• Paul Jackson's avatar
    cpuset: zero malloc - fix for old cpusets · 3e903e7b
    Paul Jackson authored
    The cpuset code to present a list of tasks using a cpuset to user space could
    write to an array that it had kmalloc'd, after a kmalloc request of zero size.
    
    The problem was that the code didn't check for writes past the allocated end
    of the array until -after- the first write.
    
    This is a race condition that is likely rare -- it would only show up if a
    cpuset went from being empty to having a task in it, during the brief time
    between the allocation and the first write.
    
    Prior to roughly 2.6.22 kernels, this was also a benign problem, because a
    zero kmalloc returned a few usable bytes anyway, and no harm was done with the
    bogus write.
    
    With the 2.6.22 kernel changes to make issue a warning if code tries to write
    to the location returned from a zero size allocation, this problem is no
    longer benign.  This cpuset code would occassionally trigger that warning.
    
    The fix is trivial -- check before storing into the array, not after, whether
    the array is big enough to hol...
    3e903e7b
cpuset.c 79 KB