FAILED: patch "[PATCH] alarmtimer: Rate limit periodic intervals" failed to apply to 4.11-stable tree

The patch below does not apply to the 4.11-stable tree.
If someone wants it applied there, or to any other stable or longterm tree, then please email the backport, including the original git commit id to <[email protected]>.

thanks,

greg k-h

------------------ original commit in Linus's tree ------------------

From: Thomas Gleixner <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 30 May 2017 23:15:35 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] alarmtimer: Rate limit periodic intervals

The alarmtimer code has another source of potentially rearming itself too fast. Interval timers with a very samll interval have a similar CPU hog effect as the previously fixed overflow issue.

The reason is that alarmtimers do not implement the normal protection against this kind of problem which the other posix timer use:

timer expires -> queue signal -> deliver signal -> rearm timer

This scheme brings the rearming under scheduler control and prevents permanently firing timers which hog the CPU.

Bringing this scheme to the alarm timer code is a major overhaul because it lacks all the necessary mechanisms completely.

So for a quick fix limit the interval to one jiffie. This is not problematic in practice as alarmtimers are usually backed by an RTC for suspend which have 1 second resolution. It could be therefor argued that the resolution of this clock should be set to 1 second in general, but that's outside the scope of this fix.

index 2b2e032b4eb4..ee2f4202d82a 100644
@@ -660,6 +660,14 @@ static int alarm_timer_set(struct k_itimer *timr, int flags,
 
 	/* start the timer */
 	timr->it.alarm.interval = timespec64_to_ktime(new_setting->it_interval);
+
+	/*
+	 * Rate limit to the tick as a hot fix to prevent DOS. Will be
+	 * mopped up later.
+	 */
+	if (timr->it.alarm.interval < TICK_NSEC)
+		timr->it.alarm.interval = TICK_NSEC;
+
 	exp = timespec64_to_ktime(new_setting->it_value);
 	/* Convert (if necessary) to absolute time */
 	if (flags != TIMER_ABSTIME) {

commit ff86bf0c65f14346bf2440534f9ba5ac232c39a0 upstream.

The alarmtimer code has another source of potentially rearming itself too fast. Interval timers with a very samll interval have a similar CPU hog effect as the previously fixed overflow issue.

The reason is that alarmtimers do not implement the normal protection against this kind of problem which the other posix timer use:

timer expires -> queue signal -> deliver signal -> rearm timer

This scheme brings the rearming under scheduler control and prevents permanently firing timers which hog the CPU.

Bringing this scheme to the alarm timer code is a major overhaul because it lacks all the necessary mechanisms completely.

So for a quick fix limit the interval to one jiffie. This is not problematic in practice as alarmtimers are usually backed by an RTC for suspend which have 1 second resolution. It could be therefor argued that the resolution of this clock should be set to 1 second in general, but that's outside the scope of this fix.

---
 kernel/time/alarmtimer.c |    8 ++++++++
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)

@@ -660,6 +660,14 @@ static int alarm_timer_set(struct k_itim
 
 	/* start the timer */
 	timr->it.alarm.interval = timespec_to_ktime(new_setting->it_interval);
+
+	/*
+	 * Rate limit to the tick as a hot fix to prevent DOS. Will be
+	 * mopped up later.
+	 */
+	if (timr->it.alarm.interval < TICK_NSEC)
+		timr->it.alarm.interval = TICK_NSEC;
+
 	exp = timespec_to_ktime(new_setting->it_value);
 	/* Convert (if necessary) to absolute time */
 	if (flags != TIMER_ABSTIME) {

<snip>

thanks for the backport, now applied to all stable trees.

greg k-h