[dpdk-dev] [RFC v2] mem: poison memory when freed

[Stephen Hemminger]

DPDK malloc library allows broken programs to work because
the semantics of zmalloc and malloc are the same.

This patch enables a  more secure model which will catch
(and crash) programs that reuse memory already freed if
RTE_MALLOC_DEBUG is enabled.

Signed-off-by: Stephen Hemminger <step...@networkplumber.org>
---

v2
  - keep original behavior unless RTE_MALLOC_DEBUG is enabled.

 lib/librte_eal/common/malloc_elem.c | 17 ++++++++++++++---
 lib/librte_eal/common/rte_malloc.c  |  8 +++++++-
 2 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lib/librte_eal/common/malloc_elem.c 
b/lib/librte_eal/common/malloc_elem.c
index efcb82677198..6fc63c53a75d 100644
--- a/lib/librte_eal/common/malloc_elem.c
+++ b/lib/librte_eal/common/malloc_elem.c
@@ -23,6 +23,16 @@
 #include "malloc_elem.h"
 #include "malloc_heap.h"
 
+/* If debugging is enabled, freed memory is set to poison value
+ * to catch buggy programs. Otherwise, freed memory is zerod
+ * to avoid having to zero in zmalloc
+ */
+#ifdef RTE_MALLOC_DEBUG
+#define MALLOC_POISON         0x6b
+#else
+#define MALLOC_POISON         0
+#endif
+
 size_t
 malloc_elem_find_max_iova_contig(struct malloc_elem *elem, size_t align)
 {
@@ -476,7 +486,7 @@ malloc_elem_join_adjacent_free(struct malloc_elem *elem)
                join_elem(elem, elem->next);
 
                /* erase header, trailer and pad */
-               memset(erase, 0, erase_len);
+               memset(erase, MALLOC_POISON, erase_len);
        }
 
        /*
@@ -500,7 +510,7 @@ malloc_elem_join_adjacent_free(struct malloc_elem *elem)
                join_elem(new_elem, elem);
 
                /* erase header, trailer and pad */
-               memset(erase, 0, erase_len);
+               memset(erase, MALLOC_POISON, erase_len);
 
                elem = new_elem;
        }
@@ -531,7 +541,8 @@ malloc_elem_free(struct malloc_elem *elem)
        /* decrease heap's count of allocated elements */
        elem->heap->alloc_count--;
 
-       memset(ptr, 0, data_len);
+       /* poison memory */
+       memset(ptr, MALLOC_POISON, data_len);
 
        return elem;
 }
diff --git a/lib/librte_eal/common/rte_malloc.c 
b/lib/librte_eal/common/rte_malloc.c
index b51a6d111bde..ed253149bb6b 100644
--- a/lib/librte_eal/common/rte_malloc.c
+++ b/lib/librte_eal/common/rte_malloc.c
@@ -70,7 +70,13 @@ rte_malloc(const char *type, size_t size, unsigned align)
 void *
 rte_zmalloc_socket(const char *type, size_t size, unsigned align, int socket)
 {
-       return rte_malloc_socket(type, size, align, socket);
+       void *ptr = rte_malloc_socket(type, size, align, socket);
+
+#ifndef RTE_MALLOC_DEBUG
+       if (ptr != NULL)
+               memset(ptr, 0, size);
+#endif
+       return ptr;
 }
 
 /*
-- 
2.18.0