summary refs log tree commit diff
path: root/arch/um/kernel
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorEric W. Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>2022-04-11 11:40:14 -0500
committerEric W. Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>2022-05-06 14:49:44 -0500
commit343f4c49f2438d8920f1f76fa823ee59b91f02e4 (patch)
treedc166615f16abdd7242245bfe3cc8fd69076a8d1 /arch/um/kernel
parent3123109284176b1532874591f7c81f3837bbdc17 (diff)
downloadlinux-343f4c49f2438d8920f1f76fa823ee59b91f02e4.tar.gz
kthread: Don't allocate kthread_struct for init and umh
If kthread_is_per_cpu runs concurrently with free_kthread_struct the
kthread_struct that was just freed may be read from.

This bug was introduced by commit 40966e316f86 ("kthread: Ensure
struct kthread is present for all kthreads").  When kthread_struct
started to be allocated for all tasks that have PF_KTHREAD set.  This
in turn required the kthread_struct to be freed in kernel_execve and
violated the assumption that kthread_struct will have the same
lifetime as the task.

Looking a bit deeper this only applies to callers of kernel_execve
which is just the init process and the user mode helper processes.
These processes really don't want to be kernel threads but are for
historical reasons.  Mostly that copy_thread does not know how to take
a kernel mode function to the process with for processes without
PF_KTHREAD or PF_IO_WORKER set.

Solve this by not allocating kthread_struct for the init process and
the user mode helper processes.

This is done by adding a kthread member to struct kernel_clone_args.
Setting kthread in fork_idle and kernel_thread.  Adding
user_mode_thread that works like kernel_thread except it does not set
kthread.  In fork only allocating the kthread_struct if .kthread is set.

I have looked at kernel/kthread.c and since commit 40966e316f86
("kthread: Ensure struct kthread is present for all kthreads") there
have been no assumptions added that to_kthread or __to_kthread will
not return NULL.

There are a few callers of to_kthread or __to_kthread that assume a
non-NULL struct kthread pointer will be returned.  These functions are
kthread_data(), kthread_parmme(), kthread_exit(), kthread(),
kthread_park(), kthread_unpark(), kthread_stop().  All of those functions
can reasonably expected to be called when it is know that a task is a
kthread so that assumption seems reasonable.

Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Fixes: 40966e316f86 ("kthread: Ensure struct kthread is present for all kthreads")
Reported-by: Максим Кутявин <maximkabox13@gmail.com>
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20220506141512.516114-1-ebiederm@xmission.com
Signed-off-by: "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@xmission.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'arch/um/kernel')
0 files changed, 0 insertions, 0 deletions