In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: rcu/nocb: Fix missed RCU barrier on deoffloading Currently, running rcutorture test with torture_type=rcu fwd_progress=8 n_barrier_cbs=8 nocbs_nthreads=8 nocbs_toggle=100 onoff_interval=60 test_boost=2, will trigger the following warning: WARNING: CPU: 19 PID: 100 at kernel/rcu/tree_nocb.h:1061 rcu_nocb_rdp_deoffload+0x292/0x2a0 RIP: 0010:rcu_nocb_rdp_deoffload+0x292/0x2a0 Call Trace: <TASK> ? __warn+0x7e/0x120 ? rcu_nocb_rdp_deoffload+0x292/0x2a0 ? report_bug+0x18e/0x1a0 ? handle_bug+0x3d/0x70 ? exc_invalid_op+0x18/0x70 ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20 ? rcu_nocb_rdp_deoffload+0x292/0x2a0 rcu_nocb_cpu_deoffload+0x70/0xa0 rcu_nocb_toggle+0x136/0x1c0 ? __pfx_rcu_nocb_toggle+0x10/0x10 kthread+0xd1/0x100 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork+0x2f/0x50 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 </TASK> CPU0 CPU2 CPU3 //rcu_nocb_toggle //nocb_cb_wait //rcutorture // deoffload CPU1 // process CPU1's rdp rcu_barrier() rcu_segcblist_entrain() rcu_segcblist_add_len(1); // len == 2 // enqueue barrier // callback to CPU1's // rdp->cblist rcu_do_batch() // invoke CPU1's rdp->cblist // callback rcu_barrier_callback() rcu_barrier() mutex_lock(&rcu_state.barrier_mutex); // still see len == 2 // enqueue barrier callback // to CPU1's rdp->cblist rcu_segcblist_entrain() rcu_segcblist_add_len(1); // len == 3 // decrement len rcu_segcblist_add_len(-2); kthread_parkme() // CPU1's rdp->cblist len == 1 // Warn because there is // still a pending barrier // trigger warning WARN_ON_ONCE(rcu_segcblist_n_cbs(&rdp->cblist)); cpus_read_unlock(); // wait CPU1 to comes online and // invoke barrier callback on // CPU1 rdp's->cblist wait_for_completion(&rcu_state.barrier_completion); // deoffload CPU4 cpus_read_lock() rcu_barrier() mutex_lock(&rcu_state.barrier_mutex); // block on barrier_mutex // wait rcu_barrier() on // CPU3 to unlock barrier_mutex // but CPU3 unlock barrier_mutex // need to wait CPU1 comes online // when CPU1 going online will block on cpus_write_lock The above scenario will not only trigger a WARN_ON_ONCE(), but also trigger a deadlock. Thanks to nocb locking, a second racing rcu_barrier() on an offline CPU will either observe the decremented callback counter down to 0 and spare the callback enqueue, or rcuo will observe the new callback and keep rdp->nocb_cb_sleep to false. Therefore check rdp->nocb_cb_sleep before parking to make sure no further rcu_barrier() is waiting on the rdp.