Re: [KVM PATCH v5 3/4] KVM: Fix races in irqfd using neweventfd_kref_get interface

From: Michael S. Tsirkin
Date: Sun Jun 28 2009 - 09:19:49 EST


On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 08:50:28AM -0400, Gregory Haskins wrote:
> Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 09:28:27AM -0400, Gregory Haskins wrote:
> >
> >> @@ -65,25 +134,39 @@ irqfd_wakeup(wait_queue_t *wait, unsigned mode, int sync, void *key)
> >> unsigned long flags = (unsigned long)key;
> >>
> >> /*
> >> - * Assume we will be called with interrupts disabled
> >> + * Called with interrupts disabled
> >> */
> >> if (flags & POLLIN)
> >> - /*
> >> - * Defer the IRQ injection until later since we need to
> >> - * acquire the kvm->lock to do so.
> >> - */
> >> + /* An event has been signaled, inject an interrupt */
> >> schedule_work(&irqfd->inject);
> >>
> >> if (flags & POLLHUP) {
> >> - /*
> >> - * for now, just remove ourselves from the list and let
> >> - * the rest dangle. We will fix this up later once
> >> - * the races in eventfd are fixed
> >> - */
> >> + /* The eventfd is closing, detach from KVM */
> >> + struct kvm *kvm = irqfd->kvm;
> >> + unsigned long flags;
> >> +
> >> __remove_wait_queue(irqfd->wqh, &irqfd->wait);
> >> - irqfd->wqh = NULL;
> >> +
> >> + spin_lock_irqsave(&kvm->irqfds.lock, flags);
> >> +
> >> + if (irqfd->active) {
> >> + /*
> >> + * If the item is still active we can be sure that
> >> + * no-one else is trying to shutdown this object at
> >> + * the same time.
> >> + *
> >> + * Defer the shutdown to a thread so we can flush
> >> + * all remaining inject jobs. We use a slow-work
> >> + * item to prevent a deadlock against the work-queue
> >> + */
> >> + irqfd_deactivate(irqfd);
> >> + slow_work_enqueue(&irqfd->shutdown);
> >>
> >
> > Greg, in your patch for slow-work module removal, you write:
> > "Callers must ensure that their module has at least
> > one reference held while the work is enqueued."
> > Where does this guarantee come from, in this case?
> >
> The general guarantee comes from the fact that modules naturally have to
> have a reference to be able to call the enqueue function to begin with,
> or the calling function was already racy. In this particular case, we
> can guarantee that the kvm vm fd is held while our slow-work is active,
> and all slow work is flushed before it is released. (I guess I am
> assuming that VFS takes a module reference when an fd is opened, but I
> have not verified that it actually does. If it doesn't, I suppose KVM
> is already racy w.r.t. unloading, independent of my patches)
>
> -Greg
>

that could be the case, as we have, for example:

static struct file_operations kvm_vm_fops = {
.release = kvm_vm_release,
.unlocked_ioctl = kvm_vm_ioctl,
.compat_ioctl = kvm_vm_ioctl,
.mmap = kvm_vm_mmap,
};

with no owner field.

Avi, shouldn't we initialize the owner field to prevent
kvm module from going away while files are open?

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