linux/include
Stefan Richter 93b37905f7 firewire: cdev: prevent race between first get_info ioctl and bus reset event queuing
Between open(2) of a /dev/fw* and the first FW_CDEV_IOC_GET_INFO
ioctl(2) on it, the kernel already queues FW_CDEV_EVENT_BUS_RESET events
to be read(2) by the client.  The get_info ioctl is practically always
issued right away after open, hence this condition only occurs if the
client opens during a bus reset, especially during a rapid series of bus
resets.

The problem with this condition is twofold:

  - These bus reset events carry the (as yet undocumented) @closure
    value of 0.  But it is not the kernel's place to choose closures;
    they are privat to the client.  E.g., this 0 value forced from the
    kernel makes it unsafe for clients to dereference it as a pointer to
    a closure object without NULL pointer check.

  - It is impossible for clients to determine the relative order of bus
    reset events from get_info ioctl(2) versus those from read(2),
    except in one way:  By comparison of closure values.  Again, such a
    procedure imposes complexity on clients and reduces freedom in use
    of the bus reset closure.

So, change the ABI to suppress queuing of bus reset events before the
first FW_CDEV_IOC_GET_INFO ioctl was issued by the client.

Note, this ABI change cannot be version-controlled.  The kernel cannot
distinguish old from new clients before the first FW_CDEV_IOC_GET_INFO
ioctl.

We will try to back-merge this change into currently maintained stable/
longterm series, and we only document the new behaviour.  The old
behavior is now considered a kernel bug, which it basically is.

Signed-off-by: Stefan Richter <stefanr@s5r6.in-berlin.de>
Cc: <stable@kernel.org>
2011-07-16 07:24:32 +02:00
..
acpi Fix common misspellings 2011-03-31 11:26:23 -03:00
asm-generic Merge branch 'for-linus2' of git://git.profusion.mobi/users/lucas/linux-2.6 2011-04-07 11:14:49 -07:00
crypto
drm drm: mm: fix debug output 2011-05-09 09:14:45 +10:00
keys libceph: Create a new key type "ceph". 2011-03-29 12:11:24 -07:00
linux firewire: cdev: prevent race between first get_info ioctl and bus reset event queuing 2011-07-16 07:24:32 +02:00
math-emu
media Merge branch 'v4l_for_linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mchehab/linux-2.6 2011-04-27 15:17:52 -07:00
mtd
net net/9p: nwname should be an unsigned int 2011-04-15 15:26:15 -05:00
pcmcia
rdma
rxrpc Fix common misspellings 2011-03-31 11:26:23 -03:00
scsi Fix common misspellings 2011-03-31 11:26:23 -03:00
sound Merge branch 'for-linus2' of git://git.profusion.mobi/users/lucas/linux-2.6 2011-04-07 11:14:49 -07:00
staging
target Fix common misspellings 2011-03-31 11:26:23 -03:00
trace block: make unplug timer trace event correspond to the schedule() unplug 2011-04-16 13:51:05 +02:00
video Fix common misspellings 2011-03-31 11:26:23 -03:00
xen Fix common misspellings 2011-03-31 11:26:23 -03:00
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