Re: [PATCH] Arm: avoid .init.data to be marked as executable

[Jan Beulich <jbeulich@suse.com>]

On 14.06.2021 12:32, Julien Grall wrote:
> 
> 
> On 14/06/2021 12:02, Jan Beulich wrote:
>> On 14.06.2021 11:41, Julien Grall wrote:
>>> On 11/06/2021 11:39, Jan Beulich wrote:
>>>> This confuses disassemblers, at the very least. Move
>>>> .altinstr_replacement to .init.text,
>>>
>>> The alternative code was borrowed from Linux. The code has now changed
>>> to cater very large kernel. They used to keep the .altinstr_replacement
>>> and altinstructions close to each other (albeit they were both in
>>> .init.text).
>>>
>>> I am not entirely why, but I am a bit worry to separate them. What sort
>>> of test did you do?
>>
>> Well, just build tests, on the assumption that relocation overflows
>> would be reported by the linker if the sections ended up too far
>> apart.
> 
> Hmmm, fair point. They should also not be further than the original 
> instruction. So there ought to be fine.
> 
>>
>>>> dropping the redundant ALIGN().
>>>>
>>>> Also, to have .altinstr_replacement have consistent attributes in the
>>>> object files, add "x" to the one instance where it was missing. >
>>>> Signed-off-by: Jan Beulich <jbeulich@suse.com>
>>>> ---
>>>> I'm uncertain whether having .altinstr_replacement inside or outside the
>>>> [_sinittext,_einittext) region is better; I simply followed what we have
>>>> on the x86 side right now.
>>>
>>> This means the altinstructions will be marked executable in the
>>> page-table. They technically should not be executable, so I would move
>>> them outside _einittext and make sure the section is aligned to a PAGE_SIZE.
>>
>> Hmm, are you saying you bother getting attributes right for .init.*
>> in the page tables? I ask because we don't on x86, and because it
>> would seem wasteful to me to pad to PAGE_SIZE just for this. But
>> you're the maintainer, i.e. I'm merely double checking ...
> 
> So this is a defense in depth. Your assumption is .init.text is going to 
> disappear after boot. However, if there is a bug that would leave 
> .init.text present then this may add more attack surface. So I think it 
> is a good practice to keep the permission correct.
> 
> However... looking the alternative code again, there is another reason 
> to move this change out of the range _sinitext - _einittext. The 
> function branch_insn_requires_update() will forbid branch target in 
> another alternative instructions.
> 
> This is first checking that the target is part of an active text. With 
> this change, this will return true because alternative instruction 
> replacement will be between _sinittext and _einittext.
> 
> So .altinstructions_replacement must outside of the region [_stinittext, 
> _einittext[.

I see. But I'm not sure about the defense-in-depth aspect: By putting
it outside [_sinittext,_einittext) it'll get mapped r/w, while I think
you were implying that it would become r/o. Not even .init.rodata gets
mapped r/o.

As a result I'm not convinced yet that you really want me to make the
change. Otoh your arguments will make me put together an x86-side
change moving this section past _einittext.

Jan