IB/ipoib: Avoid a race condition between start_xmit and cm_rep_handler
Inside of start_xmit() the call to check if the connection is up and the
queueing of the packets for later transmission is not atomic which leaves
a window where cm_rep_handler can run, set the connection up, dequeue
pending packets and leave the subsequently queued packets by start_xmit()
sitting on neigh->queue until they're dropped when the connection is torn
down. This only applies to connected mode. These dropped packets can
really upset TCP, for example, and cause multi-minute delays in
transmission for open connections.
Here's the code in start_xmit where we check to see if the connection is
up:
if (ipoib_cm_get(neigh)) {
if (ipoib_cm_up(neigh)) {
ipoib_cm_send(dev, skb, ipoib_cm_get(neigh));
goto unref;
}
}
The race occurs if cm_rep_handler execution occurs after the above
connection check (specifically if it gets to the point where it acquires
priv->lock to dequeue pending skb's) but before the below code snippet in
start_xmit where packets are queued.