• John Ogness's avatar
    printk: Reduce console_unblank() usage in unsafe scenarios · 7b23a66d
    John Ogness authored
    A semaphore is not NMI-safe, even when using down_trylock(). Both
    down_trylock() and up() are using internal spinlocks and up()
    might even call wake_up_process().
    
    In the panic() code path it gets even worse because the internal
    spinlocks of the semaphore may have been taken by a CPU that has
    been stopped.
    
    To reduce the risk of deadlocks caused by the console semaphore in
    the panic path, make the following changes:
    
    - First check if any consoles have implemented the unblank()
      callback. If not, then there is no reason to take the console
      semaphore anyway. (This check is also useful for the non-panic
      path since the locking/unlocking of the console lock can be
      quite expensive due to console printing.)
    
    - If the panic path is in NMI context, bail out without attempting
      to take the console semaphore or calling any unblank() callbacks.
      Bailing out is acceptable because console_unblank() would already
      bail out if the console semaphore is contended. The alternative of
      ignoring the console semaphore and calling the unblank() callbacks
      anyway is a bad idea because these callbacks are also not NMI-safe.
    
    If consoles with unblank() callbacks exist and console_unblank() is
    called from a non-NMI panic context, it will still attempt a
    down_trylock(). This could still result in a deadlock if one of the
    stopped CPUs is holding the semaphore internal spinlock. But this
    is a risk that the kernel has been (and continues to be) willing
    to take.
    Signed-off-by: default avatarJohn Ogness <john.ogness@linutronix.de>
    Reviewed-by: default avatarSergey Senozhatsky <senozhatsky@chromium.org>
    Reviewed-by: default avatarPetr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarPetr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
    Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230717194607.145135-3-john.ogness@linutronix.de
    7b23a66d
printk.c 111 KB