4.4-stable review patch. If anyone has any objections, please let me know. ------------------ From: Nicholas Bellinger <nab@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> commit ba80aa909c99802c428682c352b0ee0baac0acd3 upstream. This patch closes a long standing race in configfs between the creation of a new symlink in create_link(), while the symlink target's config_item is being concurrently removed via configfs_rmdir(). This can happen because the symlink target's reference is obtained by config_item_get() in create_link() before the CONFIGFS_USET_DROPPING bit set by configfs_detach_prep() during configfs_rmdir() shutdown is actually checked.. This originally manifested itself on ppc64 on v4.8.y under heavy load using ibmvscsi target ports with Novalink API: [ 7877.289863] rpadlpar_io: slot U8247.22L.212A91A-V1-C8 added [ 7879.893760] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 7879.893768] WARNING: CPU: 15 PID: 17585 at ./include/linux/kref.h:46 config_item_get+0x7c/0x90 [configfs] [ 7879.893811] CPU: 15 PID: 17585 Comm: targetcli Tainted: G O 4.8.17-customv2.22 #12 [ 7879.893812] task: c00000018a0d3400 task.stack: c0000001f3b40000 [ 7879.893813] NIP: d000000002c664ec LR: d000000002c60980 CTR: c000000000b70870 [ 7879.893814] REGS: c0000001f3b43810 TRAP: 0700 Tainted: G O (4.8.17-customv2.22) [ 7879.893815] MSR: 8000000000029033 <SF,EE,ME,IR,DR,RI,LE> CR: 28222242 XER: 00000000 [ 7879.893820] CFAR: d000000002c664bc SOFTE: 1 GPR00: d000000002c60980 c0000001f3b43a90 d000000002c70908 c0000000fbc06820 GPR04: c0000001ef1bd900 0000000000000004 0000000000000001 0000000000000000 GPR08: 0000000000000000 0000000000000001 d000000002c69560 d000000002c66d80 GPR12: c000000000b70870 c00000000e798700 c0000001f3b43ca0 c0000001d4949d40 GPR16: c00000014637e1c0 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 c0000000f2392940 GPR20: c0000001f3b43b98 0000000000000041 0000000000600000 0000000000000000 GPR24: fffffffffffff000 0000000000000000 d000000002c60be0 c0000001f1dac490 GPR28: 0000000000000004 0000000000000000 c0000001ef1bd900 c0000000f2392940 [ 7879.893839] NIP [d000000002c664ec] config_item_get+0x7c/0x90 [configfs] [ 7879.893841] LR [d000000002c60980] check_perm+0x80/0x2e0 [configfs] [ 7879.893842] Call Trace: [ 7879.893844] [c0000001f3b43ac0] [d000000002c60980] check_perm+0x80/0x2e0 [configfs] [ 7879.893847] [c0000001f3b43b10] [c000000000329770] do_dentry_open+0x2c0/0x460 [ 7879.893849] [c0000001f3b43b70] [c000000000344480] path_openat+0x210/0x1490 [ 7879.893851] [c0000001f3b43c80] [c00000000034708c] do_filp_open+0xfc/0x170 [ 7879.893853] [c0000001f3b43db0] [c00000000032b5bc] do_sys_open+0x1cc/0x390 [ 7879.893856] [c0000001f3b43e30] [c000000000009584] system_call+0x38/0xec [ 7879.893856] Instruction dump: [ 7879.893858] 409d0014 38210030 e8010010 7c0803a6 4e800020 3d220000 e94981e0 892a0000 [ 7879.893861] 2f890000 409effe0 39200001 992a0000 <0fe00000> 4bffffd0 60000000 60000000 [ 7879.893866] ---[ end trace 14078f0b3b5ad0aa ]--- To close this race, go ahead and obtain the symlink's target config_item reference only after the existing CONFIGFS_USET_DROPPING check succeeds. This way, if configfs_rmdir() wins create_link() will return -ENONET, and if create_link() wins configfs_rmdir() will return -EBUSY. Reported-by: Bryant G. Ly <bryantly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Tested-by: Bryant G. Ly <bryantly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Nicholas Bellinger <nab@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@xxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- fs/configfs/symlink.c | 3 +-- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 2 deletions(-) --- a/fs/configfs/symlink.c +++ b/fs/configfs/symlink.c @@ -83,14 +83,13 @@ static int create_link(struct config_ite ret = -ENOMEM; sl = kmalloc(sizeof(struct configfs_symlink), GFP_KERNEL); if (sl) { - sl->sl_target = config_item_get(item); spin_lock(&configfs_dirent_lock); if (target_sd->s_type & CONFIGFS_USET_DROPPING) { spin_unlock(&configfs_dirent_lock); - config_item_put(item); kfree(sl); return -ENOENT; } + sl->sl_target = config_item_get(item); list_add(&sl->sl_list, &target_sd->s_links); spin_unlock(&configfs_dirent_lock); ret = configfs_create_link(sl, parent_item->ci_dentry,