KCOV Remote uses two separate memory buffers, one private to the kernel
space (kcov_remote_areas) and the second one shared between user and
kernel space (kcov->area). After every pair of kcov_remote_start() and
kcov_remote_stop(), the coverage data collected in the kcov_remote_areas
is copied to kcov->area so the user can read the collected coverage data.
This memcpy() is located in kcov_move_area().
The load/store pattern on the kernel-side [1] is:
```
/* dst_area === kcov->area, dst_area[0] is where the count is stored */
dst_len = READ_ONCE(*(unsigned long *)dst_area);
...
memcpy(dst_entries, src_entries, ...);
...
WRITE_ONCE(*(unsigned long *)dst_area, dst_len + entries_moved);
```
And for the user [2]:
```
/* cover is equivalent to kcov->area */
n = __atomic_load_n(&cover[0], __ATOMIC_RELAXED);
```
Without a write-memory barrier, the atomic load for the user can
potentially read fresh values of the count stored at cover[0], but
continue to read stale coverage data from the buffer itself. Hence, we
recommend adding a write-memory barrier between the memcpy() and the
WRITE_ONCE() in kcov_move_area().
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250728184318.1839137-1-soham.bagchi@utah.edu
Link: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/tree/kernel/kcov.c?h=master#n978
Link: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/tree/Documentation/dev-tools/kcov.rst#n364
Signed-off-by: Soham Bagchi <soham.bagchi@utah.edu>
Reviewed-by: Marco Elver <elver@google.com>
Cc: Alexander Potapenko <glider@google.com>
Cc: Andrey Konovalov <andreyknvl@gmail.com>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Cc: Dmitriy Vyukov <dvyukov@google.com>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Thomas Gleinxer <tglx@linutronix.de>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
memcpy(dst_entries, src_entries, bytes_to_move);
entries_moved = bytes_to_move >> entry_size_log;
+ /*
+ * A write memory barrier is required here, to ensure
+ * that the writes from the memcpy() are visible before
+ * the count is updated. Without this, it is possible for
+ * a user to observe a new count value but stale
+ * coverage data.
+ */
+ smp_wmb();
+
switch (mode) {
case KCOV_MODE_TRACE_PC:
WRITE_ONCE(*(unsigned long *)dst_area, dst_len + entries_moved);