[PATCH v3] fix race copy_process() vs de_thread()

From: Oleg Nesterov
Date: Mon Aug 24 2009 - 12:32:22 EST


Spotted by Hiroshi Shimamoto who also provided the test-case below.

copy_process() pathes use signal->count as a reference counter, but
it is not. This test case

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <pthread.h>

void *null_thread(void *p)
{
for (;;)
sleep(1);

return NULL;
}

void *exec_thread(void *p)
{
execl("/bin/true", "/bin/true", NULL);

return null_thread(p);
}

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
for (;;) {
pid_t pid;
int ret, status;

pid = fork();
if (pid < 0)
break;

if (!pid) {
pthread_t tid;

pthread_create(&tid, NULL, exec_thread, NULL);
for (;;)
pthread_create(&tid, NULL, null_thread, NULL);
}

do {
ret = waitpid(pid, &status, 0);
} while (ret == -1 && errno == EINTR);
}

return 0;
}

quickly creates the unkillable task.

If copy_process(CLONE_THREAD) races with de_thread()
copy_signal()->atomic(signal->count) breaks the signal->notify_count
logic, and the execing thread can hang forever in kernel space.

Change copy_process() to increment count/live only when we know for
sure we can't fail. In this case the forked thread will take care
of its reference to signal correctly.

If copy_process() fails, check CLONE_THREAD flag. If it it set - do
nothing, the counters were not changed and current belongs to the same
thread group. If it is not set, ->signal must be released in any case
(and ->count must be == 1), the forked child is the only thread in the
thread group.

We need more cleanups here, in particular signal->count should not be
used by de_thread/__exit_signal at all. This patch only fixes the bug.

Reported-by: Hiroshi Shimamoto <h-shimamoto@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@xxxxxxxxxx>
---

kernel/fork.c | 20 +++++---------------
1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)

--- PU/kernel/fork.c~FORK_SIG_CNT 2009-08-04 19:48:28.000000000 +0200
+++ PU/kernel/fork.c 2009-08-24 17:39:59.000000000 +0200
@@ -816,11 +816,8 @@ static int copy_signal(unsigned long clo
{
struct signal_struct *sig;

- if (clone_flags & CLONE_THREAD) {
- atomic_inc(&current->signal->count);
- atomic_inc(&current->signal->live);
+ if (clone_flags & CLONE_THREAD)
return 0;
- }

sig = kmem_cache_alloc(signal_cachep, GFP_KERNEL);
tsk->signal = sig;
@@ -878,16 +875,6 @@ void __cleanup_signal(struct signal_stru
kmem_cache_free(signal_cachep, sig);
}

-static void cleanup_signal(struct task_struct *tsk)
-{
- struct signal_struct *sig = tsk->signal;
-
- atomic_dec(&sig->live);
-
- if (atomic_dec_and_test(&sig->count))
- __cleanup_signal(sig);
-}
-
static void copy_flags(unsigned long clone_flags, struct task_struct *p)
{
unsigned long new_flags = p->flags;
@@ -1240,6 +1227,8 @@ static struct task_struct *copy_process(
}

if (clone_flags & CLONE_THREAD) {
+ atomic_inc(&current->signal->count);
+ atomic_inc(&current->signal->live);
p->group_leader = current->group_leader;
list_add_tail_rcu(&p->thread_group, &p->group_leader->thread_group);
}
@@ -1282,7 +1271,8 @@ bad_fork_cleanup_mm:
if (p->mm)
mmput(p->mm);
bad_fork_cleanup_signal:
- cleanup_signal(p);
+ if (!(clone_flags & CLONE_THREAD))
+ __cleanup_signal(p->signal);
bad_fork_cleanup_sighand:
__cleanup_sighand(p->sighand);
bad_fork_cleanup_fs:

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