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Groups > linux.kernel > #1612221 > unrolled thread

[RFC v2] Introduce rare_write() infrastructure

Started byKees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
First post2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
Last post2017-03-29 21:20 +0200
Articles 20 on this page of 56 — 13 participants

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  [RFC v2] Introduce rare_write() infrastructure Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
    [RFC v2][PATCH 10/11] gcc-plugins: Add constify plugin Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
    [RFC v2][PATCH 03/11] net: switch sock_diag handlers to rare_write() Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
    [RFC v2][PATCH 07/11] ARM: mm: set DOMAIN_WR_RARE for rodata Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
    [RFC v2][PATCH 01/11] Introduce rare_write() infrastructure Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
      Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 01/11] Introduce rare_write() infrastructure Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:30 +0200
        Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 01/11] Introduce rare_write() infrastructure Ho-Eun Ryu <hoeun.ryu@gmail.com> - 2017-03-30 09:50 +0200
          Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 01/11] Introduce rare_write() infrastructure Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-30 19:10 +0200
      Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 01/11] Introduce rare_write() infrastructure Ho-Eun Ryu <hoeun.ryu@gmail.com> - 2017-04-07 10:20 +0200
        Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 01/11] Introduce rare_write() infrastructure Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-04-07 22:40 +0200
    [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
      Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net> - 2017-03-30 00:40 +0200
        Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-30 03:50 +0200
          Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org> - 2017-04-06 02:00 +0200
            Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-04-06 02:20 +0200
              Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net> - 2017-04-06 18:00 +0200
                Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Mathias Krause <minipli@googlemail.com> - 2017-04-07 10:40 +0200
                  Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> - 2017-04-07 11:50 +0200
                    Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Mathias Krause <minipli@googlemail.com> - 2017-04-07 13:00 +0200
                      Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> - 2017-04-07 15:20 +0200
                        Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Mathias Krause <minipli@googlemail.com> - 2017-04-07 15:40 +0200
                          Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org> - 2017-04-07 18:20 +0200
                            Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2017-04-07 18:30 +0200
                            Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() "PaX Team" <pageexec@freemail.hu> - 2017-04-07 22:10 +0200
                              Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org> - 2017-04-08 07:00 +0200
                                Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() "PaX Team" <pageexec@freemail.hu> - 2017-04-09 14:50 +0200
                                  Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org> - 2017-04-10 02:20 +0200
                                    Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() "PaX Team" <pageexec@freemail.hu> - 2017-04-10 12:50 +0200
                            Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> - 2017-04-07 22:50 +0200
                              Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-04-07 23:30 +0200
                                Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Daniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com> - 2017-04-08 06:20 +0200
                                  Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Daniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com> - 2017-04-08 06:20 +0200
                            Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Daniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com> - 2017-04-08 06:30 +0200
                              Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org> - 2017-04-08 07:10 +0200
                                Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Daniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com> - 2017-04-08 09:40 +0200
                                  Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org> - 2017-04-08 17:30 +0200
                                    Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org> - 2017-04-09 13:00 +0200
                                    Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2017-04-10 12:30 +0200
                                Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() "PaX Team" <pageexec@freemail.hu> - 2017-04-09 22:30 +0200
                                  Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org> - 2017-04-10 02:40 +0200
                          Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> - 2017-04-07 21:30 +0200
                      Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> - 2017-04-07 16:50 +0200
                        Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2017-04-10 12:40 +0200
                    Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() "PaX Team" <pageexec@freemail.hu> - 2017-04-07 22:40 +0200
                      Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> - 2017-04-10 10:30 +0200
      Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap() Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> - 2017-04-07 11:40 +0200
    [RFC v2][PATCH 09/11] list: add rare_write() list helpers Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
    [RFC v2][PATCH 05/11] ARM: mm: dump: Add domain to output Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
    [RFC v2][PATCH 11/11] cgroups: force all struct cftype const Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
    [RFC v2][PATCH 08/11] ARM: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/end() Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
      Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 08/11] ARM: Implement  __arch_rare_write_begin/end() Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> - 2017-04-07 11:40 +0200
    [RFC v2][PATCH 02/11] lkdtm: add test for rare_write() infrastructure Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 20:20 +0200
      Re: [kernel-hardening] [RFC v2][PATCH 02/11] lkdtm: add test for  rare_write() infrastructure Ian Campbell <ijc@hellion.org.uk> - 2017-03-30 12:20 +0200
        Re: [kernel-hardening] [RFC v2][PATCH 02/11] lkdtm: add test for  rare_write() infrastructure Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-30 18:20 +0200
    Re: [RFC v2] Introduce rare_write() infrastructure Russell King - ARM Linux <linux@armlinux.org.uk> - 2017-03-29 21:10 +0200
      Re: [RFC v2] Introduce rare_write() infrastructure Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> - 2017-03-29 21:20 +0200

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#1618802 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromMathias Krause <minipli@googlemail.com>
Date2017-04-07 15:40 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttChj-7G0-13@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1618786
On 7 April 2017 at 15:14, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> wrote:
> On Fri, 7 Apr 2017, Mathias Krause wrote:
>> On 7 April 2017 at 11:46, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> wrote:
>> > Whether protected by preempt_disable or local_irq_disable, to make that
>> > work it needs CR0 handling in the exception entry/exit at the lowest
>> > level. And that's just a nightmare maintainence wise as it's prone to be
>> > broken over time.
>>
>> It seems to be working fine for more than a decade now in PaX. So it
>> can't be such a big maintenance nightmare ;)
>
> I really do not care whether PaX wants to chase and verify that over and
> over. I certainly don't want to take the chance to leak CR0.WP ever and I
> very much care about extra stuff to check in the entry/exit path.

Fair enough. However, placing a BUG_ON(!(read_cr0() & X86_CR0_WP))
somewhere sensible should make those "leaks" visible fast -- and their
exploitation impossible, i.e. fail hard.

>> The "proper solution" seems to be much slower compared to just
>> toggling CR0.WP (which is costly in itself, already) because of the
>> TLB invalidation / synchronisation involved.
>
> Why the heck should we care about rare writes being performant?

As soon as they stop being rare and people start extending the r/o
protection to critical data structures accessed often. Then
performance matters.

>> > It's valid (at least on x86) to have a shadow map with the same page
>> > attributes but write enabled. That does not require any fixups of CR0 and
>> > just works.
>>
>> "Just works", sure -- but it's not as tightly focused as the PaX
>> solution which is CPU local, while your proposed solution is globally
>> visible.
>
> Making the world and some more writeable hardly qualifies as tightly
> focussed. Making the mapping concept CPU local is not rocket science
> either. The question is whethers it's worth the trouble.

No, the question is if the value of the concept is well understood and
if people can see what could be done with such a strong primitive.
Apparently not...


Cheers,
Mathias

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#1618945 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromAndy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
Date2017-04-07 18:20 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttEMa-18X-23@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1618802
On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 6:30 AM, Mathias Krause <minipli@googlemail.com> wrote:
> On 7 April 2017 at 15:14, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> wrote:
>> On Fri, 7 Apr 2017, Mathias Krause wrote:
>>> On 7 April 2017 at 11:46, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> wrote:
>>> > Whether protected by preempt_disable or local_irq_disable, to make that
>>> > work it needs CR0 handling in the exception entry/exit at the lowest
>>> > level. And that's just a nightmare maintainence wise as it's prone to be
>>> > broken over time.
>>>
>>> It seems to be working fine for more than a decade now in PaX. So it
>>> can't be such a big maintenance nightmare ;)
>>
>> I really do not care whether PaX wants to chase and verify that over and
>> over. I certainly don't want to take the chance to leak CR0.WP ever and I
>> very much care about extra stuff to check in the entry/exit path.
>
> Fair enough. However, placing a BUG_ON(!(read_cr0() & X86_CR0_WP))
> somewhere sensible should make those "leaks" visible fast -- and their
> exploitation impossible, i.e. fail hard.

The leaks surely exist and now we'll just add an exploitable BUG.

>>> > It's valid (at least on x86) to have a shadow map with the same page
>>> > attributes but write enabled. That does not require any fixups of CR0 and
>>> > just works.
>>>
>>> "Just works", sure -- but it's not as tightly focused as the PaX
>>> solution which is CPU local, while your proposed solution is globally
>>> visible.
>>
>> Making the world and some more writeable hardly qualifies as tightly
>> focussed. Making the mapping concept CPU local is not rocket science
>> either. The question is whethers it's worth the trouble.
>
> No, the question is if the value of the concept is well understood and
> if people can see what could be done with such a strong primitive.
> Apparently not...

I think we're approaching this all wrong, actually.  The fact that x86
has this CR0.WP thing is arguably a historical accident, and the fact
that PaX uses it doesn't mean that PaX is doing it the best way for
upstream Linux.

Why don't we start at the other end and do a generic non-arch-specific
implementation: set up an mm_struct that contains an RW alias of the
relevant parts of rodata and use use_mm to access it.  (That is,
get_fs() to back up the old fs, set_fs(USER_DS),
use_mm(&rare_write_mm), do the write using copy_to_user, undo
everything.)

Then someone who cares about performance can benchmark the CR0.WP
approach against it and try to argue that it's a good idea.  This
benchmark should wait until I'm done with my PCID work, because PCID
is going to make use_mm() a whole heck of a lot faster.

--Andy

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#1618948 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromMark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Date2017-04-07 18:30 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttEVP-1dU-7@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1618945
On Fri, Apr 07, 2017 at 09:14:29AM -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> I think we're approaching this all wrong, actually.  The fact that x86
> has this CR0.WP thing is arguably a historical accident, and the fact
> that PaX uses it doesn't mean that PaX is doing it the best way for
> upstream Linux.
> 
> Why don't we start at the other end and do a generic non-arch-specific
> implementation: set up an mm_struct that contains an RW alias of the
> relevant parts of rodata and use use_mm to access it.  (That is,
> get_fs() to back up the old fs, set_fs(USER_DS),
> use_mm(&rare_write_mm), do the write using copy_to_user, undo
> everything.)

FWIW, I completely agree with this approach.

That's largely the approach arm64 would have to take regardless (as per
Hoeun's patches), and having a consistent common implementation would be
desireable.

There are a couple of other complications to handle (e.g. a perf
interrupt coming in and trying to read from the mapping), but I think we
can handle that generically.

Thanks,
Mark.

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#1619076 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

From"PaX Team" <pageexec@freemail.hu>
Date2017-04-07 22:10 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttImK-3TM-3@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1618945
On 7 Apr 2017 at 9:14, Andy Lutomirski wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 6:30 AM, Mathias Krause <minipli@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > On 7 April 2017 at 15:14, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> wrote:
> >> On Fri, 7 Apr 2017, Mathias Krause wrote:
> > Fair enough. However, placing a BUG_ON(!(read_cr0() & X86_CR0_WP))
> > somewhere sensible should make those "leaks" visible fast -- and their
> > exploitation impossible, i.e. fail hard.
> 
> The leaks surely exist and now we'll just add an exploitable BUG.

can you please share those leaks that 'surely exist' and CC oss-security
while at it?

> I think we're approaching this all wrong, actually.  The fact that x86
> has this CR0.WP thing is arguably a historical accident, and the fact
> that PaX uses it doesn't mean that PaX is doing it the best way for
> upstream Linux.
> 
> Why don't we start at the other end and do a generic non-arch-specific
> implementation: set up an mm_struct that contains an RW alias of the
> relevant parts of rodata and use use_mm to access it.  (That is,
> get_fs() to back up the old fs, set_fs(USER_DS),
> use_mm(&rare_write_mm), do the write using copy_to_user, undo
> everything.)
> 
> Then someone who cares about performance can benchmark the CR0.WP
> approach against it and try to argue that it's a good idea.  This
> benchmark should wait until I'm done with my PCID work, because PCID
> is going to make use_mm() a whole heck of a lot faster.

in my measurements switching PCID is hovers around 230 cycles for snb-ivb
and 200-220 for hsw-skl whereas cr0 writes are around 230-240 cycles. there's
of course a whole lot more impact for switching address spaces so it'll never
be fast enough to beat cr0.wp.

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#1619225 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromAndy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
Date2017-04-08 07:00 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttQDE-FB-11@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619076
On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 12:58 PM, PaX Team <pageexec@freemail.hu> wrote:
> On 7 Apr 2017 at 9:14, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 6:30 AM, Mathias Krause <minipli@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> > On 7 April 2017 at 15:14, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> wrote:
>> >> On Fri, 7 Apr 2017, Mathias Krause wrote:
>> > Fair enough. However, placing a BUG_ON(!(read_cr0() & X86_CR0_WP))
>> > somewhere sensible should make those "leaks" visible fast -- and their
>> > exploitation impossible, i.e. fail hard.
>>
>> The leaks surely exist and now we'll just add an exploitable BUG.
>
> can you please share those leaks that 'surely exist' and CC oss-security
> while at it?

I meant in the patchset here, not in grsecurity.  grsecurity (on very,
very brief inspection) seems to read cr0 and fix it up in
pax_enter_kernel.

>>
>> Then someone who cares about performance can benchmark the CR0.WP
>> approach against it and try to argue that it's a good idea.  This
>> benchmark should wait until I'm done with my PCID work, because PCID
>> is going to make use_mm() a whole heck of a lot faster.
>
> in my measurements switching PCID is hovers around 230 cycles for snb-ivb
> and 200-220 for hsw-skl whereas cr0 writes are around 230-240 cycles. there's
> of course a whole lot more impact for switching address spaces so it'll never
> be fast enough to beat cr0.wp.
>

If I'm reading this right, you're saying that a non-flushing CR3 write
is about the same cost as a CR0.WP write.  If so, then why should CR0
be preferred over the (arch-neutral) CR3 approach?  And why would
switching address spaces obviously be much slower?  There'll be a very
small number of TLB fills needed for the actual protected access.

--Andy

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#1619490 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

From"PaX Team" <pageexec@freemail.hu>
Date2017-04-09 14:50 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<tuks1-2PA-3@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619225
On 7 Apr 2017 at 21:58, Andy Lutomirski wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 12:58 PM, PaX Team <pageexec@freemail.hu> wrote:
> > On 7 Apr 2017 at 9:14, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> >> Then someone who cares about performance can benchmark the CR0.WP
> >> approach against it and try to argue that it's a good idea.  This
> >> benchmark should wait until I'm done with my PCID work, because PCID
> >> is going to make use_mm() a whole heck of a lot faster.
> >
> > in my measurements switching PCID is hovers around 230 cycles for snb-ivb
> > and 200-220 for hsw-skl whereas cr0 writes are around 230-240 cycles. there's
> > of course a whole lot more impact for switching address spaces so it'll never
> > be fast enough to beat cr0.wp.
> >
> 
> If I'm reading this right, you're saying that a non-flushing CR3 write
> is about the same cost as a CR0.WP write.  If so, then why should CR0
> be preferred over the (arch-neutral) CR3 approach?

cr3 (page table switching) isn't arch neutral at all ;). you probably meant
the higher level primitives except they're not enough to implement the scheme
as discussed before since the enter/exit paths are very much arch dependent.

on x86 the cost of the pax_open/close_kernel primitives comes from the cr0
writes and nothing else, use_mm suffers not only from the cr3 writes but
also locking/atomic ops and cr4 writes on its path and the inevitable TLB
entry costs. and if cpu vendors cared enough, they could make toggling cr0.wp
a fast path in the microcode and reduce its overhead by an order of magnitude.

>  And why would switching address spaces obviously be much slower? 
> There'll be a very small number of TLB fills needed for the actual
> protected access. 

you'll be duplicating TLB entries in the alternative PCID for both code
and data, where they will accumulate (=take room away from the normal PCID
and expose unwanted memory for access) unless you also flush them when
switching back (which then will cost even more cycles). also i'm not sure
that processors implement all the 12 PCID bits so depending on how many PCIDs
you plan to use, you could be causing even more unnecessary TLB replacements.

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#1619575 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromAndy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
Date2017-04-10 02:20 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<tuvdL-1Fy-7@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619490
On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 5:47 AM, PaX Team <pageexec@freemail.hu> wrote:
> On 7 Apr 2017 at 21:58, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 12:58 PM, PaX Team <pageexec@freemail.hu> wrote:
>> > On 7 Apr 2017 at 9:14, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>> >> Then someone who cares about performance can benchmark the CR0.WP
>> >> approach against it and try to argue that it's a good idea.  This
>> >> benchmark should wait until I'm done with my PCID work, because PCID
>> >> is going to make use_mm() a whole heck of a lot faster.
>> >
>> > in my measurements switching PCID is hovers around 230 cycles for snb-ivb
>> > and 200-220 for hsw-skl whereas cr0 writes are around 230-240 cycles. there's
>> > of course a whole lot more impact for switching address spaces so it'll never
>> > be fast enough to beat cr0.wp.
>> >
>>
>> If I'm reading this right, you're saying that a non-flushing CR3 write
>> is about the same cost as a CR0.WP write.  If so, then why should CR0
>> be preferred over the (arch-neutral) CR3 approach?
>
> cr3 (page table switching) isn't arch neutral at all ;). you probably meant
> the higher level primitives except they're not enough to implement the scheme
> as discussed before since the enter/exit paths are very much arch dependent.

Yes.

>
> on x86 the cost of the pax_open/close_kernel primitives comes from the cr0
> writes and nothing else, use_mm suffers not only from the cr3 writes but
> also locking/atomic ops and cr4 writes on its path and the inevitable TLB
> entry costs. and if cpu vendors cared enough, they could make toggling cr0.wp
> a fast path in the microcode and reduce its overhead by an order of magnitude.
>

If the CR4 writes happen in for this use case, that's a bug.

>>  And why would switching address spaces obviously be much slower?
>> There'll be a very small number of TLB fills needed for the actual
>> protected access.
>
> you'll be duplicating TLB entries in the alternative PCID for both code
> and data, where they will accumulate (=take room away from the normal PCID
> and expose unwanted memory for access) unless you also flush them when
> switching back (which then will cost even more cycles). also i'm not sure
> that processors implement all the 12 PCID bits so depending on how many PCIDs
> you plan to use, you could be causing even more unnecessary TLB replacements.
>

Unless the CPU is rather dumber than I expect, the only duplicated
entries should be for the writable aliases of pages that are written.
The rest of the pages are global and should be shared for all PCIDs.

--Andy

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#1619800 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

From"PaX Team" <pageexec@freemail.hu>
Date2017-04-10 12:50 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<tuF3s-7X5-7@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619575
On 9 Apr 2017 at 17:10, Andy Lutomirski wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 5:47 AM, PaX Team <pageexec@freemail.hu> wrote:
> > on x86 the cost of the pax_open/close_kernel primitives comes from the cr0
> > writes and nothing else, use_mm suffers not only from the cr3 writes but
> > also locking/atomic ops and cr4 writes on its path and the inevitable TLB
> > entry costs. and if cpu vendors cared enough, they could make toggling cr0.wp
> > a fast path in the microcode and reduce its overhead by an order of magnitude.
> >
> 
> If the CR4 writes happen in for this use case, that's a bug.

that depends on how you plan to handle perf/rdpmc users and how many
alternative mm structs you plan to manage (one global, one per cpu,
one per mm struct, etc).

> > you'll be duplicating TLB entries in the alternative PCID for both code
> > and data, where they will accumulate (=take room away from the normal PCID
> > and expose unwanted memory for access) unless you also flush them when
> > switching back (which then will cost even more cycles). also i'm not sure
> > that processors implement all the 12 PCID bits so depending on how many PCIDs
> > you plan to use, you could be causing even more unnecessary TLB replacements.
> >
> 
> Unless the CPU is rather dumber than I expect, the only duplicated
> entries should be for the writable aliases of pages that are written.
> The rest of the pages are global and should be shared for all PCIDs.

well, 4.10.2.4 has language like this (4.10.3.2 implies similar):

   A logical processor may use a global TLB entry to translate a linear
   address, even if the TLB entry is associated with a PCID different
   from the current PCID.

that to me says that global page entries are associated with a PCID and
may (not) be used while in another PCID. in Intel-speak that's not 'dumb'
but "tricks up our sleeve that we don't really want to tell you about in
detail, except perhaps under a NDA".

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#1619091 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromThomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Date2017-04-07 22:50 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttIZr-4bj-5@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1618945
On Fri, 7 Apr 2017, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 6:30 AM, Mathias Krause <minipli@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > On 7 April 2017 at 15:14, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> wrote:
> >> I really do not care whether PaX wants to chase and verify that over and
> >> over. I certainly don't want to take the chance to leak CR0.WP ever and I
> >> very much care about extra stuff to check in the entry/exit path.
> >
> > Fair enough. However, placing a BUG_ON(!(read_cr0() & X86_CR0_WP))
> > somewhere sensible should make those "leaks" visible fast -- and their
> > exploitation impossible, i.e. fail hard.
> 
> The leaks surely exist and now we'll just add an exploitable BUG.

:)

> I think we're approaching this all wrong, actually.  The fact that x86
> has this CR0.WP thing is arguably a historical accident, and the fact
> that PaX uses it doesn't mean that PaX is doing it the best way for
> upstream Linux.

As I said before. It should be fused to 1.

> Why don't we start at the other end and do a generic non-arch-specific
> implementation: set up an mm_struct that contains an RW alias of the
> relevant parts of rodata and use use_mm to access it.  (That is,
> get_fs() to back up the old fs, set_fs(USER_DS),
> use_mm(&rare_write_mm), do the write using copy_to_user, undo
> everything.)

That works too, though I'm not sure that it's more efficient than
temporarily creating and undoing a single cpu local alias mapping similar
to the kmap_atomic mechanism in the highmem case.

Aside of that the alias mapping requires a full PGDIR entry unless you want
to get into the mess of keeping yet another identity mapping up to date.

Thanks,

	tglx

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#1619126 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromKees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Date2017-04-07 23:30 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttJCa-4GN-9@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619091
On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 1:44 PM, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> wrote:
> On Fri, 7 Apr 2017, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>> On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 6:30 AM, Mathias Krause <minipli@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> > On 7 April 2017 at 15:14, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> wrote:
>> >> I really do not care whether PaX wants to chase and verify that over and
>> >> over. I certainly don't want to take the chance to leak CR0.WP ever and I
>> >> very much care about extra stuff to check in the entry/exit path.
>> >
>> > Fair enough. However, placing a BUG_ON(!(read_cr0() & X86_CR0_WP))
>> > somewhere sensible should make those "leaks" visible fast -- and their
>> > exploitation impossible, i.e. fail hard.
>>
>> The leaks surely exist and now we'll just add an exploitable BUG.
>
> :)
>
>> I think we're approaching this all wrong, actually.  The fact that x86
>> has this CR0.WP thing is arguably a historical accident, and the fact
>> that PaX uses it doesn't mean that PaX is doing it the best way for
>> upstream Linux.
>
> As I said before. It should be fused to 1.
>
>> Why don't we start at the other end and do a generic non-arch-specific
>> implementation: set up an mm_struct that contains an RW alias of the
>> relevant parts of rodata and use use_mm to access it.  (That is,
>> get_fs() to back up the old fs, set_fs(USER_DS),
>> use_mm(&rare_write_mm), do the write using copy_to_user, undo
>> everything.)
>
> That works too, though I'm not sure that it's more efficient than
> temporarily creating and undoing a single cpu local alias mapping similar
> to the kmap_atomic mechanism in the highmem case.
>
> Aside of that the alias mapping requires a full PGDIR entry unless you want
> to get into the mess of keeping yet another identity mapping up to date.

I probably chose the wrong name for this feature (write rarely).
That's _usually_ true, but "sensitive_write()" was getting rather
long. The things that we need to protect with this are certainly stuff
that doesn't get much writing, but some things are just plain
sensitive (like page tables) and we should still try to be as fast as
possible with them.

I'll try to include a third example in the next posting of the series
that makes this more obvious.

I'm all for a general case for the infrastructure (as Andy and Mark
has mentioned), but I don't want to get into the situation where
people start refusing to use it because it's "too slow" (for example,
see refcount_t vs net-dev right now).

-Kees

-- 
Kees Cook
Pixel Security

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#1619218 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromDaniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com>
Date2017-04-08 06:20 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttQ0V-qd-1@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619126
> I probably chose the wrong name for this feature (write rarely).
> That's _usually_ true, but "sensitive_write()" was getting rather
> long. The things that we need to protect with this are certainly stuff
> that doesn't get much writing, but some things are just plain
> sensitive (like page tables) and we should still try to be as fast as
> possible with them.

Not too late to rename it. Scoped write? I think it makes change to
use a different API than PaX for portability too, but not a different
x86 implementation. It's quite important to limit the writes to the
calling thread and it needs to perform well to be introduced widely.

> I'm all for a general case for the infrastructure (as Andy and Mark
> has mentioned), but I don't want to get into the situation where
> people start refusing to use it because it's "too slow" (for example,
> see refcount_t vs net-dev right now).

Meanwhile, the PaX implementation has improved to avoid the issues
that were brought up while only introducing a single always-predicted
(due to code placement) branch on the overflow flag. That seems to
have gone unnoticed upstream, where there's now a much slower
implementation that's not more secure, and is blocked from
introduction in areas where it's most needed based on the performance.
Not to mention that it's opt-in... which is never going to work.

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#1619219 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromDaniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com>
Date2017-04-08 06:20 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttQ0V-qd-3@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619218
> Not too late to rename it. Scoped write? I think it makes change to

s/change/sense/

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#1619220 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromDaniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com>
Date2017-04-08 06:30 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttQaB-wo-1@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1618945
>> Fair enough. However, placing a BUG_ON(!(read_cr0() & X86_CR0_WP))
>> somewhere sensible should make those "leaks" visible fast -- and their
>> exploitation impossible, i.e. fail hard.
>
> The leaks surely exist and now we'll just add an exploitable BUG.

That didn't seem to matter for landing a rewrite of KSTACKOVERFLOW
with a bunch of *known* DoS bugs dealt with in grsecurity and those
were known issues that were unfixed for no apparent reason other than
keeping egos intact. It looks like there are still some left...

In that case, there also wasn't a security/performance advantage.

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#1619228 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromAndy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
Date2017-04-08 07:10 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttQNj-YJ-1@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619220
On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 9:21 PM, Daniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Fair enough. However, placing a BUG_ON(!(read_cr0() & X86_CR0_WP))
>>> somewhere sensible should make those "leaks" visible fast -- and their
>>> exploitation impossible, i.e. fail hard.
>>
>> The leaks surely exist and now we'll just add an exploitable BUG.
>
> That didn't seem to matter for landing a rewrite of KSTACKOVERFLOW
> with a bunch of *known* DoS bugs dealt with in grsecurity and those
> were known issues that were unfixed for no apparent reason other than
> keeping egos intact. It looks like there are still some left...
>
> In that case, there also wasn't a security/performance advantage.

This is wildly off topic, but I think it's worth answering anyway
because there's an important point here:

grsecurity and PaX are great projects.  They have a lot of good ideas,
and they're put together quite nicely.  The upstream kernel should
*not* do things differently from they way they are in grsecurity/PaX
just because it wants to be different.  Conversely, the upstream
kernel should not do things the same way as PaX just to be more like
PaX.

Keep in mind that the upstream kernel and grsecurity/PaX operate under
different constraints.  The upstream kernel tries to keep itself clean
and to make tree-wide updates rather that keeping compatibility stuff
around.  PaX and grsecurity presumably want to retain some degree of
simplicity when porting to newer upstream versions.

In the context of virtually mapped stacks / KSTACKOVERFLOW, this
naturally leads to different solutions.  The upstream kernel had a
bunch of buggy drivers that played badly with virtually mapped stacks.
grsecurity sensibly went for the approach where the buggy drivers kept
working.  The upstream kernel went for the approach of fixing the
drivers rather than keeping a compatibility workaround.  Different
constraints, different solutions.

The point being that, if someone sends a patch to the x86 entry code
that's justified by "be like PaX" or by "be different than PaX",
that's not okay.  It needs a real justification that stands on its
own.

In the case of rare writes or pax_open_kernel [1] or whatever we want
to call it, CR3 would work without arch-specific code, and CR0 would
not.  That's an argument for CR3 that would need to be countered by
something.  (Sure, avoiding leaks either way might need arch changes.
OTOH, a *randomized* CR3-based approach might not have as much of a
leak issue to begin with.)

[1] Contrary to popular belief, I don't sit around reading grsecurity
code or config options, so I really don't know what this thing is
called.

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#1619240 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromDaniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com>
Date2017-04-08 09:40 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<ttT8t-2kE-5@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619228
> grsecurity and PaX are great projects.  They have a lot of good ideas,
> and they're put together quite nicely.  The upstream kernel should
> *not* do things differently from they way they are in grsecurity/PaX
> just because it wants to be different.  Conversely, the upstream
> kernel should not do things the same way as PaX just to be more like
> PaX.
>
> Keep in mind that the upstream kernel and grsecurity/PaX operate under
> different constraints.  The upstream kernel tries to keep itself clean
> and to make tree-wide updates rather that keeping compatibility stuff
> around.  PaX and grsecurity presumably want to retain some degree of
> simplicity when porting to newer upstream versions.
>
> In the context of virtually mapped stacks / KSTACKOVERFLOW, this
> naturally leads to different solutions.  The upstream kernel had a
> bunch of buggy drivers that played badly with virtually mapped stacks.
> grsecurity sensibly went for the approach where the buggy drivers kept
> working.  The upstream kernel went for the approach of fixing the
> drivers rather than keeping a compatibility workaround.  Different
> constraints, different solutions.

Sure, but nothing is currently landed right now and the PaX
implementation is a known quantity with a lot of testing. The
submitted code is aimed at rare writes to globals, but this feature is
more than that and design decisions shouldn't be based on just the
short term. Kees is sensibly landing features by submitting them a
little bit at a time, but a negative side effect of that is too much
focus on just the initial proposed usage.

As a downstream that's going to be making heavy use of mainline
security features as a base due to PaX and grsecurity becoming
commercial only private patches (*because* of upstream and the
companies involved), I hope things go in the right direction i.e. not
weaker/slower implementations than PaX. For example, while USERCOPY
isn't entirely landed upstream (missing slab whitelisting and user
offset/size), it's the base for the full feature and is going to get
more testing. On the other hand, refcount_t and the slab/page
sanitization work is 100% useless if you're willing to incorporate the
changes to do it without needless performance loss and complexity. PAN
emulation on 64-bit ARM was fresh ground while on ARMv7 a weaker
implementation was used for no better reason than clashing egos. The
upstream virtual mapped stacks will probably be perfectly good, but I
just find it to be such a waste of time and effort to reinvent it and
retread the same ground in terms of finding the bugs.

I actually care a lot more about 64-bit ARM support than I do x86, but
using a portable API for pax_open_kernel (for the simple uses at
least) is separate from choosing the underlying implementation. There
might not be a great way to do it on the architectures I care about
but that doesn't need to hinder x86. It's really not that much code...
A weaker/slower implementation for x86 also encourages the same
elsewhere.

> In the case of rare writes or pax_open_kernel [1] or whatever we want
> to call it, CR3 would work without arch-specific code, and CR0 would
> not.  That's an argument for CR3 that would need to be countered by
> something.  (Sure, avoiding leaks either way might need arch changes.
> OTOH, a *randomized* CR3-based approach might not have as much of a
> leak issue to begin with.)

By randomized do you mean just ASLR? Even if the window of opportunity
to exploit it is small, it's really not the same and this has a lot
more use than just rare writes to small global variables.

I wouldn't consider stack ASLR to be a replacement for making them
readable/writable only by the current thread either (required for
race-free return CFI on x86, at least without not using actual
returns).

> [1] Contrary to popular belief, I don't sit around reading grsecurity
> code or config options, so I really don't know what this thing is
> called.

Lots of the features aren't actually named. Maybe this could be
considered part of KERNEXEC but I don't think it is.

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#1619310 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromAndy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
Date2017-04-08 17:30 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<tu0tk-6YE-13@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619240
On Sat, Apr 8, 2017 at 12:33 AM, Daniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com> wrote:
> The
> submitted code is aimed at rare writes to globals, but this feature is
> more than that and design decisions shouldn't be based on just the
> short term.

Then, if you disagree with a proposed design, *explain why* in a
standalone manner.  Say what future uses a different design would
have.

> I actually care a lot more about 64-bit ARM support than I do x86, but
> using a portable API for pax_open_kernel (for the simple uses at
> least) is separate from choosing the underlying implementation. There
> might not be a great way to do it on the architectures I care about
> but that doesn't need to hinder x86. It's really not that much code...
> A weaker/slower implementation for x86 also encourages the same
> elsewhere.

No one has explained how CR0.WP is weaker or slower than my proposal.
Here's what I'm proposing:

At boot, choose a random address A.  Create an mm_struct that has a
single VMA starting at A that represents the kernel's rarely-written
section.  Compute O = (A - VA of rarely-written section).  To do a
rare write, use_mm() the mm, write to (VA + O), then unuse_mm().

This should work on any arch that has an MMU that allows this type of
aliasing and that doesn't have PA-based protections on the
rarely-written section.

It'll be considerably slower than CR0.WP on a current x86 kernel, but,
with PCID landed, it shouldn't be much slower.  It has the added
benefit that writes to non-rare-write data using the rare-write
primitive will fail.

--Andy

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#1619480 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromIngo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Date2017-04-09 13:00 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<tuiJA-1J6-9@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619310
* Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 8, 2017 at 12:33 AM, Daniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com> wrote:
> > The
> > submitted code is aimed at rare writes to globals, but this feature is
> > more than that and design decisions shouldn't be based on just the
> > short term.
> 
> Then, if you disagree with a proposed design, *explain why* in a
> standalone manner.  Say what future uses a different design would
> have.
> 
> > I actually care a lot more about 64-bit ARM support than I do x86, but
> > using a portable API for pax_open_kernel (for the simple uses at
> > least) is separate from choosing the underlying implementation. There
> > might not be a great way to do it on the architectures I care about
> > but that doesn't need to hinder x86. It's really not that much code...
> > A weaker/slower implementation for x86 also encourages the same
> > elsewhere.
> 
> No one has explained how CR0.WP is weaker or slower than my proposal.
> Here's what I'm proposing:
> 
> At boot, choose a random address A.  Create an mm_struct that has a
> single VMA starting at A that represents the kernel's rarely-written
> section.  Compute O = (A - VA of rarely-written section).  To do a
> rare write, use_mm() the mm, write to (VA + O), then unuse_mm().

BTW., note that this is basically a pagetable based protection key variant.

> It'll be considerably slower than CR0.WP on a current x86 kernel, but, with PCID 
> landed, it shouldn't be much slower.  It has the added benefit that writes to 
> non-rare-write data using the rare-write primitive will fail.

... which is a security advantage of the use_mm() based design you suggest.

Thanks,

	Ingo

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#1619785 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromMark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Date2017-04-10 12:30 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<tuEK5-7QB-13@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619310
On Sat, Apr 08, 2017 at 08:20:03AM -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 8, 2017 at 12:33 AM, Daniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com> wrote:
> > The
> > submitted code is aimed at rare writes to globals, but this feature is
> > more than that and design decisions shouldn't be based on just the
> > short term.
> 
> Then, if you disagree with a proposed design, *explain why* in a
> standalone manner.  Say what future uses a different design would
> have.
> 
> > I actually care a lot more about 64-bit ARM support than I do x86, but
> > using a portable API for pax_open_kernel (for the simple uses at
> > least) is separate from choosing the underlying implementation. There
> > might not be a great way to do it on the architectures I care about
> > but that doesn't need to hinder x86. It's really not that much code...
> > A weaker/slower implementation for x86 also encourages the same
> > elsewhere.
> 
> No one has explained how CR0.WP is weaker or slower than my proposal.
> Here's what I'm proposing:
> 
> At boot, choose a random address A.  Create an mm_struct that has a
> single VMA starting at A that represents the kernel's rarely-written
> section.  Compute O = (A - VA of rarely-written section).  To do a
> rare write, use_mm() the mm, write to (VA + O), then unuse_mm().
> 
> This should work on any arch that has an MMU that allows this type of
> aliasing and that doesn't have PA-based protections on the
> rarely-written section.

Modulo randomization, that sounds exactly like what I had envisaged [1],
so that makes sense to me.

Thanks,
Mark.

[1] http://www.openwall.com/lists/kernel-hardening/2016/11/18/3

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#1619546 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

From"PaX Team" <pageexec@freemail.hu>
Date2017-04-09 22:30 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<turDb-7Lg-5@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619228
On 7 Apr 2017 at 22:07, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> grsecurity and PaX are great projects.  They have a lot of good ideas,
> and they're put together quite nicely.  The upstream kernel should
> *not* do things differently from they way they are in grsecurity/PaX
> just because it wants to be different.  Conversely, the upstream
> kernel should not do things the same way as PaX just to be more like
> PaX.

so weit so gut.

> Keep in mind that the upstream kernel and grsecurity/PaX operate under
> different constraints.  The upstream kernel tries to keep itself clean

so do we.

> and to make tree-wide updates rather that keeping compatibility stuff
> around.

so do we (e.g., fptr fixes for RAP, non-refcount atomic users, etc).

>  PaX and grsecurity presumably want to retain some degree of
> simplicity when porting to newer upstream versions.

s/simplicity/minimality/ as the code itself can be complex but that'll be
of the minimal complexity we can come up with.

> In the context of virtually mapped stacks / KSTACKOVERFLOW, this
> naturally leads to different solutions.  The upstream kernel had a
> bunch of buggy drivers that played badly with virtually mapped stacks.
> grsecurity sensibly went for the approach where the buggy drivers kept
> working.  The upstream kernel went for the approach of fixing the
> drivers rather than keeping a compatibility workaround.  Different
> constraints, different solutions.

except that's not what happened at all. spender's first version did just
a vmalloc for the kstack like the totally NIH'd version upstream does
now. while we always anticipated buggy dma users and thus had code that
would detect them so that we could fix them, we quickly figured that the
upstream kernel wasn't quite up to snuff as we had assumed and faced with
the amount of buggy code, we went for the current vmap approach which
kept users' systems working instead of breaking them.

you're trying to imply that upstream fixed the drivers but as the facts
show, that's not true. you simply unleashed your code on the world and
hoped(?) that enough suckers would try it out during the -rc window. as
we all know several releases and almost a year later, that was a losing
bet as you still keep fixing those drivers (and something tells me that
we haven't seen the end of it). this is simply irresponsible engineering
for no technical reason.

> In the case of rare writes or pax_open_kernel [1] or whatever we want
> to call it, CR3 would work without arch-specific code, and CR0 would
> not.  That's an argument for CR3 that would need to be countered by
> something.  (Sure, avoiding leaks either way might need arch changes.
> OTOH, a *randomized* CR3-based approach might not have as much of a
> leak issue to begin with.)

i have yet to see anyone explain what they mean by 'leak' here but if it
is what i think it is then the arch specific entry/exit changes are not
optional but mandatory. see below for randomization.

[merging in your other mail as it's the same topic]

> No one has explained how CR0.WP is weaker or slower than my proposal.

you misunderstood, Daniel was talking about your use_mm approach.

> Here's what I'm proposing:
> 
> At boot, choose a random address A.

what is the threat that a random address defends against?

>  Create an mm_struct that has a
> single VMA starting at A that represents the kernel's rarely-written
> section.  Compute O = (A - VA of rarely-written section).  To do a
> rare write, use_mm() the mm, write to (VA + O), then unuse_mm().

the problem is that the amount of __read_only data extends beyond vmlinux,
i.e., this approach won't scale. another problem is that it can't be used
inside use_mm and switch_mm themselves (no read-only task structs or percpu
pgd for you ;) and probably several other contexts.

last but not least, use_mm says this about itself:

    (Note: this routine is intended to be called only
    from a kernel thread context)

so using it will need some engineering (or the comment be fixed).

> This should work on any arch that has an MMU that allows this type of
> aliasing and that doesn't have PA-based protections on the rarely-written
> section.

you didn't address the arch-specific changes needed in the enter/exit paths.

> It'll be considerably slower than CR0.WP on a current x86 kernel, but,
> with PCID landed, it shouldn't be much slower.

based on my experience with UDEREF on amd64, unfortunately PCID isn't all
it's cracked up to be (IIRC, it maybe halved the UDEREF overhead instead of
basically eliminating it as i had anticipated, and that was on snb, ivb and
later do even worse).

> It has the added benefit that writes to non-rare-write data using the
> rare-write primitive will fail.

what is the threat model you're assuming for this feature? based on what i
have for PaX (arbitrary read/write access exploited for data-only attacks),
the above makes no sense to me...

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#1619580 — Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()

FromAndy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
Date2017-04-10 02:40 +0200
SubjectRe: [kernel-hardening] Re: [RFC v2][PATCH 04/11] x86: Implement __arch_rare_write_begin/unmap()
Message-ID<tuvx7-1Nh-5@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1619546
On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:24 PM, PaX Team <pageexec@freemail.hu> wrote:
>
>> In the context of virtually mapped stacks / KSTACKOVERFLOW, this
>> naturally leads to different solutions.  The upstream kernel had a
>> bunch of buggy drivers that played badly with virtually mapped stacks.
>> grsecurity sensibly went for the approach where the buggy drivers kept
>> working.  The upstream kernel went for the approach of fixing the
>> drivers rather than keeping a compatibility workaround.  Different
>> constraints, different solutions.
>
> except that's not what happened at all. spender's first version did just
> a vmalloc for the kstack like the totally NIH'd version upstream does
> now. while we always anticipated buggy dma users and thus had code that
> would detect them so that we could fix them, we quickly figured that the
> upstream kernel wasn't quite up to snuff as we had assumed and faced with
> the amount of buggy code, we went for the current vmap approach which
> kept users' systems working instead of breaking them.
>
> you're trying to imply that upstream fixed the drivers but as the facts
> show, that's not true. you simply unleashed your code on the world and
> hoped(?) that enough suckers would try it out during the -rc window. as
> we all know several releases and almost a year later, that was a losing
> bet as you still keep fixing those drivers (and something tells me that
> we haven't seen the end of it). this is simply irresponsible engineering
> for no technical reason.

I consider breaking buggy drivers (in a way that they either generally
work okay or that they break with a nice OOPS depending on config) to
be better than having a special case in what's supposed to be a fast
path to keep them working.  I did consider forcing the relevant debug
options on for a while just to help shake these bugs out the woodwork
faster.

>
>> In the case of rare writes or pax_open_kernel [1] or whatever we want
>> to call it, CR3 would work without arch-specific code, and CR0 would
>> not.  That's an argument for CR3 that would need to be countered by
>> something.  (Sure, avoiding leaks either way might need arch changes.
>> OTOH, a *randomized* CR3-based approach might not have as much of a
>> leak issue to begin with.)
>
> i have yet to see anyone explain what they mean by 'leak' here but if it
> is what i think it is then the arch specific entry/exit changes are not
> optional but mandatory. see below for randomization.

By "leak" I mean that a bug or exploit causes unintended code to run
with CR0.WP or a special CR3 or a special PTE or whatever loaded.  PaX
hooks the entry code to avoid leaks.

>> At boot, choose a random address A.
>
> what is the threat that a random address defends against?

Makes it harder to exploit a case where the CR3 setting leaks.

>
>>  Create an mm_struct that has a
>> single VMA starting at A that represents the kernel's rarely-written
>> section.  Compute O = (A - VA of rarely-written section).  To do a
>> rare write, use_mm() the mm, write to (VA + O), then unuse_mm().
>
> the problem is that the amount of __read_only data extends beyond vmlinux,
> i.e., this approach won't scale. another problem is that it can't be used
> inside use_mm and switch_mm themselves (no read-only task structs or percpu
> pgd for you ;) and probably several other contexts.

Can you clarify these uses that extend beyond vmlinux?  I haven't
looked at the grsecurity patch extensively.  Are you talking about the
BPF JIT stuff?  If so, I think that should possibly be handled a bit
differently, since I think the normal
write-to-rare-write-vmlinux-sections primitive should preferably *not*
be usable to write to executable pages.  Using a real mm_struct for
this could help.

>
> last but not least, use_mm says this about itself:
>
>     (Note: this routine is intended to be called only
>     from a kernel thread context)
>
> so using it will need some engineering (or the comment be fixed).

Indeed.

>> It has the added benefit that writes to non-rare-write data using the
>> rare-write primitive will fail.
>
> what is the threat model you're assuming for this feature? based on what i
> have for PaX (arbitrary read/write access exploited for data-only attacks),
> the above makes no sense to me...
>

If I use the primitive to try to write a value to the wrong section
(write to kernel text, for example), IMO it would be nice to OOPS
instead of succeeding.

Please keep in mind that, unlike PaX, uses of a pax_open_kernel()-like
function will may be carefully audited by a friendly security expert
such as yourself.  It would be nice to harden the primitive to a
reasonable extent against minor misuses such as putting it in a
context where the compiler will emit mov-a-reg-with-WP-set-to-CR0;
ret.

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