[PATCH] powerpc: Initialize local variable fdt to NULL in elf64_load()

Lakshmi Ramasubramanian nramas at linux.microsoft.com
Wed Apr 21 01:55:34 AEST 2021


On 4/20/21 8:47 AM, Rob Herring wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 20, 2021 at 10:04 AM Lakshmi Ramasubramanian
> <nramas at linux.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 4/20/21 7:42 AM, Lakshmi Ramasubramanian wrote:
>>> On 4/20/21 6:06 AM, Rob Herring wrote:
>>>> On Tue, Apr 20, 2021 at 12:20 AM Lakshmi Ramasubramanian
>>>> <nramas at linux.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On 4/19/21 10:00 PM, Dan Carpenter wrote:
>>>>>> On Tue, Apr 20, 2021 at 09:30:16AM +1000, Michael Ellerman wrote:
>>>>>>> Lakshmi Ramasubramanian <nramas at linux.microsoft.com> writes:
>>>>>>>> On 4/16/21 2:05 AM, Michael Ellerman wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Daniel Axtens <dja at axtens.net> writes:
>>>>>>>>>>> On 4/15/21 12:14 PM, Lakshmi Ramasubramanian wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Sorry - missed copying device-tree and powerpc mailing lists.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> There are a few "goto out;" statements before the local
>>>>>>>>>>>> variable "fdt"
>>>>>>>>>>>> is initialized through the call to
>>>>>>>>>>>> of_kexec_alloc_and_setup_fdt() in
>>>>>>>>>>>> elf64_load(). This will result in an uninitialized "fdt" being
>>>>>>>>>>>> passed
>>>>>>>>>>>> to kvfree() in this function if there is an error before the
>>>>>>>>>>>> call to
>>>>>>>>>>>> of_kexec_alloc_and_setup_fdt().
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> Initialize the local variable "fdt" to NULL.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I'm a huge fan of initialising local variables! But I'm
>>>>>>>>>> struggling to
>>>>>>>>>> find the code path that will lead to an uninit fdt being
>>>>>>>>>> returned...
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> The out label reads in part:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>     /* Make kimage_file_post_load_cleanup free the fdt buffer for
>>>>>>>>>> us. */
>>>>>>>>>>     return ret ? ERR_PTR(ret) : fdt;
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> As far as I can tell, any time we get a non-zero ret, we're
>>>>>>>>>> going to
>>>>>>>>>> return an error pointer rather than the uninitialised value...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> As Dan pointed out, the new code is in linux-next.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I have copied the new one below - the function doesn't return fdt,
>>>>>>>> but
>>>>>>>> instead sets it in the arch specific field (please see the link to
>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>> updated elf_64.c below).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/robh/linux.git/tree/arch/powerpc/kexec/elf_64.c?h=for-next
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> (btw, it does look like we might leak fdt if we have an error
>>>>>>>>>> after we
>>>>>>>>>> successfully kmalloc it.)
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Am I missing something? Can you link to the report for the
>>>>>>>>>> kernel test
>>>>>>>>>> robot or from Dan?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> /*
>>>>>>>>              * Once FDT buffer has been successfully passed to
>>>>>>>> kexec_add_buffer(),
>>>>>>>>              * the FDT buffer address is saved in image->arch.fdt.
>>>>>>>> In that
>>>>>>>> case,
>>>>>>>>              * the memory cannot be freed here in case of any other
>>>>>>>> error.
>>>>>>>>              */
>>>>>>>>             if (ret && !image->arch.fdt)
>>>>>>>>                     kvfree(fdt);
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>             return ret ? ERR_PTR(ret) : NULL;
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In case of an error, the memory allocated for fdt is freed unless
>>>>>>>> it has
>>>>>>>> already been passed to kexec_add_buffer().
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It feels like the root of the problem is that the kvfree of fdt is in
>>>>>>> the wrong place. It's only allocated later in the function, so the
>>>>>>> error
>>>>>>> path should reflect that. Something like the patch below.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> cheers
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> diff --git a/arch/powerpc/kexec/elf_64.c b/arch/powerpc/kexec/elf_64.c
>>>>>>> index 5a569bb51349..02662e72c53d 100644
>>>>>>> --- a/arch/powerpc/kexec/elf_64.c
>>>>>>> +++ b/arch/powerpc/kexec/elf_64.c
>>>>>>> @@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ static void *elf64_load(struct kimage *image,
>>>>>>> char *kernel_buf,
>>>>>>>        ret = setup_new_fdt_ppc64(image, fdt, initrd_load_addr,
>>>>>>>                                  initrd_len, cmdline);
>>>>>>>        if (ret)
>>>>>>> -            goto out;
>>>>>>> +            goto out_free_fdt;
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>        fdt_pack(fdt);
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> @@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ static void *elf64_load(struct kimage *image,
>>>>>>> char *kernel_buf,
>>>>>>>        kbuf.mem = KEXEC_BUF_MEM_UNKNOWN;
>>>>>>>        ret = kexec_add_buffer(&kbuf);
>>>>>>>        if (ret)
>>>>>>> -            goto out;
>>>>>>> +            goto out_free_fdt;
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>        /* FDT will be freed in arch_kimage_file_post_load_cleanup */
>>>>>>>        image->arch.fdt = fdt;
>>>>>>> @@ -140,18 +140,14 @@ static void *elf64_load(struct kimage *image,
>>>>>>> char *kernel_buf,
>>>>>>>        if (ret)
>>>>>>>                pr_err("Error setting up the purgatory.\n");
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> +    goto out;
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This will leak.  It would need to be something like:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>         if (ret) {
>>>>>>                 pr_err("Error setting up the purgatory.\n");
>>>>>>                 goto out_free_fdt;
>>>>>>         }
>>>>> Once "fdt" buffer is successfully passed to kexec_add_buffer() it cannot
>>>>> be freed here - it will be freed when the kexec cleanup function is
>>>>> called.
>>>>
>>>> That may be the case currently, but really if a function returns an
>>>> error it should have undone anything it did like memory allocations. I
>>>> don't think you should do that to fix this issue, but it would be a
>>>> good clean-up.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I agree - in case of an error the function should do a proper clean-up.
>>> Just to be clear - for now, I will leave this as is. Correct?
> 
> Yes.
okay.

> 
>>> In my patch, I will do the following changes:
>>>
>>>    => Free "fdt" when possible (as Michael had suggested in his patch)
>>>    => Zero out "elf_info" struct at the start of the function.
>>>
>>
>> Instead of zeroing out "elf_info", I think it would be better to return
>> an error immediately, instead of the "goto out;", if
>> kexec_build_elf_info() fails.
>>
>>      ret = kexec_build_elf_info(kernel_buf, kernel_len, &ehdr, &elf_info);
>>      if (ret)
>>        return ERR_PTR(ret);
> 
> I thought kexec_build_elf_info() can return an error and allocated
> memory, so that would leak memory.
> 

I looked at kexec_build_elf_info() more - it does free elf_info, if it 
allocated it but encountered an error after the allocation. So it does a 
proper clean-up in case of an error.

  -lakshmi




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