Re: [PATCH 4/5] xen/memory: Fix acquire_resource size semantics

[Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@citrix.com>]

On 30/07/2020 13:54, Julien Grall wrote:
> Hi Paul,
>
> On 30/07/2020 09:31, Paul Durrant wrote:
>>> diff --git a/xen/common/memory.c b/xen/common/memory.c
>>> index dc3a7248e3..21edabf9cc 100644
>>> --- a/xen/common/memory.c
>>> +++ b/xen/common/memory.c
>>> @@ -1007,6 +1007,26 @@ static long xatp_permission_check(struct
>>> domain *d, unsigned int space)
>>>       return xsm_add_to_physmap(XSM_TARGET, current->domain, d);
>>>   }
>>>
>>> +/*
>>> + * Return 0 on any kind of error.  Caller converts to -EINVAL.
>>> + *
>>> + * All nonzero values should be repeatable (i.e. derived from some
>>> fixed
>>> + * proerty of the domain), and describe the full resource (i.e.
>>> mapping the
>>
>> s/property/property
>>
>>> + * result of this call will be the entire resource).
>>
>> This precludes dynamically adding a resource to a running domain. Do
>> we really want to bake in that restriction?
>
> AFAICT, this restriction is not documented in the ABI. In particular,
> it is written:
>
> "
> The size of a resource will never be zero, but a nonzero result doesn't
> guarentee that a subsequent mapping request will be successful.  There
> are further type/id specific constraints which may change between the
> two calls.
> "
>
> So I think a domain couldn't rely on this behavior. Although, it might
> be good to clarify in the comment on top of resource_max_frames that
> this an implementation decision and not part of the ABI.

There are two aspects here.

First, yes - I deliberately didn't state it in the ABI, just in case we
might want to use it in the future.  I could theoretically foresee using
-EBUSY for the purpose.

That said however, we are currently deliberately taking dynamic
resources out of Xen, because they've proved to be unnecessary in
practice and a fertile source of complexity and security bugs.

I don't foresee accepting new dynamic resources, but that's not to say
that someone can't theoretically come up with a sufficiently compelling
counterexample.

~Andrew