_sysfs_if.c |    2 +-
 net/core/rtnetlink.c     |    1 +
 4 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/batman-adv/sysfs.c b/net/batman-adv/sysfs.c
index 66518c7..41b74aa 100644
--- a/net/batman-adv/sysfs.c
+++ b/net/batman-adv/sysfs.c
@@ -635,7 +635,7 @@ static ssize_t batadv_store_mesh_iface(struct kobject *kobj,
 	ret = batadv_hardif_enable_interface(hard_iface, buff);
 
 unlock:
-	rtnl_unlock();
+	__rtnl_unlock();
 out:
 	batadv_hardif_free_ref(hard_iface);
 	return ret;
diff --git a/net/bridge/br_sysfs_br.c b/net/bridge/br_sysfs_br.c
index c5c0593..c122782 100644
--- a/net/bridge/br_sysfs_br.c
+++ b/net/bridge/br_sysfs_br.c
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ static ssize_t store_stp_state(struct device *d,
 	if (!rtnl_trylock())
 		return restart_syscall();
 	br_stp_set_enabled(br, val);
-	rtnl_unlock();
+	__rtnl_unlock();
 
 	return len;
 }
diff --git a/net/bridge/br_sysfs_if.c b/net/bridge/br_sysfs_if.c
index 13b36bd..d99f394 100644
--- a/net/bridge/br_sysfs_if.c
+++ b/net/bridge/br_sysfs_if.c
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@ static ssize_t brport_store(struct kobject * kobj,
 			if (ret == 0)
 				ret = count;
 		}
-		rtnl_unlock();
+		__rtnl_unlock();
 	}
 	return ret;
 }
diff --git a/net/core/rtnetlink.c b/net/core/rtnetlink.c
index fad649a..d95ba6f 100644
--- a/net/core/rtnetlink.c
+++ b/net/core/rtnetlink.c
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ void __rtnl_unlock(void)
 {
 	mutex_unlock(&rtnl_mutex);
 }
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(__rtnl_unlock);
 
 void rtnl_unlock(void)
 {
-- 
1.7.10.4

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