summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/locking/rt-mutex.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorShivank Garg <shivankg@amd.com>2026-08-22 19:22:05 +0000
committerVinod Koul <vkoul@kernel.org>2026-09-09 17:51:44 +0530
commite873c74132f0c5f1452816cd9bb26208f0bba1e1 (patch)
treecc1ce1567f5b982359331863ebd9da38741f8d2e /Documentation/locking/rt-mutex.rst
downloadlinux-stable-e873c74132f0c5f1452816cd9bb26208f0bba1e1.tar.gz
linux-stable-e873c74132f0c5f1452816cd9bb26208f0bba1e1.zip
dmaengine: fix use-after-free in dma_chan_put() and dma_release_channel()grafted
When dma_device_put() drops the last reference on chan->device->ref, dma_device_release() runs and may free the dma_device along with its channels. dma_chan_put() then still reads chan->device->owner via dma_chan_to_owner() for the trailing module_put(). KASAN catches it: slab-use-after-free in dma_chan_put+0x3e6/0x4c0 Read of size 8 by task insmod/6319 Freed by task 6319: kfree+0x225/0x470 dma_chan_put+0x395/0x4c0 dmaengine_put+0xf8/0x160 Cache the module owner in dma_chan_put() before the put so the trailing module_put() does not need chan->device. Fixes: 8ad342a86359 ("dmaengine: Add reference counting to dma_device struct") Suggested-by: Sashiko <sashiko-bot@kernel.org> Link: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260518-dmaengine-kref-fix-v1-1-4d6125048fb7@amd.com Reviewed-by: Frank Li <Frank.Li@nxp.com> Reviewed-by: Logan Gunthorpe <logang@deltatee.com> Signed-off-by: Shivank Garg <shivankg@amd.com> Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260822-dmaengine-kref-fix-v5-3-d4a4ee47d927@amd.com Signed-off-by: Vinod Koul <vkoul@kernel.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/locking/rt-mutex.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/locking/rt-mutex.rst77
1 files changed, 77 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/locking/rt-mutex.rst b/Documentation/locking/rt-mutex.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3b5097a38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/locking/rt-mutex.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+==================================
+RT-mutex subsystem with PI support
+==================================
+
+RT-mutexes with priority inheritance are used to support PI-futexes,
+which enable pthread_mutex_t priority inheritance attributes
+(PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT). [See Documentation/locking/pi-futex.rst for more details
+about PI-futexes.]
+
+This technology was developed in the -rt tree and streamlined for
+pthread_mutex support.
+
+Basic principles:
+-----------------
+
+RT-mutexes extend the semantics of simple mutexes by the priority
+inheritance protocol.
+
+A low priority owner of a rt-mutex inherits the priority of a higher
+priority waiter until the rt-mutex is released. If the temporarily
+boosted owner blocks on a rt-mutex itself it propagates the priority
+boosting to the owner of the other rt_mutex it gets blocked on. The
+priority boosting is immediately removed once the rt_mutex has been
+unlocked.
+
+This approach allows us to shorten the block of high-prio tasks on
+mutexes which protect shared resources. Priority inheritance is not a
+magic bullet for poorly designed applications, but it allows
+well-designed applications to use userspace locks in critical parts of
+an high priority thread, without losing determinism.
+
+The enqueueing of the waiters into the rtmutex waiter tree is done in
+priority order. For same priorities FIFO order is chosen. For each
+rtmutex, only the top priority waiter is enqueued into the owner's
+priority waiters tree. This tree too queues in priority order. Whenever
+the top priority waiter of a task changes (for example it timed out or
+got a signal), the priority of the owner task is readjusted. The
+priority enqueueing is handled by "pi_waiters".
+
+RT-mutexes are optimized for fastpath operations and have no internal
+locking overhead when locking an uncontended mutex or unlocking a mutex
+without waiters. The optimized fastpath operations require cmpxchg
+support. [If that is not available then the rt-mutex internal spinlock
+is used]
+
+The state of the rt-mutex is tracked via the owner field of the rt-mutex
+structure:
+
+lock->owner holds the task_struct pointer of the owner. Bit 0 is used to
+keep track of the "lock has waiters" state:
+
+ ============ ======= ================================================
+ owner bit0 Notes
+ ============ ======= ================================================
+ NULL 0 lock is free (fast acquire possible)
+ NULL 1 lock is free and has waiters and the top waiter
+ is going to take the lock [1]_
+ taskpointer 0 lock is held (fast release possible)
+ taskpointer 1 lock is held and has waiters [2]_
+ ============ ======= ================================================
+
+The fast atomic compare exchange based acquire and release is only
+possible when bit 0 of lock->owner is 0.
+
+.. [1] It also can be a transitional state when grabbing the lock
+ with ->wait_lock is held. To prevent any fast path cmpxchg to the lock,
+ we need to set the bit0 before looking at the lock, and the owner may
+ be NULL in this small time, hence this can be a transitional state.
+
+.. [2] There is a small time when bit 0 is set but there are no
+ waiters. This can happen when grabbing the lock in the slow path.
+ To prevent a cmpxchg of the owner releasing the lock, we need to
+ set this bit before looking at the lock.
+
+BTW, there is still technically a "Pending Owner", it's just not called
+that anymore. The pending owner happens to be the top_waiter of a lock
+that has no owner and has been woken up to grab the lock.