Re: Kernel oops with 2.6.26, padlock and ipsec: probably problem with fpu state changes

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To: Wolfgang Walter <wolfgang.walter@...>
Cc: Siddha, Suresh B <suresh.b.siddha@...>, Herbert Xu <herbert@...>, netdev@vger.kernel.org <netdev@...>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org <linux-kernel@...>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...>, <viro@...>, <hpa@...>, <vegard.nossum@...>
Date: Friday, August 8, 2008 - 2:53 pm

On Fri, Aug 08, 2008 at 03:36:54AM -0700, Wolfgang Walter wrote:

Ok. Thanks. I think I can explain the failure:

These padlock instructions though don't use/touch SSE registers, but it behaves
similar to other SSE instructions. For example, it might cause DNA faults
when cr0.ts is set. While this is a spurious DNA trap, it might cause
problems with the recent fpu code changes.

This is the code sequence  that is probably causing this problem:

a) new app is getting exec'd and it is somewhere in between
   start_thread() and flush_old_exec() in the load_xyz_binary()

b) At pont "a", task's fpu state (like TS_USEDFPU, used_math() etc) is
   cleared.

c) Now we get an interrupt/softirq which starts using these encrypt/decrypt
   routines in the network stack. This generates a math fault (as
   cr0.ts is '1') which sets TS_USEDFPU and restores the math that is
   in the task's xstate.

d) Return to exec code path, which does start_thread() which does
   free_thread_xstate() and sets xstate pointer to NULL while
   the TS_USEDFPU is still set.

e) At the next context switch from the new exec'd task to another task,
   we have a scenarios where TS_USEDFPU is set but xstate pointer is null.
   This can cause an oops during unlazy_fpu() in __switch_to()

Now:

1) This should happen with or with out pre-emption. Viro also encountered
   similar problem with out CONFIG_PREEMPT.

2) kernel_fpu_begin() and kernel_fpu_end() will fix this problem, because
   kernel_fpu_begin() will manually do a clts() and won't run in to the
   situation of setting TS_USEDFPU in step "c" above.

3) This was working before the fpu changes, because its a spurious
   math fault  which doesn't corrupt any fpu/sse registers and the task's
   math state was always in an allocated state.

I propose to go with wolf's patch which add's kernel_fpu_begin() and
kernel_fpu_end() around these instructions. This is the correct fix
(unless there is something wrong in my above understanding).

thanks,
suresh
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Re: Kernel oops with 2.6.26, padlock and ipsec: probably pro..., Suresh Siddha, (Fri Aug 8, 2:53 pm)