Re: [PATCH v9 02/42] mm: Move pte/pmd_mkwrite() callers with no VMA to _novma()

From: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
To: Rick Edgecombe <rick.p.edgecombe@intel.com>,
	x86@kernel.org, "H . Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-arch@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-api@vger.kernel.org, Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>,
	Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>,
	Balbir Singh <bsingharora@gmail.com>,
	Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>,
	Cyrill Gorcunov <gorcunov@gmail.com>,
	Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>,
	Eugene Syromiatnikov <esyr@redhat.com>,
	Florian Weimer <fweimer@redhat.com>,
	"H . J . Lu" <hjl.tools@gmail.com>, Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>,
	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
	Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>,
	Mike Kravetz <mike.kravetz@oracle.com>,
	Nadav Amit <nadav.amit@gmail.com>,
	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>, Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
	Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>,
	Weijiang Yang <weijiang.yang@intel.com>,
	"Kirill A . Shutemov" <kirill.shutemov@linux.intel.com>,
	John Allen <john.allen@amd.com>,
	kcc@google.com, eranian@google.com, rppt@kernel.org,
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	akpm@linux-foundation.org, Andrew.Cooper3@citrix.com,
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	broonie@kernel.org
Cc: linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org, linux-s390@vger.kernel.org,
	xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v9 02/42] mm: Move pte/pmd_mkwrite() callers with no VMA to _novma()
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2023 14:27:23 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <ab7853ca-70dd-b885-07df-c0764509997f@redhat.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20230613001108.3040476-3-rick.p.edgecombe@intel.com>

On 13.06.23 02:10, Rick Edgecombe wrote:
> The x86 Shadow stack feature includes a new type of memory called shadow
> stack. This shadow stack memory has some unusual properties, which requires
> some core mm changes to function properly.
> 
> One of these unusual properties is that shadow stack memory is writable,
> but only in limited ways. These limits are applied via a specific PTE
> bit combination. Nevertheless, the memory is writable, and core mm code
> will need to apply the writable permissions in the typical paths that
> call pte_mkwrite(). Future patches will make pte_mkwrite() take a VMA, so
> that the x86 implementation of it can know whether to create regular
> writable memory or shadow stack memory.
> 
> But there are a couple of challenges to this. Modifying the signatures of
> each arch pte_mkwrite() implementation would be error prone because some
> are generated with macros and would need to be re-implemented. Also, some
> pte_mkwrite() callers operate on kernel memory without a VMA.
> 
> So this can be done in a three step process. First pte_mkwrite() can be
> renamed to pte_mkwrite_novma() in each arch, with a generic pte_mkwrite()
> added that just calls pte_mkwrite_novma(). Next callers without a VMA can
> be moved to pte_mkwrite_novma(). And lastly, pte_mkwrite() and all callers
> can be changed to take/pass a VMA.
> 
> Previous patches have done the first step, so next move the callers that
> don't have a VMA to pte_mkwrite_novma(). Also do the same for
> pmd_mkwrite(). This will be ok for the shadow stack feature, as these
> callers are on kernel memory which will not need to be made shadow stack,
> and the other architectures only currently support one type of memory
> in pte_mkwrite()
> 
> Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
> Cc: linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org
> Cc: linux-s390@vger.kernel.org
> Cc: xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org
> Cc: linux-arch@vger.kernel.org
> Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org
> Signed-off-by: Rick Edgecombe <rick.p.edgecombe@intel.com>
> ---

Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>

-- 
Cheers,

David / dhildenb