If a CPU does not implement a global monitor for certain memory types,
then userspace can attempt a kernel DoS by issuing SWP instructions
targetting the problematic memory (for example, a framebuffer mapped
with non-cacheable attributes).
The SWP emulation code protects against these sorts of attacks by
checking for pending signals and potentially rescheduling when the STXR
instruction fails during the emulation. Whilst this is good for avoiding
livelock, it harms emulation of legitimate SWP instructions on CPUs
where forward progress is not guaranteed if there are memory accesses to
the same reservation granule (up to 2k) between the failing STXR and
the retry of the LDXR.
This patch solves the problem by retrying the STXR a bounded number of
times (4) before breaking out of the LL/SC loop and looking for
something else to do.
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Fixes: bd35a4adc4 ("arm64: Port SWP/SWPB emulation support from arm")
Reviewed-by: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
1c5b51dfb7