KCOV Remote uses two separate memory buffers, one private to the kernel space (kcov_remote_areas) and the second one shared between user and kernel space (kcov->area). After every pair of kcov_remote_start() and kcov_remote_stop(), the coverage data collected in the kcov_remote_areas is copied to kcov->area so the user can read the collected coverage data. This memcpy() is located in kcov_move_area().
The load/store pattern on the kernel-side [1] is: ``` /* dst_area === kcov->area, dst_area[0] is where the count is stored */ dst_len = READ_ONCE(*(unsigned long *)dst_area); ... memcpy(dst_entries, src_entries, ...); ... WRITE_ONCE(*(unsigned long *)dst_area, dst_len + entries_moved); ``` And for the user [2]: ``` /* cover is equivalent to kcov->area */ n = __atomic_load_n(&cover[0], __ATOMIC_RELAXED); ``` Without a write-memory barrier, the atomic load for the user can potentially read fresh values of the count stored at cover[0], but continue to read stale coverage data from the buffer itself. Hence, we recommend adding a write-memory barrier between the memcpy() and the WRITE_ONCE() in kcov_move_area(). [1] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/tree/kernel/kcov.c?h=master#n978 [2] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/tree/Documentation/dev-tools/kcov.rst#n364 Signed-off-by: Soham Bagchi <soham.bag...@utah.edu> --- kernel/kcov.c | 9 +++++++++ 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+) diff --git a/kernel/kcov.c b/kernel/kcov.c index 187ba1b80bd..f6ee6d7dc2c 100644 --- a/kernel/kcov.c +++ b/kernel/kcov.c @@ -978,6 +978,15 @@ static void kcov_move_area(enum kcov_mode mode, void *dst_area, memcpy(dst_entries, src_entries, bytes_to_move); entries_moved = bytes_to_move >> entry_size_log; + /* + * A write memory barrier is required here, to ensure + * that the writes from the memcpy() are visible before + * the count is updated. Without this, it is possible for + * a user to observe a new count value but stale + * coverage data. + */ + smp_wmb(); + switch (mode) { case KCOV_MODE_TRACE_PC: WRITE_ONCE(*(unsigned long *)dst_area, dst_len + entries_moved); -- 2.34.1
