Re: [PATCH V7 2/2] perf/x86: Reset the dirty counter to prevent the leak for an RDPMC task

From: Liang, Kan
Date: Fri May 14 2021 - 11:30:51 EST




On 5/14/2021 10:44 AM, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
On Thu, May 13, 2021 at 06:14:08PM -0400, Liang, Kan wrote:
On 5/13/2021 11:02 AM, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
On Thu, May 13, 2021 at 07:23:02AM -0700, kan.liang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

+ if (x86_pmu.sched_task && event->hw.target) {
+ atomic_inc(&event->pmu->sched_cb_usage);
+ local_irq_save(flags);
+ x86_pmu_clear_dirty_counters();
+ local_irq_restore(flags);
+ }

So what happens if our mmap() happens after we've already created two
(or more) threads in the process, all of who already have a counter (or
more) on?

Shouldn't this be something like?

That's not enough.

I implemented a test case as below:
- The main thread A creates a new thread B.
- Bind the thread A to CPU 0. Then the thread A opens a event, mmap, enable
the event, and sleep.
- Bind the thread B to CPU 1. Wait until the event in the thread A is
enabled. Then RDPMC can read the counters on CPU 1.

This?

Yes


A B

clone(CLONE_THREAD) --->
set_affine(0)
set_affine(1)
while (!event-enabled)
;
event = perf_event_open()
mmap(event)
ioctl(event, IOC_ENABLE); --->
RDPMC

sleep(n)
schedule(INTERRUPTIBLE)
/* idle */


In the x86_pmu_event_mapped(), we do on_each_cpu_mask(mm_cpumask(mm),
cr4_update_pce, NULL, 1);
The RDPMC from thread B on CPU 1 is not forbidden.
Since the counter is not created in thread B, the sched_task() never gets a
chance to be invoked. The dirty counter is not cleared.

Per-task counters from CPU1 that ran before B ran?

Yes


To fix it, I think we have to move the cr4_update_pce() to the context
switch, and update it only when the RDPMC task is scheduled. But it probably
brings some overhead.

We have CR4:PCE updates in the context switch path, see
switch_mm_irqs_off() -> cr4_update_pce_mm().

Doing the clear there might actually make sense and avoids this frobbing
of ->sched_task(). When we call cr4_update_pce_mm(), and @mm has rdpmc
on, clear dirty or something like that.

Worth a try.



Looks like a good place. Will try.

Thanks,
Kan