Re: [PATCH v2] ARM: mm: flip priority of CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA

From: Laura Abbott
Date: Wed Dec 02 2015 - 19:05:16 EST


On 12/02/2015 12:27 PM, Kees Cook wrote:
The use of CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA is generally seen as an essential part of
kernel self-protection:
http://www.openwall.com/lists/kernel-hardening/2015/11/30/13
Additionally, its name has grown to mean things beyond just rodata. To
get ARM closer to this, we ought to rearrange the names of the configs
that control how the kernel protects its memory. What was called
CONFIG_ARM_KERNMEM_PERMS is really doing the work that other architectures
call CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA.

This redefines CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA to actually do the bulk of the
ROing (and NXing). In the place of the old CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA, use
CONFIG_DEBUG_ALIGN_RODATA, since that's what the option does: adds
section alignment for making rodata explicitly NX, as arm does not split
the page tables like arm64 does without _ALIGN_RODATA.

Also adds human readable names to the sections so I could more easily
debug my typos, and makes CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA default "y" for CPU_V7.

Results in /sys/kernel/debug/kernel_page_tables for each config state:

# CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA is not set
# CONFIG_DEBUG_ALIGN_RODATA is not set

---[ Kernel Mapping ]---
0x80000000-0x80900000 9M RW x SHD
0x80900000-0xa0000000 503M RW NX SHD

CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA=y
CONFIG_DEBUG_ALIGN_RODATA=y

---[ Kernel Mapping ]---
0x80000000-0x80100000 1M RW NX SHD
0x80100000-0x80700000 6M ro x SHD
0x80700000-0x80a00000 3M ro NX SHD
0x80a00000-0xa0000000 502M RW NX SHD

CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA=y
# CONFIG_DEBUG_ALIGN_RODATA is not set

---[ Kernel Mapping ]---
0x80000000-0x80100000 1M RW NX SHD
0x80100000-0x80a00000 9M ro x SHD
0x80a00000-0xa0000000 502M RW NX SHD

Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
---

Reviewed-by: Laura Abbott <labbott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

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