Re: [RFC PATCH v2 3/4] arm64: Detect FTRACE cases that make the stack trace unreliable

["Madhavan T. Venkataraman" <madvenka@linux.microsoft.com>]

>> Also, the Function Graph Tracer modifies the return address of a traced
>> function to a return trampoline to gather tracing data on function return.
>> Stack traces taken from that trampoline and functions it calls are
>> unreliable as the original return address may not be available in
>> that context. Mark the stack trace unreliable accordingly.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Madhavan T. Venkataraman <madvenka@linux.microsoft.com>
>> ---
>>  arch/arm64/kernel/entry-ftrace.S | 12 +++++++
>>  arch/arm64/kernel/stacktrace.c   | 61 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>  2 files changed, 73 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/entry-ftrace.S b/arch/arm64/kernel/entry-ftrace.S
>> index b3e4f9a088b1..1f0714a50c71 100644
>> --- a/arch/arm64/kernel/entry-ftrace.S
>> +++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/entry-ftrace.S
>> @@ -86,6 +86,18 @@ SYM_CODE_START(ftrace_caller)
>>  	b	ftrace_common
>>  SYM_CODE_END(ftrace_caller)
>>  
>> +/*
>> + * A stack trace taken from anywhere in the FTRACE trampoline code should be
>> + * considered unreliable as a tracer function (patched at ftrace_call) could
>> + * potentially set pt_regs->pc and redirect execution to a function different
>> + * than the traced function. E.g., livepatch.
> 
> IIUC the issue here that we have two copies of the pc: one in the regs,
> and one in a frame record, and so after the update to the regs, the
> frame record is stale.
> 
> This is something that we could fix by having
> ftrace_instruction_pointer_set() set both.
> 

Yes. I will look at this.

> However, as noted elsewhere there are other issues which mean we'd still
> need special unwinding code for this.
> 

The only other cases we have discussed are EL1 exceptions in the ftrace code
and the return trampoline for function graph tracing. Is there any other case?

Thanks.

Madhavan