diff options
| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
| commit | 034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c (patch) | |
| tree | 2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/arch/arm64/pointer-authentication.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.tar.gz linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.zip | |
Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt:
- Fix error output of boot instance creation failure
Currently if a boot instance creation fails, instead of printing out
the name of the instance that failed, it prints "(null)". That is
because it prints "cur_str" that had already been processed by
strsep(). Print the saved name instead.
While at it, print the error code of the failure.
- Fix use-after-free for same named historgrams
Histograms can be named so that they can be used in multiple events.
But if the named histogram has a variable attached, the second event
that uses the named histogram which duplicates it and needs to free
the original after duplication leaves the old variable in place and
still visible. If another histogram uses than variable, it will use
the stale one which will try to reference the freed duplicate
histogram and crash the kernel.
Free the duplicate variables along with the duplicated histogram
data.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in event self test
The events self tests uses a kthread for testing but does not check
if it succeeded in creating a kthread. If the kthread creation were
to fail, the code will still try to call kthread_stop() on the error
returned.
- Fix race between reading trace_pipe and updating subbuffer size
If a user is reading the trace_pipe file at the same time they update
the ring buffer sub-buffer size, can cause the trace_pipe read to
read stale data. Add trace_access_lock() around updating the ring
buffer sub-buffer size.
- Fix eventfs_inode on failure path in creation of the events directory
In the creation of the "events" directory, if after allocating the
eventfs_inode a failure is detected, it calls cleanup_ei() which
calls free_ei(). The free_ei() will test if eventfs_inode being freed
has no children. It is a bug if it does. But on the failure case of
the creation of the "events" directory, the children lists have not
yet been initialized and the free will trigger a warning because
list_empty() on an uninitialized list returns false.
Move the initialization into init_ei() where it makes more sense and
makes sure that a created eventfs_inode has its lists initialized
upon creation.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in ftrace direct sample code
The sample code that shows how to use the ftrace direct calls does
not test the return of kthread_run() to see if it succeeds. Return a
failure if the kthread_run() doesn't succeed.
- Clear user events state on fork in case of alloc failure
On fork, the child gets a pointer to the parent's user events state.
It makes a copy of it then updates the child's pointer to it. But if
the allocation fails, the duplication function leaves the child with
a pointer to its parent's descriptor. When the child cleans up its
data, it will free the parent's descriptor while the parent is still
using it.
In the duplication function, set the child's user_event_mm to NULL
before testing if the allocation succeeded, and when it exits it will
not free the parent's descriptor.
- Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
simple_ring_buffer_swap_reader_page() starts with retry set to 8 and
post-decrements it only after a failed link replacement. On the final
attempt, a successful replacement leaves retry at zero, while a
failed replacement leaves it at -1.
But the check for success expects the retry value to be non-zero and
exits with an error on zero. This is the opposite result. Fix it.
- Fail nicely when the remote swap_reader_page() returns an error
Currently, if the swap_reader_page() of a remote buffer fails, it
triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE() and continues normally. Instead, have it
exit with an error and a pr_warn() print instead of a full WARNING.
* tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace:
ring-buffer: Stop remote reader update when page swap fails
tracing: Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
tracing/user_events: Clear copied tracing state before fork duplication
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-multi-modify
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-modify
eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei()
tracing: Fix use-after-free in trace_pipe read on sub-buffer order change
tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()
tracing: Fix use-after-free with same-name named triggers
tracing: Fix logged instance name on creation failure
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/arch/arm64/pointer-authentication.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/arch/arm64/pointer-authentication.rst | 142 |
1 files changed, 142 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/arch/arm64/pointer-authentication.rst b/Documentation/arch/arm64/pointer-authentication.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e5dad2e40 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/arch/arm64/pointer-authentication.rst @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ +======================================= +Pointer authentication in AArch64 Linux +======================================= + +Author: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> + +Date: 2017-07-19 + +This document briefly describes the provision of pointer authentication +functionality in AArch64 Linux. + + +Architecture overview +--------------------- + +The ARMv8.3 Pointer Authentication extension adds primitives that can be +used to mitigate certain classes of attack where an attacker can corrupt +the contents of some memory (e.g. the stack). + +The extension uses a Pointer Authentication Code (PAC) to determine +whether pointers have been modified unexpectedly. A PAC is derived from +a pointer, another value (such as the stack pointer), and a secret key +held in system registers. + +The extension adds instructions to insert a valid PAC into a pointer, +and to verify/remove the PAC from a pointer. The PAC occupies a number +of high-order bits of the pointer, which varies dependent on the +configured virtual address size and whether pointer tagging is in use. + +A subset of these instructions have been allocated from the HINT +encoding space. In the absence of the extension (or when disabled), +these instructions behave as NOPs. Applications and libraries using +these instructions operate correctly regardless of the presence of the +extension. + +The extension provides five separate keys to generate PACs - two for +instruction addresses (APIAKey, APIBKey), two for data addresses +(APDAKey, APDBKey), and one for generic authentication (APGAKey). + + +Basic support +------------- + +When CONFIG_ARM64_PTR_AUTH is selected, and relevant HW support is +present, the kernel will assign random key values to each process at +exec*() time. The keys are shared by all threads within the process, and +are preserved across fork(). + +Presence of address authentication functionality is advertised via +HWCAP_PACA, and generic authentication functionality via HWCAP_PACG. + +The number of bits that the PAC occupies in a pointer is 55 minus the +virtual address size configured by the kernel. For example, with a +virtual address size of 48, the PAC is 7 bits wide. + +When ARM64_PTR_AUTH_KERNEL is selected, the kernel will be compiled +with HINT space pointer authentication instructions protecting +function returns. Kernels built with this option will work on hardware +with or without pointer authentication support. + +In addition to exec(), keys can also be reinitialized to random values +using the PR_PAC_RESET_KEYS prctl. A bitmask of PR_PAC_APIAKEY, +PR_PAC_APIBKEY, PR_PAC_APDAKEY, PR_PAC_APDBKEY and PR_PAC_APGAKEY +specifies which keys are to be reinitialized; specifying 0 means "all +keys". + + +Debugging +--------- + +When CONFIG_ARM64_PTR_AUTH is selected, and HW support for address +authentication is present, the kernel will expose the position of TTBR0 +PAC bits in the NT_ARM_PAC_MASK regset (struct user_pac_mask), which +userspace can acquire via PTRACE_GETREGSET. + +The regset is exposed only when HWCAP_PACA is set. Separate masks are +exposed for data pointers and instruction pointers, as the set of PAC +bits can vary between the two. Note that the masks apply to TTBR0 +addresses, and are not valid to apply to TTBR1 addresses (e.g. kernel +pointers). + +Additionally, when CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE is also set, the kernel +will expose the NT_ARM_PACA_KEYS and NT_ARM_PACG_KEYS regsets (struct +user_pac_address_keys and struct user_pac_generic_keys). These can be +used to get and set the keys for a thread. + + +Virtualization +-------------- + +Pointer authentication is enabled in KVM guest when each virtual cpu is +initialised by passing flags KVM_ARM_VCPU_PTRAUTH_[ADDRESS/GENERIC] and +requesting these two separate cpu features to be enabled. The current KVM +guest implementation works by enabling both features together, so both +these userspace flags are checked before enabling pointer authentication. +The separate userspace flag will allow to have no userspace ABI changes +if support is added in the future to allow these two features to be +enabled independently of one another. + +As Arm Architecture specifies that Pointer Authentication feature is +implemented along with the VHE feature so KVM arm64 ptrauth code relies +on VHE mode to be present. + +Additionally, when these vcpu feature flags are not set then KVM will +filter out the Pointer Authentication system key registers from +KVM_GET/SET_REG_* ioctls and mask those features from cpufeature ID +register. Any attempt to use the Pointer Authentication instructions will +result in an UNDEFINED exception being injected into the guest. + + +Enabling and disabling keys +--------------------------- + +The prctl PR_PAC_SET_ENABLED_KEYS allows the user program to control which +PAC keys are enabled in a particular task. It takes two arguments, the +first being a bitmask of PR_PAC_APIAKEY, PR_PAC_APIBKEY, PR_PAC_APDAKEY +and PR_PAC_APDBKEY specifying which keys shall be affected by this prctl, +and the second being a bitmask of the same bits specifying whether the key +should be enabled or disabled. For example:: + + prctl(PR_PAC_SET_ENABLED_KEYS, + PR_PAC_APIAKEY | PR_PAC_APIBKEY | PR_PAC_APDAKEY | PR_PAC_APDBKEY, + PR_PAC_APIBKEY, 0, 0); + +disables all keys except the IB key. + +The main reason why this is useful is to enable a userspace ABI that uses PAC +instructions to sign and authenticate function pointers and other pointers +exposed outside of the function, while still allowing binaries conforming to +the ABI to interoperate with legacy binaries that do not sign or authenticate +pointers. + +The idea is that a dynamic loader or early startup code would issue this +prctl very early after establishing that a process may load legacy binaries, +but before executing any PAC instructions. + +For compatibility with previous kernel versions, processes start up with IA, +IB, DA and DB enabled, and are reset to this state on exec(). Processes created +via fork() and clone() inherit the key enabled state from the calling process. + +It is recommended to avoid disabling the IA key, as this has higher performance +overhead than disabling any of the other keys. |
