Re: [RFC] kcore:change kcore_read to make sure the kernel read is safe

[Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>]

On Tue, 4 Aug 2015 11:37:57 +0800 yalin wang <yalin.wang2010@gmail.com> wrote:

> This change kcore_read() to use __copy_from_user_inatomic() to
> copy data from kernel address, because kern_addr_valid() just make sure
> page table is valid during call it, whne it return, the page table may
> change, for example, like set_fixmap() function will change kernel page
> table, then maybe trigger kernel crash if encounter this unluckily.

The changelog is a bit hard to follow.  How does this version look?

: read_kcore() does a copy_to_user() from kernel memory.  This could cause a
: crash if the source (kernel) address is concurrently unmapped via, say,
: set_fixmap().  The kern_addr_valid() check is racy and won't reliably
: prevent this.
: 
: Change kcore_read() to use __copy_from_user_inatomic() via a temporary
: buffer to catch such situations.

What actually happens when copy_to_user() gets a fault on the source
address?  It *could* handle it and return -EFAULT.  I forget...

Also...  what is special about this particular copy_to_user()?  Isn't
every copy_to_user() in the kernel vulnerable to a concurrent
set_fixmap()?  Is it that only read_kcore() will read pages which are
subject to set_fixmap() alteration?

> --- a/fs/proc/kcore.c
> +++ b/fs/proc/kcore.c
> @@ -86,8 +86,8 @@ static size_t get_kcore_size(int *nphdr, size_t *elf_buflen)
>  			size = try;
>  		*nphdr = *nphdr + 1;
>  	}
> -	*elf_buflen =	sizeof(struct elfhdr) + 
> -			(*nphdr + 2)*sizeof(struct elf_phdr) + 
> +	*elf_buflen =	sizeof(struct elfhdr) +
> +			(*nphdr + 2)*sizeof(struct elf_phdr) +

Unrelated whitespace fixes really shouldn't be in here.  They don't
bother me too much, but some people get upset ;)

>  			3 * ((sizeof(struct elf_note)) +
>  			     roundup(sizeof(CORE_STR), 4)) +
>  			roundup(sizeof(struct elf_prstatus), 4) +
> @@ -435,6 +435,7 @@ read_kcore(struct file *file, char __user *buffer, size_t buflen, loff_t *fpos)
>  	size_t elf_buflen;
>  	int nphdr;
>  	unsigned long start;
> +	unsigned long page = 0;

"page" isn't a very good name - when we see that identifier we expect
it to be a `struct page *'.  Maybe call it copy_buf or something.

(And incoming argument "buffer" was poorly named.  "buffer" implies some
temporary intermediate thing, which is inappropriate here!)

>  	read_lock(&kclist_lock);
>  	size = get_kcore_size(&nphdr, &elf_buflen);
> @@ -485,7 +486,7 @@ read_kcore(struct file *file, char __user *buffer, size_t buflen, loff_t *fpos)
>  	start = kc_offset_to_vaddr(*fpos - elf_buflen);
>  	if ((tsz = (PAGE_SIZE - (start & ~PAGE_MASK))) > buflen)
>  		tsz = buflen;
> -		
> +
>  	while (buflen) {
>  		struct kcore_list *m;
>  
> @@ -515,15 +516,32 @@ read_kcore(struct file *file, char __user *buffer, size_t buflen, loff_t *fpos)
>  		} else {
>  			if (kern_addr_valid(start)) {

Do we still need the (racy) kern_addr_valid() test?  The code should
work OK if this is removed?

>  				unsigned long n;
> +				mm_segment_t old_fs = get_fs();
> +
> +				if (page == 0) {
> +					page = __get_free_page(GFP_KERNEL);
> +					if (page == 0)
> +						return -ENOMEM;
>  
> -				n = copy_to_user(buffer, (char *)start, tsz);
> +				}
> +				set_fs(KERNEL_DS);
> +				pagefault_disable();
> +				n = __copy_from_user_inatomic((void *)page,
> +					(__force const void __user *)start,
> +					tsz);
> +				pagefault_enable();
> +				set_fs(old_fs);

We should have a code comment in here telling people what's going on. 
A concurrent set_fixmap() on the source memory is unexpected!

> +				if (n)
> +					memset((void *)page + tsz - n, 0, n);
> +
> +				n = copy_to_user(buffer, (char *)page, tsz);
>  				/*
>  				 * We cannot distinguish between fault on source
>  				 * and fault on destination. When this happens
>  				 * we clear too and hope it will trigger the
>  				 * EFAULT again.
>  				 */
> -				if (n) { 
> +				if (n) {
>  					if (clear_user(buffer + tsz - n,
>  								n))
>  						return -EFAULT;
> @@ -540,7 +558,7 @@ read_kcore(struct file *file, char __user *buffer, size_t buflen, loff_t *fpos)
>  		start += tsz;
>  		tsz = (buflen > PAGE_SIZE ? PAGE_SIZE : buflen);
>  	}
> -
> +	free_page(page);
>  	return acc;
>  }