From: Nick Piggin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
unlock_buffer(), like unlock_page(), must not clear the lock without
ensuring that the critical section is closed.
Mingming later sent the same patch, saying:
We are running SDET benchmark and saw double free issue for ext3 extended
attributes block, which complains the same xattr block already being freed (in
ext3_xattr_release_block()). The problem could also been triggered by
multiple threads loop untar/rm a kernel tree.
The race is caused by missing a memory barrier at unlock_buffer() before the
lock bit being cleared, resulting in possible concurrent h_refcounter update.
That causes a reference counter leak, then later leads to the double free that
we have seen.
Inside unlock_buffer(), there is a memory barrier is placed *after* the lock
bit is being cleared, however, there is no memory barrier *before* the bit is
cleared. On some arch the h_refcount update instruction and the clear bit
instruction could be reordered, thus leave the critical section re-entered.
The race is like this: For example, if the h_refcount is initialized as 1,
cpu 0: cpu1
-------------------------------------- -----------------------------------
lock_buffer() /* test_and_set_bit */
clear_buffer_locked(bh);
lock_buffer() /* test_and_set_bit */
h_refcount = h_refcount+1; /* = 2*/ h_refcount = h_refcount + 1; /*= 2 */
clear_buffer_locked(bh);
.... ......
We lost a h_refcount here. We need a memory barrier before the buffer head
lock bit being cleared to force the order of the two writes. Please apply.
Signed-off-by: Nick Piggin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: Mingming Cao <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---
fs/buffer.c | 1 +
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
--- linux-2.6.20.1.orig/fs/buffer.c
+++ linux-2.6.20.1/fs/buffer.c
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(__lock_buffer);
void fastcall unlock_buffer(struct buffer_head *bh)
{
+ smp_mb__before_clear_bit();
clear_buffer_locked(bh);
smp_mb__after_clear_bit();
wake_up_bit(&bh->b_state, BH_Lock);
--
-
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