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Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 23/23] mm: Allow slab_nomerge to be set at build time

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On Mon, Jun 19, 2017 at 9:09 PM, Daniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 2017-06-19 at 16:36 -0700, Kees Cook wrote:
>> Some hardened environments want to build kernels with slab_nomerge
>> already set (so that they do not depend on remembering to set the
>> kernel
>> command line option). This is desired to reduce the risk of kernel
>> heap
>> overflows being able to overwrite objects from merged caches,
>> increasing
>> the difficulty of these attacks. By keeping caches unmerged, these
>> kinds
>> of exploits can usually only damage objects in the same cache (though
>> the
>> risk to metadata exploitation is unchanged).
>
> It also further fragments the ability to influence slab cache layout,
> i.e. primitives to do things like filling up slabs to set things up for
> an exploit might not be able to deal with the target slabs anymore. It
> doesn't need to be mentioned but it's something to think about too. In
> theory, disabling merging can make it *easier* to get the right layout
> too if there was some annoyance that's now split away. It's definitely a
> lot more good than bad for security though, but allocator changes have
> subtle impact on exploitation. This can make caches more deterministic.

Good point about changes to heap grooming; I'll adjust the commit log.

-Kees

-- 
Kees Cook
Pixel Security

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[PATCH 00/23] Hardened usercopy whitelisting Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:40 +0200
  [PATCH 13/23] ufs: define usercopy region in ufs_inode_cache slab cache Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:40 +0200
  [PATCH 22/23] usercopy: split user-controlled slabs to separate caches Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:40 +0200
    Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 22/23] usercopy: split user-controlled  slabs to separate caches Eric Biggers <ebiggers3@gmail.com> - 2017-06-20 06:30 +0200
    Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 22/23] usercopy: split user-controlled  slabs to separate caches Eric Biggers <ebiggers3@gmail.com> - 2017-06-20 06:50 +0200
      Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 22/23] usercopy: split user-controlled  slabs to separate caches Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-21 00:30 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 22/23] usercopy: split user-controlled slabs to separate  caches Laura Abbott <labbott@redhat.com> - 2017-06-20 22:30 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 22/23] usercopy: split user-controlled slabs to separate caches Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-21 00:30 +0200
        Re: [PATCH 22/23] usercopy: split user-controlled slabs to separate  caches Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org> - 2017-06-27 09:40 +0200
          Re: [PATCH 22/23] usercopy: split user-controlled slabs to separate caches Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-28 00:10 +0200
            Re: [PATCH 22/23] usercopy: split user-controlled slabs to separate  caches Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org> - 2017-06-28 11:00 +0200
  [PATCH 08/23] ext2: define usercopy region in ext2_inode_cache slab cache Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:40 +0200
  [PATCH 15/23] net: define usercopy region in struct proto slab cache Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:40 +0200
  [PATCH 14/23] fork: define usercopy region in thread_stack, task_struct, mm_struct slab caches Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:40 +0200
  [PATCH 11/23] jfs: define usercopy region in jfs_ip slab cache Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:40 +0200
  [PATCH 20/23] usercopy: convert kmalloc caches to usercopy caches Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
  [PATCH 05/23] befs: define usercopy region in befs_inode_cache slab cache Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
  [PATCH 23/23] mm: Allow slab_nomerge to be set at build time Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
    Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 23/23] mm: Allow slab_nomerge to be  set at build time Daniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com> - 2017-06-20 06:10 +0200
      Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 23/23] mm: Allow slab_nomerge to be set  at build time Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-21 01:00 +0200
    Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 23/23] mm: Allow slab_nomerge to be  set at build time Eric Biggers <ebiggers3@gmail.com> - 2017-06-20 06:30 +0200
      Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 23/23] mm: Allow slab_nomerge to be set  at build time Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-21 01:20 +0200
  [PATCH 19/23] xfs: define usercopy region in xfs_inode slab cache Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
  [PATCH 01/23] usercopy: Prepare for usercopy whitelisting Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
  [PATCH 03/23] vfs: define usercopy region in names_cache slab caches Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
  [PATCH 17/23] dcache: define usercopy region in dentry_cache slab cache Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
    Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 17/23] dcache: define usercopy region  in dentry_cache slab cache Eric Biggers <ebiggers3@gmail.com> - 2017-06-20 06:10 +0200
      Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 17/23] dcache: define usercopy region  in dentry_cache slab cache Eric Biggers <ebiggers3@gmail.com> - 2017-06-28 20:00 +0200
      Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 17/23] dcache: define usercopy region  in dentry_cache slab cache Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-28 20:00 +0200
  [PATCH 04/23] vfs: copy struct mount.mnt_id to userspace using put_user() Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
  [PATCH 06/23] cifs: define usercopy region in cifs_request slab cache Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
  [PATCH 21/23] usercopy: Restrict non-usercopy caches to size 0 Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
    Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 21/23] usercopy: Restrict non-usercopy  caches to size 0 Eric Biggers <ebiggers3@gmail.com> - 2017-06-20 06:10 +0200
      Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 21/23] usercopy: Restrict non-usercopy  caches to size 0 Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-28 20:00 +0200
  [PATCH 18/23] scsi: define usercopy region in scsi_sense_cache slab cache Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
  [PATCH 02/23] usercopy: Enforce slab cache usercopy region boundaries Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-06-20 01:50 +0200
  Re: [kernel-hardening] [PATCH 00/23] Hardened usercopy whitelisting Rik van Riel <riel@redhat.com> - 2017-06-20 21:50 +0200

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