Date:   Thu, 23 Dec 2021 12:09:35 +0100
From:   Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
To:     David Vernet <void@manifault.com>
Cc:     live-patching@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
        jpoimboe@redhat.com, jikos@kernel.org, mbenes@suse.cz,
        joe.lawrence@redhat.com, corbet@lwn.net
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3] livepatch: Fix kobject refcount bug on
 klp_init_patch_early failure path
Message-ID: <YcRY723YKJmnMtGl@alley>
References: <20211221153930.137579-1-void@manifault.com>
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In-Reply-To: <20211221153930.137579-1-void@manifault.com>
Precedence: bulk

On Tue 2021-12-21 07:39:31, David Vernet wrote:
> When enabling a klp patch with klp_enable_patch(), klp_init_patch_early()
> is invoked to initialize the kobjects for the patch itself, as well as the
> 'struct klp_object' and 'struct klp_func' objects that comprise it.
> However, there are some error paths in klp_enable_patch() where some
> kobjects may have been initialized with kobject_init(), but an error code
> is still returned due to e.g. a 'struct klp_object' having a NULL funcs
> pointer.
> 
> In these paths, the initial reference of the kobject of the 'struct
> klp_patch' may never be released, along with one or more of its objects and
> their functions, as kobject_put() is not invoked on the cleanup path if
> klp_init_patch_early() returns an error code.
> 
> For example, if an object entry such as the following were added to the
> sample livepatch module's klp patch, it would cause the vmlinux klp_object,
> and its klp_func which updates 'cmdline_proc_show', to never be released:
> 
> static struct klp_object objs[] = {
> 	{
> 		/* name being NULL means vmlinux */
> 		.funcs = funcs,
> 	},
> 	{
> 		/* NULL funcs -- would cause reference leak */
> 		.name = "kvm",
> 	}, { }
> };
> 
> Without this change, if CONFIG_DEBUG_KOBJECT is enabled, and the sample klp
> patch is loaded, the kobjects (the patch, the vmlinux 'struct klp_object',
> and its func) are observed as initialized, but never released, in the dmesg
> log output.  With the change, these kobject references no longer fail to be
> released as the error case is properly handled before they are initialized.
> 
> Signed-off-by: David Vernet <void@manifault.com>

JFYI, the patch has been committed into livepatch.git, branch
for-5.17/fixes.

Best Regards,
Petr