tty: Fix recursive deadlock in tty_perform_flush()
authorPeter Hurley <peter@hurleysoftware.com>
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:44:45 +0000 (16:44 -0400)
committerGreg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Mon, 18 Mar 2013 23:52:24 +0000 (16:52 -0700)
commite7f3880cd9b98c5bf9391ae7acdec82b75403776
treecb8a2d9cff9d756ea7d0947ad58318a65b218ee0
parentbe3971166d93a401105952672dab2eac6542cb57
tty: Fix recursive deadlock in tty_perform_flush()

tty_perform_flush() can deadlock when called while holding
a line discipline reference. By definition, all ldisc drivers
hold a ldisc reference, so calls originating from ldisc drivers
must not block for a ldisc reference.

The deadlock can occur when:
  CPU 0                    |  CPU 1
                           |
tty_ldisc_ref(tty)         |
....                       | <line discipline halted>
tty_ldisc_ref_wait(tty)    |
                           |

CPU 0 cannot progess because it cannot obtain an ldisc reference
with the line discipline has been halted (thus no new references
are granted).
CPU 1 cannot progress because an outstanding ldisc reference
has not been released.

An in-tree call-tree audit of tty_perform_flush() [1] shows 5
ldisc drivers calling tty_perform_flush() indirectly via
n_tty_ioctl_helper() and 2 ldisc drivers calling directly.
A single tty driver safely uses the function.

[1]
Recursive usage:

/* These functions are line discipline ioctls and thus
 * recursive wrt line discipline references */

tty_perform_flush() - ./drivers/tty/tty_ioctl.c
    n_tty_ioctl_helper()
        hci_uart_tty_ioctl(default) - drivers/bluetooth/hci_ldisc.c (N_HCI)
        n_hdlc_tty_ioctl(default) - drivers/tty/n_hdlc.c (N_HDLC)
        gsmld_ioctl(default) - drivers/tty/n_gsm.c (N_GSM0710)
        n_tty_ioctl(default) - drivers/tty/n_tty.c (N_TTY)
        gigaset_tty_ioctl(default) - drivers/isdn/gigaset/ser-gigaset.c (N_GIGASET_M101)
    ppp_synctty_ioctl(TCFLSH) - drivers/net/ppp/pps_synctty.c
    ppp_asynctty_ioctl(TCFLSH) - drivers/net/ppp/ppp_async.c

Non-recursive use:

tty_perform_flush() - drivers/tty/tty_ioctl.c
    ipw_ioctl(TCFLSH) - drivers/tty/ipwireless/tty.c
       /* This function is a tty i/o ioctl method, which
        * is invoked by tty_ioctl() */

Signed-off-by: Peter Hurley <peter@hurleysoftware.com>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
drivers/net/ppp/ppp_async.c
drivers/net/ppp/ppp_synctty.c
drivers/tty/tty_ioctl.c