In the generic implementation of cmpxchg, cast the parameters to the size of the data prior to comparison. Otherwise, it is possible for the comparison to be done incorrectly in the case where the data size is smaller than the architecture register size. For example, on a 64-bit architecture, a 32-bit value is sign extended differently if it is typecast from an int to an unsigned long as compared to being loaded from memory via an unsigned pointer (u32 *). Given that the primary, or possibly only, use of cmpxchg is with 4 and 8 byte values, the incorrect comparison could only occur on 64-bit architectures that make use of the generic cmpxchg. Signed-off-by: Darius Rad <darius@xxxxxxxxxxxx> --- It does not appear that this is relevant to architectures that are in the kernel tree, since the generic cmpxchg is only ever used by some 32-bit architectures. This does impact the RISC-V architecture that is currently in development. Patch generated against 3.17-rc1. include/asm-generic/cmpxchg-local.h | 8 ++++---- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) --- linux-3.17-rc1.orig/include/asm-generic/cmpxchg-local.h 2014-08-16 12:40:26.000000000 -0400 +++ linux-3.17-rc1/include/asm-generic/cmpxchg-local.h 2014-08-22 14:26:59.280746090 -0400 @@ -25,19 +25,19 @@ static inline unsigned long __cmpxchg_lo raw_local_irq_save(flags); switch (size) { case 1: prev = *(u8 *)ptr; - if (prev == old) + if ((u8)prev == (u8)old) *(u8 *)ptr = (u8)new; break; case 2: prev = *(u16 *)ptr; - if (prev == old) + if ((u16)prev == (u16)old) *(u16 *)ptr = (u16)new; break; case 4: prev = *(u32 *)ptr; - if (prev == old) + if ((u32)prev == (u32)old) *(u32 *)ptr = (u32)new; break; case 8: prev = *(u64 *)ptr; - if (prev == old) + if ((u64)prev == (u64)old) *(u64 *)ptr = (u64)new; break; default: -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-arch" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html