Calling 'panic()' on a kernel with CONFIG_PREEMPT=y can leave the calling CPU in an infinite loop, but with interrupts and preemption enabled. From this state, userspace can continue to be scheduled, despite the system being "dead" as far as the kernel is concerned. This is easily reproducible on arm64 when booting with "nosmp" on the command line; a couple of shell scripts print out a periodic "Ping" message whilst another triggers a crash by writing to /proc/sysrq-trigger: | sysrq: Trigger a crash | Kernel panic - not syncing: sysrq triggered crash | CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: init Not tainted 5.2.15 #1 | Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT) | Call trace: | dump_backtrace+0x0/0x148 | show_stack+0x14/0x20 | dump_stack+0xa0/0xc4 | panic+0x140/0x32c | sysrq_handle_reboot+0x0/0x20 | __handle_sysrq+0x124/0x190 | write_sysrq_trigger+0x64/0x88 | proc_reg_write+0x60/0xa8 | __vfs_write+0x18/0x40 | vfs_write+0xa4/0x1b8 | ksys_write+0x64/0xf0 | __arm64_sys_write+0x14/0x20 | el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0xb0/0x168 | el0_svc_handler+0x28/0x78 | el0_svc+0x8/0xc | Kernel Offset: disabled | CPU features: 0x0002,24002004 | Memory Limit: none | ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: sysrq triggered crash ]--- | Ping 2! | Ping 1! | Ping 1! | Ping 2! The issue can also be triggered on x86 kernels if CONFIG_SMP=n, otherwise local interrupts are disabled in 'smp_send_stop()'. Disable preemption in 'panic()' before re-enabling interrupts.
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| @@ -180,6 +180,7 @@ void panic(const char *fmt, ...) · 179 unmodified lines | |||
| 180 | * after setting panic_cpu) from invoking panic() again. | 180 | * after setting panic_cpu) from invoking panic() again. |
| 181 | */ | 181 | */ |
| 182 | local_irq_disable(); | 182 | local_irq_disable(); |
| 183 | preempt_disable_notrace(); | ||
| 183 | 184 | ||
| 184 | /* | 185 | /* |
| 185 | * It's possible to come here directly from a panic-assertion and | 186 | * It's possible to come here directly from a panic-assertion and |