Re: [PATCH 1/4] exec: Fix a deadlock in ptrace

From: Bernd Edlinger
Date: Tue Mar 10 2020 - 11:17:33 EST


On 3/10/20 4:13 PM, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> Bernd Edlinger <bernd.edlinger@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
>> This fixes a deadlock in the tracer when tracing a multi-threaded
>> application that calls execve while more than one thread are running.
>>
>> I observed that when running strace on the gcc test suite, it always
>> blocks after a while, when expect calls execve, because other threads
>> have to be terminated. They send ptrace events, but the strace is no
>> longer able to respond, since it is blocked in vm_access.
>>
>> The deadlock is always happening when strace needs to access the
>> tracees process mmap, while another thread in the tracee starts to
>> execve a child process, but that cannot continue until the
>> PTRACE_EVENT_EXIT is handled and the WIFEXITED event is received:
>
> Overall this looks good. Mind if I change the subject to:
> "exec: Fix a deadlock in strace" ?
>

Sure, go ahead.

Thanks
Bernd.

> Eric
>
>
>>
>> strace D 0 30614 30584 0x00000000
>> Call Trace:
>> __schedule+0x3ce/0x6e0
>> schedule+0x5c/0xd0
>> schedule_preempt_disabled+0x15/0x20
>> __mutex_lock.isra.13+0x1ec/0x520
>> __mutex_lock_killable_slowpath+0x13/0x20
>> mutex_lock_killable+0x28/0x30
>> mm_access+0x27/0xa0
>> process_vm_rw_core.isra.3+0xff/0x550
>> process_vm_rw+0xdd/0xf0
>> __x64_sys_process_vm_readv+0x31/0x40
>> do_syscall_64+0x64/0x220
>> entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xa9
>>
>> expect D 0 31933 30876 0x80004003
>> Call Trace:
>> __schedule+0x3ce/0x6e0
>> schedule+0x5c/0xd0
>> flush_old_exec+0xc4/0x770
>> load_elf_binary+0x35a/0x16c0
>> search_binary_handler+0x97/0x1d0
>> __do_execve_file.isra.40+0x5d4/0x8a0
>> __x64_sys_execve+0x49/0x60
>> do_syscall_64+0x64/0x220
>> entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xa9
>>
>> This changes mm_access to use the new exec_update_mutex
>> instead of cred_guard_mutex.
>>
>> This patch is based on the following patch by Eric W. Biederman:
>> "[PATCH 0/5] Infrastructure to allow fixing exec deadlocks"
>> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/87v9ne5y4y.fsf_-_@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Bernd Edlinger <bernd.edlinger@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> ---
>> kernel/fork.c | 4 ++--
>> 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
>> index c12595a..5720ff3 100644
>> --- a/kernel/fork.c
>> +++ b/kernel/fork.c
>> @@ -1224,7 +1224,7 @@ struct mm_struct *mm_access(struct task_struct *task, unsigned int mode)
>> struct mm_struct *mm;
>> int err;
>>
>> - err = mutex_lock_killable(&task->signal->cred_guard_mutex);
>> + err = mutex_lock_killable(&task->signal->exec_update_mutex);
>> if (err)
>> return ERR_PTR(err);
>>
>> @@ -1234,7 +1234,7 @@ struct mm_struct *mm_access(struct task_struct *task, unsigned int mode)
>> mmput(mm);
>> mm = ERR_PTR(-EACCES);
>> }
>> - mutex_unlock(&task->signal->cred_guard_mutex);
>> + mutex_unlock(&task->signal->exec_update_mutex);
>>
>> return mm;
>> }