perf thread: Allow references to thread objects after machine__exit()

Threads are created when we either synthesize PERF_RECORD_FORK events
for pre-existing threads or when we receive PERF_RECORD_FORK events from
the kernel as new threads get created.

We then keep them in machine->threads[].entries rb trees till when we
receive a PERF_RECORD_EXIT, i.e. that thread terminated.

The thread object has a reference count that is grabbed when, for
instance, we keep that thread referenced in struct hist_entry, in 'perf
report' and 'perf top'.

When we receive a PERF_RECORD_EXIT we remove the thread object from the
rb tree and move it to the corresponding machine->threads[].dead list,
then we do a thread__put(), dropping the reference we had for keeping it
in the rb tree.

In thread__put() we were assuming that when the reference count hit zero
we should remove it from the dead list by simply doing a
list_del_init(&thread->node).

That works well when all the thread lifetime is during the machine that
has the list heads lifetime, since we know that we can do the
list_del_init() and it will update the 'dead' list_head.

But in 'perf sched lat' we were doing:

    machine__new() (via perf_session__new)

    process events, grabbing refcounts to keep those thread objects
    in 'perf sched' local data structures.

    machine__exit() (via perf_session__delete) which would delete the
    'dead' list heads.

    And then doing the final thread__put() for the refcounts 'perf sched'
    rightfully obtained for keeping those thread object references.

    b00m, since thread__put() would do the list_del_init() touching
    a dead dead list head.

Fix it by removing all the dead threads from machine->threads[].dead at
machine__exit(), since whatever is there should have refcounts taken by
things like 'perf sched lat', and make thread__put() check if the thread
is in a linked list before removing it from that list.

Reported-by: Wei Li <liwei391@huawei.com>
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20190508143648.8153-1-liwei391@huawei.com
Cc: Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@intel.com>
Cc: Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@kernel.org>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Zhipeng Xie <xiezhipeng1@huawei.com>
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20190704194355.GI10740@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>

1 files changed, 20 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/tools/perf/util/thread.c b/tools/perf/util/thread.c
index b413ba5b9835..7bfb740d2ede 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/thread.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/thread.c
@@ -125,10 +125,27 @@ void thread__put(struct thread *thread)
 {
 	if (thread && refcount_dec_and_test(&thread->refcnt)) {
 		/*
-		 * Remove it from the dead_threads list, as last reference
-		 * is gone.
+		 * Remove it from the dead threads list, as last reference is
+		 * gone, if it is in a dead threads list.
+		 *
+		 * We may not be there anymore if say, the machine where it was
+		 * stored was already deleted, so we already removed it from
+		 * the dead threads and some other piece of code still keeps a
+		 * reference.
+		 *
+		 * This is what 'perf sched' does and finally drops it in
+		 * perf_sched__lat(), where it calls perf_sched__read_events(),
+		 * that processes the events by creating a session and deleting
+		 * it, which ends up destroying the list heads for the dead
+		 * threads, but before it does that it removes all threads from
+		 * it using list_del_init().
+		 *
+		 * So we need to check here if it is in a dead threads list and
+		 * if so, remove it before finally deleting the thread, to avoid
+		 * an use after free situation.
 		 */
-		list_del_init(&thread->node);
+		if (!list_empty(&thread->node))
+			list_del_init(&thread->node);
 		thread__delete(thread);
 	}
 }