From: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
To: Balbir Singh <bsingharora@gmail.com>
Cc: Waiman Long <longman@redhat.com>,
Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>,
Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko.sakkinen@linux.intel.com>,
James Morris <jmorris@namei.org>,
"Serge E. Hallyn" <serge@hallyn.com>,
linux-mm@kvack.org, keyrings@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>,
Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>,
David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3] mm: Add kvfree_sensitive() for freeing sensitive data objects
Date: Sat, 16 May 2020 17:44:37 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20200517004437.GN16070@bombadil.infradead.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <f779dea1-3b50-e354-3914-7394b4473f5b@gmail.com>
On Sun, May 17, 2020 at 10:27:39AM +1000, Balbir Singh wrote:
> On 14/5/20 10:00 pm, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> > On Thu, May 14, 2020 at 09:00:40PM +1000, Balbir Singh wrote:
> >> I wonder if the right thing to do is also to disable pre-emption, just so that the thread does not linger on with sensitive data.
> >>
> >> void kvfree_sensitive(const void *addr, size_t len)
> >> {
> >> preempt_disable();
> >> if (likely(!ZERO_OR_NULL_PTR(addr))) {
> >> memzero_explicit((void *)addr, len);
> >> kvfree(addr);
> >> }
> >> preempt_enable();
> >> }
> >> EXPORT_SYMBOL(kvfree_sensitive);
> >
> > If it's _that_ sensitive then the caller should have disabled preemption.
> > Because preemption could otherwise have occurred immediately before
> > kvfree_sensitive() was called.
> >
>
> May be, but the callers of the API have to be explictly aware of the contract.
> I don't disagree with you on what you've said, but I was referring to the
> intent of freeing sensitive data vs the turn around time for doing so.
It's the caller's information. They should be aware of their own
requirements. If they do something like:
p = kmalloc();
preempt_disable();
construct(p);
use(p);
preempt_enable();
kvfree_sensitive(p);
there's really nothing we can do to help them inside kvfree_sensitive().
Actually, can you come up with a scenario where disabling preemption
inside kvfree_sensitive() will help with anything?
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2020-05-17 0:44 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 23+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2020-04-07 20:03 [PATCH v3] mm: Add kvfree_sensitive() for freeing sensitive data objects Waiman Long
2020-04-07 20:09 ` Linus Torvalds
2020-04-07 20:19 ` David Howells
2020-04-07 20:24 ` Waiman Long
2020-04-07 20:21 ` David Howells
2020-05-05 20:35 ` Andrew Morton
2020-05-06 1:29 ` Waiman Long
2020-04-07 20:31 ` Joe Perches
2020-04-07 20:45 ` Waiman Long
2020-04-07 21:01 ` Linus Torvalds
2020-04-07 21:24 ` Uladzislau Rezki
2020-04-07 21:30 ` Linus Torvalds
2020-04-07 22:12 ` Matthew Wilcox
2020-04-08 0:35 ` Joe Perches
2020-04-08 13:38 ` Jarkko Sakkinen
2020-05-01 23:22 ` Eric Biggers
2020-05-04 2:57 ` Waiman Long
2020-05-14 11:00 ` Balbir Singh
2020-05-14 12:00 ` Matthew Wilcox
2020-05-14 12:08 ` Joe Perches
2020-05-17 0:27 ` Balbir Singh
2020-05-17 0:44 ` Matthew Wilcox [this message]
2020-05-18 2:39 ` Waiman Long
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