In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/rds: use wq_has_sleeper() in release_in_xmit()
release_in_xmit() clears RDS_IN_XMIT with clear_bit_unlock() and then
checks waitqueue_active() to decide whether anyone needs waking.
clear_bit_unlock() is only a release operation: it orders the
critical section before the bit clear, but does not order the
subsequent plain load of the wait queue head after it. The waiter
side does the mirror image – it adds itself to the wait queue and
then tests the bit. That is the classic store-buffering pattern: the
releasing CPU can read the wait queue as empty while the waiting CPU
still reads the bit as set, so the sleeper is never woken.
The waiters are rds_conn_shutdown() and rds_tcp_reset_callbacks(),
both in uninterruptible wait_event() with no timeout. A lost wake-up
strands the shutdown worker on its single-threaded workqueue until
some other sender releases the bit again – and on a connection that
is being torn down precisely because it failed, there may never be
another sender.
The barrier used to be there: release_in_xmit() did clear_bit()
followed by smp_mb__after_atomic() until commit 1422f28826d2 (“rds:
introduce acquire/release ordering in acquire/release_in_xmit()”)
folded both into clear_bit_unlock(), which strengthened the lock
hand-off but silently dropped the full barrier the wake-up check
depends on. The refill counterpart, release_refill() in
net/rds/ib_recv.c, still carries its smp_mb__after_atomic() for
exactly this reason.
Use wq_has_sleeper(), which is waitqueue_active() preceded by the
required full barrier.
