Affected: Linux

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/damon/core: fix damon_call() vs kdamond_fn() exit race

Patch series "mm/damon/core: fix damon_call()/damos_walk() vs kdmond exit race".

damon_call() and damos_walk() can leak memory and/or deadlock when they race with kdamond terminations. Fix those.

This patch (of 2);

When kdamond_fn() main loop is finished, the function cancels all remaining damon_call() requests and unset the damon_ctx->kdamond so that API callers and API functions themselves can know the context is terminated. damon_call() adds the caller's request to the queue first. After that, it shows if the kdamond of the damon_ctx is still running (damon_ctx->kdamond is set). Only if the kdamond is running, damon_call() starts waiting for the kdamond's handling of the newly added request.

The damon_call() requests registration and damon_ctx->kdamond unset are protected by different mutexes, though. Hence, damon_call() could race with damon_ctx->kdamond unset, and result in deadlocks.

For example, let's suppose kdamond successfully finished the damon_call() requests cancelling. Right after that, damon_call() is called for the context. It registers the new request, and shows the context is still running, because damon_ctx->kdamond unset is not yet done. Hence the damon_call() caller starts waiting for the handling of the request. However, the kdamond is already on the termination steps, so it never handles the new request. As a r…