Linux kernel source tree
Go to file
Eduard Zingerman 408fcf946b bpf: free verifier states when they are no longer referenced
When fixes from patches 1 and 3 are applied, Patrick Somaru reported
an increase in memory consumption for sched_ext iterator-based
programs hitting 1M instructions limit. For example, 2Gb VMs ran out
of memory while verifying a program. Similar behaviour could be
reproduced on current bpf-next master.

Here is an example of such program:

    /* verification completes if given 16G or RAM,
     * final env->free_list size is 369,960 entries.
     */
    SEC("raw_tp")
    __flag(BPF_F_TEST_STATE_FREQ)
    __success
    int free_list_bomb(const void *ctx)
    {
        volatile char buf[48] = {};
        unsigned i, j;

        j = 0;
        bpf_for(i, 0, 10) {
            /* this forks verifier state:
             * - verification of current path continues and
             *   creates a checkpoint after 'if';
             * - verification of forked path hits the
             *   checkpoint and marks it as loop_entry.
             */
            if (bpf_get_prandom_u32())
                asm volatile ("");
            /* this marks 'j' as precise, thus any checkpoint
             * created on current iteration would not be matched
             * on the next iteration.
             */
            buf[j++] = 42;
            j %= ARRAY_SIZE(buf);
        }
        asm volatile (""::"r"(buf));
        return 0;
    }

Memory consumption increased due to more states being marked as loop
entries and eventually added to env->free_list.

This commit introduces logic to free states from env->free_list during
verification. A state in env->free_list can be freed if:
- it has no child states;
- it is not used as a loop_entry.

This commit:
- updates bpf_verifier_state->used_as_loop_entry to be a counter
  that tracks how many states use this one as a loop entry;
- adds a function maybe_free_verifier_state(), which:
  - frees a state if its ->branches and ->used_as_loop_entry counters
    are both zero;
  - if the state is freed, state->loop_entry->used_as_loop_entry is
    decremented, and an attempt is made to free state->loop_entry.

In the example above, this approach reduces the maximum number of
states in the free list from 369,960 to 16,223.

However, this approach has its limitations. If the buf size in the
example above is modified to 64, state caching overflows: the state
for j=0 is evicted from the cache before it can be used to stop
traversal. As a result, states in the free list accumulate because
their branch counters do not reach zero.

The effect of this patch on the selftests looks as follows:

File                              Program                               Max free list (A)  Max free list (B)  Max free list (DIFF)
--------------------------------  ------------------------------------  -----------------  -----------------  --------------------
arena_list.bpf.o                  arena_list_add                                       17                  3         -14 (-82.35%)
bpf_iter_task_stack.bpf.o         dump_task_stack                                      39                  9         -30 (-76.92%)
iters.bpf.o                       checkpoint_states_deletion                          265                 89        -176 (-66.42%)
iters.bpf.o                       clean_live_states                                    19                  0        -19 (-100.00%)
profiler2.bpf.o                   tracepoint__syscalls__sys_enter_kill                102                  1        -101 (-99.02%)
profiler3.bpf.o                   tracepoint__syscalls__sys_enter_kill                144                  0       -144 (-100.00%)
pyperf600_iter.bpf.o              on_event                                             15                  0        -15 (-100.00%)
pyperf600_nounroll.bpf.o          on_event                                           1170               1158          -12 (-1.03%)
setget_sockopt.bpf.o              skops_sockopt                                        18                  0        -18 (-100.00%)
strobemeta_nounroll1.bpf.o        on_event                                            147                 83         -64 (-43.54%)
strobemeta_nounroll2.bpf.o        on_event                                            312                209        -103 (-33.01%)
strobemeta_subprogs.bpf.o         on_event                                            124                 86         -38 (-30.65%)
test_cls_redirect_subprogs.bpf.o  cls_redirect                                         15                  0        -15 (-100.00%)
timer.bpf.o                       test1                                                30                 15         -15 (-50.00%)

Measured using "do-not-submit" patches from here:
https://github.com/eddyz87/bpf/tree/get-loop-entry-hungup

Reported-by: Patrick Somaru <patsomaru@meta.com>
Signed-off-by: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250215110411.3236773-10-eddyz87@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
2025-02-18 19:22:59 -08:00
arch sh updates for v6.14 2025-02-02 10:40:27 -08:00
block block-6.14-20250131 2025-01-31 11:49:30 -08:00
certs sign-file,extract-cert: use pkcs11 provider for OPENSSL MAJOR >= 3 2024-09-20 19:52:48 +03:00
crypto treewide: const qualify ctl_tables where applicable 2025-01-28 13:48:37 +01:00
Documentation docs/bpf: Document the semantics of BTF tags with kind_flag 2025-02-05 16:17:59 -08:00
drivers 21 hotfixes. 8 are cc:stable and the remainder address post-6.13 issues. 2025-02-01 09:49:20 -08:00
fs bpf: fs/xattr: Add BPF kfuncs to set and remove xattrs 2025-02-13 19:35:32 -08:00
include bpf: free verifier states when they are no longer referenced 2025-02-18 19:22:59 -08:00
init Kbuild updates for v6.14 2025-01-31 12:07:07 -08:00
io_uring io_uring-6.14-20250131 2025-01-31 11:29:23 -08:00
ipc treewide: const qualify ctl_tables where applicable 2025-01-28 13:48:37 +01:00
kernel bpf: free verifier states when they are no longer referenced 2025-02-18 19:22:59 -08:00
lib 21 hotfixes. 8 are cc:stable and the remainder address post-6.13 issues. 2025-02-01 09:49:20 -08:00
LICENSES LICENSES: add 0BSD license text 2024-09-01 20:43:24 -07:00
mm assorted stuff for this merge window 2025-02-01 15:07:56 -08:00
net assorted stuff for this merge window 2025-02-01 15:07:56 -08:00
rust Kbuild updates for v6.14 2025-01-31 12:07:07 -08:00
samples samples/bpf: Fix broken vmlinux path for VMLINUX_BTF 2025-02-05 16:53:44 -08:00
scripts 21 hotfixes. 8 are cc:stable and the remainder address post-6.13 issues. 2025-02-01 09:49:20 -08:00
security treewide: const qualify ctl_tables where applicable 2025-01-28 13:48:37 +01:00
sound sound fixes for 6.14-rc1 2025-01-31 09:17:02 -08:00
tools selftests/bpf: check states pruning for deeply nested iterator 2025-02-18 19:22:59 -08:00
usr kbuild: Drop support for include/asm-<arch> in headers_check.pl 2024-12-21 11:43:17 +09:00
virt Merge branch 'kvm-mirror-page-tables' into HEAD 2025-01-20 07:15:58 -05:00
.clang-format clang-format: Update with v6.11-rc1's for_each macro list 2024-08-02 13:20:31 +02:00
.clippy.toml rust: give Clippy the minimum supported Rust version 2025-01-10 00:17:25 +01:00
.cocciconfig
.editorconfig .editorconfig: remove trim_trailing_whitespace option 2024-06-13 16:47:52 +02:00
.get_maintainer.ignore MAINTAINERS: Retire Ralf Baechle 2024-11-12 15:48:59 +01:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set diff driver for Rust source code files 2023-05-31 17:48:25 +02:00
.gitignore rust: use host dylib naming convention to support macOS 2025-01-10 01:01:24 +01:00
.mailmap 21 hotfixes. 8 are cc:stable and the remainder address post-6.13 issues. 2025-02-01 09:49:20 -08:00
.rustfmt.toml rust: add .rustfmt.toml 2022-09-28 09:02:20 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS Mainly individually changelogged singleton patches. The patch series in 2025-01-26 17:50:53 -08:00
Kbuild Kbuild updates for v6.1 2022-10-10 12:00:45 -07:00
Kconfig kbuild: ensure full rebuild when the compiler is updated 2020-05-12 13:28:33 +09:00
MAINTAINERS 21 hotfixes. 8 are cc:stable and the remainder address post-6.13 issues. 2025-02-01 09:49:20 -08:00
Makefile Linux 6.14-rc1 2025-02-02 15:39:26 -08:00
README README: Fix spelling 2024-03-18 03:36:32 -06:00

Linux kernel
============

There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.

In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``.  The formatted documentation can also be read online at:

    https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/

There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the reStructuredText markup notation.

Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.