On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 08:10:59AM -0500, Gustavo A. R. Silva wrote: > It seems a spin_unlock is missing before return at line 532: return old. > > Addresses-Coverity-ID: 1470111 ("Missing unlock") > Fixes: 4f3911e76e19 ("vfs: Implement a filesystem superblock creation/configuration context") > Signed-off-by: Gustavo A. R. Silva <gustavo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> ... and that had been tested how, exactly? Because I would really like a reproducer or, short of that, a proof that one exists. Hell, I would settle for something that hits the codepath in question with that patch applied. "It seems" is not enough - it's a good starting point for investigating, but no more than that. [tl;dr - "it seems" is, indeed, no good. *IF* there's more to it (e.g. a reproducer), we have some other crap going on and need to investigate that, but even in that case, the patch is wrong] As for how to investigate that kind of thing... Look: The code in question is if (fc->user_ns != old->s_user_ns) { spin_unlock(&sb_lock); if (s) { up_write(&s->s_umount); destroy_unused_super(s); } return ERR_PTR(-EBUSY); } if (!grab_super(old)) goto retry; if (s) { up_write(&s->s_umount); destroy_unused_super(s); s = NULL; } return old; Your hypothesis is that we can get to that return old; with sb_lock held. That would almost certainly be a bad thing, since elsewhere in the same function we have spin_unlock(&sb_lock); get_filesystem(s->s_type); register_shrinker(&s->s_shrink); return s; which appears to return an object with sb_lock dropped, with no obvious way for a caller to tell one from another. Even if such a way existed (it does, actually), that kind of calling conventions would be highly bug-prone. The next question is, when would we get to that return old; with sb_lock held? We do, apparently, hold it before the if (fc->...) above (again, strictly speaking not proven yet, but that's the most likely assumption). So if grab_super(old) returns true and we are holding sb_lock, either we do have a problem, or something subtle is going on. The obvious next target of examination is grab_super(). Which comes with /** * grab_super - acquire an active reference * @s: reference we are trying to make active * * Tries to acquire an active reference. grab_super() is used when we * had just found a superblock in super_blocks or fs_type->fs_supers * and want to turn it into a full-blown active reference. grab_super() ^^^^^^^^^^^^ * is called with sb_lock held and drops it. Returns 1 in case of ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * success, 0 if we had failed (superblock contents was already dead or * dying when grab_super() had been called). Note that this is only * called for superblocks not in rundown mode (== ones still on ->fs_supers * of their type), so increment of ->s_count is OK here. */ and looking for references to sb_lock yields the underscored sentence. Now, if that is true (which is not guaranteed - comments can become stale), we do not need to drop sb_lock after the call of grab_super() - it's already been dropped by grab_super() itself. And looking at the actual code we have static int grab_super(struct super_block *s) __releases(sb_lock) { s->s_count++; spin_unlock(&sb_lock); ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^---------- dropped, indeed down_write(&s->s_umount); if ((s->s_flags & SB_BORN) && atomic_inc_not_zero(&s->s_active)) { put_super(s); return 1; } up_write(&s->s_umount); put_super(s); return 0; } ... and not regained, unless put_super() does something fishy. static void put_super(struct super_block *sb) { spin_lock(&sb_lock); __put_super(sb); spin_unlock(&sb_lock); } OK, put_super() definitely returns with sb_lock not held, and therefore so does grab_super(). In other words, the comment does match the reality and trying to drop sb_lock right after the call of grab_super() would be 100% wrong. That disproves your hypothesis. For the sake of completeness, let's finish the analysis of sget_fc() wrt sb_lock. struct super_block *sget_fc(struct fs_context *fc, int (*test)(struct super_block *, struct fs_context *), int (*set)(struct super_block *, struct fs_context *)) { if (!(fc->sb_flags & SB_KERNMOUNT) && fc->purpose != FS_CONTEXT_FOR_SUBMOUNT) { /* Don't allow mounting unless the caller has CAP_SYS_ADMIN * over the namespace. */ if (!(fc->fs_type->fs_flags & FS_USERNS_MOUNT) && !capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN)) return ERR_PTR(-EPERM); else if (!ns_capable(fc->user_ns, CAP_SYS_ADMIN)) return ERR_PTR(-EPERM); } retry: spin_lock(&sb_lock); OK, we definitely do not want to call that with sb_lock held - doing so would either return ERR_PTR(-EPERM) or deadlock. So the calling conventions include "caller is not holding sb_lock". If so, everything up to retry: should be executed without sb_lock held, and subsequent code is with sb_lock held. if (test) { hlist_for_each_entry(old, &fc->fs_type->fs_supers, s_instances) { if (!test(old, fc)) continue; 'test' callback should be callable with sb_lock held. Note that at least in case when it returns false it must not have dropped sb_lock - the list we are walking is protected by sb_lock. if (fc->user_ns != old->s_user_ns) { spin_unlock(&sb_lock); ... in which case we also want sb_lock not dropped by test() since we drop it ourselves. if (s) { up_write(&s->s_umount); destroy_unused_super(s); destroy_unused_super() is called without sb_lock here and examination shows that it doesn't touch sb_lock itself. } return ERR_PTR(-EBUSY); } ... and in this case we also want sb_lock not dropped by test() either, since grab_super() will drop it. if (!grab_super(old)) goto retry; we either go back to 'retry:' with sb_lock not held (same as in the case of reaching retry: without goto) or coninue to if (s) { up_write(&s->s_umount); destroy_unused_super(s); same as above, called without sb_lock, doesn't touch it. s = NULL; } return old; ... and we return without sb_lock held. } } Here (after the if (test) body) we do hold sb_lock if (!s) { spin_unlock(&sb_lock); drop and call alloc_super(), which doesn't touch sb_lock s = alloc_super(fc); if (!s) return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM); goto retry; ... and either return without sb_lock or go back to retry:, with the same conditions as on other paths leading there. Incidentally, since alloc_super() very clearly blocks (GFP_USER kzalloc the very first thing in there), the calling conventions for sget_fc() include not just "must not be holding sb_lock" but "must not be holding any spinlock". } s->s_fs_info = fc->s_fs_info; err = set(s, fc); OK, so 'set()' is also called under sb_lock. if (err) { s->s_fs_info = NULL; spin_unlock(&sb_lock); ... and at least in case of error must not drop it, since we'd do that ourselves. up_write(&s->s_umount); destroy_unused_super(s); return ERR_PTR(err); same as in earlier cases } fc->s_fs_info = NULL; s->s_type = fc->fs_type; strlcpy(s->s_id, s->s_type->name, sizeof(s->s_id)); list_add_tail(&s->s_list, &super_blocks); hlist_add_head(&s->s_instances, &s->s_type->fs_supers); spin_unlock(&sb_lock); OK, so 'set()' must not drop sb_lock in any cases. And from that point on sb_lock is not held (neither get_filesystem() nor register_shrinker() touch it) get_filesystem(s->s_type); register_shrinker(&s->s_shrink); return s; } So we arrive to the following: * sget_fc() must not be called with any spinlocks (sb_lock included) held. * in all cases it returns with sb_lock not held. * test() and set() callbacks are always called under sb_lock and should not drop it. Looking at the shape of that code strengthens the last one to "even drop-and-retake is not allowed". With that kind of loop over hlist, dropping and retaking sb_lock in test() might blow up. And as for set() callback, we clearly don't want to create a new instance when an existing one would satisfy the test() predicate. And dropping/retaking sb_lock would've allowed another caller to come and insert a new instance while our set() has not been holding sb_lock, ending up with just that once we return and get to hlist_add_head() there. In other words, * called without any spinlocks held * returns with no spinlocks held * callbacks are always called under sb_lock and must not touch it. Verifying that callers (and all possible callbacks) satisfy those rules is left as an exercise for reader...