Re: [PATCH] arch: x86: init hpet event_handler to noop

[Vladimir Davydov]

On 05/08/2012 12:26 AM, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Apr 2012, Vladimir Davydov wrote:
>
> > If hpet is enabled by hpet_late_init() - this usually occurs on systems
> > with buggy BIOS, which does not report about hpet presence through ACPI,
> > hpet_clockevent's event_handler can be left uninitialized by
> > clockevents_register_device() because of hpet_clockevent low rating (by
> > the time hpet_late_init() is called, high prio apic timers have already
> > been setup). The event_handler is then initialized a bit later by the
> > clocksource_done_booting() procedure.
> This explanation is worse than an oracle and aside of that, it's
> patently wrong.
>
> How the hell is clocksource_done_booting() related to the HPET
> clockevent mechanism?
>
> > Normally, timer interrupts should not be delivered between these two
> > calls, but if e.g. the kernel is booted using kexec, there might be some
> > pending interrupts from the previous kernel's context, which can lead to
> > a NULL pointer dereference in timer_interrupt().
> How is kexec related to this?
>
> And how should pending interrupts be not handled by the always first
> initialized PIT ?

From timer_interrupt() global_clock_event->event_handler is called.

global_clock_event is first initialized to i8253_clockevent (PIT), but 
from hpet_late_init() it is reinitialized as follows (see 
hpet_legacy_clockevent_register()):

clockevents_config_and_register(&hpet_clockevent, ...);
global_clock_event = &hpet_clockevent;

It turns out that clockevents_config_and_register() lefts 
global_clock_event->event_handler unintialized (NULL).

After digging deeper into clockevent_config_and_register(), I've found 
that the event_handler should be set inside tick_check_new_device(), but 
by the time we call it, high prio apic timers have already been setup 
(see setup_APIC_timer()) so that hpet is not initialized as a oneshot 
device. The attempt to set it as a broadcast device also fails since the 
broadcast cpumask is empty (see tick_check_broadcast_device()).

Thus, for some time we have event_handler=NULL, which can lead to a NULL 
ptr deref in timer_interrupt() if a pending interrupt is handled.

> > Avoid this by initializing hpet's event_handler to noop in its definition.
> "Avoid" is the correct term: You're avoiding to track down the root
> cause of the problem.
>
> This is fairy tale mode. I really love fairy tales, just not in the
> context of kernel code.
>
> Please provide proper proof why this can happen instead of some
> handwavy explanations.
>
> Thanks,
>
> 	tglx

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