Re: [PATCH v2] x86, efi: never relocate kernel below lowest acceptable address

[Borislav Petkov]

On Fri, Sep 20, 2019 at 12:05:21AM +0800, Kairui Song wrote:
> Currently, kernel fails to boot on some HyperV VMs when using EFI.
> And it's a potential issue on all platforms.
> 
> It's caused a broken kernel relocation on EFI systems, when below three
> conditions are met:
> 
> 1. Kernel image is not loaded to the default address (LOAD_PHYSICAL_ADDR)
>    by the loader.
> 2. There isn't enough room to contain the kernel, starting from the
>    default load address (eg. something else occupied part the region).
> 3. In the memmap provided by EFI firmware, there is a memory region
>    starts below LOAD_PHYSICAL_ADDR, and suitable for containing the
>    kernel.
> 
> Efi stub will perform a kernel relocation when condition 1 is met. But
> due to condition 2, efi stub can't relocate kernel to the preferred
> address, so it fallback to query and alloc from EFI firmware for lowest
> usable memory region.
> 
> It's incorrect to use the lowest memory address. In later stage, kernel
> will assume LOAD_PHYSICAL_ADDR as the minimal acceptable relocate address,
> but efi stub will end up relocating kernel below it.

So far, so good.

> Then before the kernel decompressing. Kernel will do another relocation
> to address not lower than LOAD_PHYSICAL_ADDR, this time the relocate will
> over write the blockage at the default load address, which efi stub tried
> to avoid, and lead to unexpected behavior. Beside, the memory region it
> writes to is not allocated from EFI firmware, which is also wrong.

This paragraph is an unreadable mess and should be rewritten in simple,
declarative sentences.

The patch itself looks ok.

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.

https://people.kernel.org/tglx/notes-about-netiquette