Re: [PATCH v4 0/4] Introduce the initify gcc plugin

[Kees Cook]

On Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 2:06 PM, Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This is a continuation of Emese Revfy's initify plugin upstreaming. This
> is based on her v3, but updated with various fixes from her github tree.
> Additionally, I split off the printf attribute fixes and sent those
> separately.
>
> This is the initify gcc plugin. The kernel already has a mechanism to
> free up code and data memory that is only used during kernel or module
> initialization.  This plugin will teach the compiler to find more such
> code and data that can be freed after initialization. It reduces memory
> usage.  The initify gcc plugin can be useful for embedded systems.
>
> Originally it was a CII project supported by the Linux Foundation.
>
> This plugin is the part of grsecurity/PaX.
>
> The plugin supports all gcc versions from 4.5 to 7.0.
>
> Changes on top of the PaX version (since March 6.). These are the important
> ones:
>  * move all local strings to init.rodata.str and exit.rodata.str
>    (not just __func__)
>  * report all initified strings and functions
>    (GCC_PLUGIN_INITIFY_VERBOSE config option)
>  * automatically discover init/exit functions and apply the __init or
>    __exit attributes on them
>
> You can find more about the changes here:
> https://github.com/ephox-gcc-plugins/initify
>
> This patch set is based on v4.9-rc2.
>
> Some build statistics about the plugin:
>
> On allyes config (amd64, gcc-6):
> * 8412 initified strings
> *  167 initified functions
>
> On allmod config (i386, gcc-6):
> * 8597 initified strings
> *  159 initified functions
>
> On allyes config (amd64, gcc-6):
>
> section         vanilla                 vanilla + initify        change
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> .rodata         21746728 (0x14bd428)    21488680 (0x147e428)    -258048
> .init.data       1338376  (0x146c08)     1683016  (0x19ae48)    +344640
> .text           78270904 (0x4aa51b8)    78228280 (0x4a9ab38)     -42624
> .init.text       1184725  (0x1213d5)     1223257  (0x12aa59)     +38532
> .exit.data           104  (0x000068)       17760  (0x004560)     +17656
> .exit.text        174473  (0x02a989)      175763  (0x02ae93)      +1290
>
>         FileSiz (vanilla)       FileSiz (vanilla + initify)      change
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 00      102936576 (0x622b000)   102678528 (0x61ec000)           -258048
> 03       28680192 (0x1b5a000)    29081600 (0x1bbc000)           +401408
>
> 00     .text .notes __ex_table .rodata __bug_table .pci_fixup .builtin_fw
>        .tracedata __ksymtab __ksymtab_gpl __ksymtab_strings __init_rodata
>        __param __modver
> 03     .init.text .altinstr_aux .init.data .x86_cpu_dev.init
>        .parainstructions .altinstructions .altinstr_replacement
>        .iommu_table .apicdrivers .exit.text .exit.data .smp_locks .bss .brk
>
>
> On defconfig (amd64, gcc-6):
> * 1957 initified strings
> *   29 initified functions
>
> On defconfig (amd64, gcc-6):
>
> section         vanilla                 vanilla + initify        change
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> .rodata         2524240 (0x268450)      2462800 (0x259450)      -61440
> .init.data       560256 (0x088c80)       644000 (0x09d3a0)      +83744
> .text           9377367 (0x8f1657)      9373079 (0x8f0597)       -4288
> .init.text       438586 (0x06b13a)       441828 (0x06bde4)       +3242
> .exit.data            0                     832 (0x000340)        +832
> .exit.text         8857 (0x002299)          8857 (0x002299)          0
>
>         FileSiz (vanilla)       FileSiz (vanilla + initify)      change
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 00      13398016 (0xcc7000)     13336576 (0xcb8000)             -61440
> 03       2203648 (0x21a000)      2293760 (0x230000)             +90112
>
> 00     .text .notes __ex_table .rodata __bug_table .pci_fixup .builtin_fw
>        .tracedata __ksymtab __ksymtab_gpl __ksymtab_strings __init_rodata
>        __param __modver
> 03     .init.text .altinstr_aux .init.data .x86_cpu_dev.init
>        .parainstructions .altinstructions .altinstr_replacement
>        .iommu_table .apicdrivers .exit.text .exit.data .smp_locks .bss .brk
>
> One thing of note is that this plugin triggers false positive warnings
> from the modpost section mismatch detector. Further work is needed to
> deal with this.

FWIW, it still seems to me that these aren't false positives:

WARNING: vmlinux.o(.text.unlikely+0x1b1): Section mismatch in
reference from the function uncore_pci_exit.part.22() to the function
.init.text:uncore_free_pcibus_map()
The function uncore_pci_exit.part.22() references
the function __init uncore_free_pcibus_map().
This is often because uncore_pci_exit.part.22 lacks a __init
annotation or the annotation of uncore_free_pcibus_map is wrong.

This is complaining about arch/x86/events/intel/uncore.c:

__init intel_uncore_init() calls uncore_pci_exit().
__exit intel_uncore_exit() calls uncore_pci_exit().

uncore_pci_exit() is marked as "both" (which will resolve to __exit).

__init intel_uncore_init() calls uncore_free_pcibus_map().
uncore_pci_exit() calls uncore_free_pcibus_map().

uncore_free_pcibus_map() should be marked as "both", but it seems like
it ends up marked only __init.

When I tried a build that looked only at -D MODULE being set, I got
fewer warnings, but the modpost on builtins would still have warnings,
but they complained about things in __exit calling __init, which for a
builtin is fine: the __exit section will never be called...

I think the modular-build checking is better than the Kconfig
approach. It just requires that the __exit sections for non-modules
get discarded before the modpost runs to complain about it...

-Kees

-- 
Kees Cook
Nexus Security