Re: [PATCH RFC] pid: make setpgid() system call use RCU read-side critical section

[Jiri Slaby <jslaby@suse.cz>]

On 09/10/2010 12:15 AM, Oleg Nesterov wrote:
> On 08/30, Jiri Slaby wrote:
>>> --- a/kernel/sys.c
>>> +++ b/kernel/sys.c
>>> @@ -938,6 +938,7 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE2(setpgid, pid_t, pid, pid_t, pgid)
>>>  	write_lock_irq(&tasklist_lock);
>>>
>>>  	err = -ESRCH;
>>> +	rcu_read_lock();
>>>  	p = find_task_by_vpid(pid);
>>
>> AFAICT the missing lock doesn't harm due to the write_lock of tasklist
>> above. But is probably a good thing to do anyway.
> 
> The problem is, find_task_by_vpid() is not safe without RCU. It is not
> that the returned task_struct can't go away, find_pid_ns() itself is
> not safe. This is because the failing copy_process() calls free_pid()
> without tasklist_lock and modifies pid_hash[] list.

That said, it (950eaaca681c4) should probably go into stable. (Apply to
all 32-35 whichever are maintained currently.)

thanks,
-- 
js
suse labs