Re: [PATCH v3 2/7] arm64: trap to EL1 accesses to AMU counters from EL0

From: Suzuki Kuruppassery Poulose
Date: Wed Feb 12 2020 - 06:45:05 EST


On 11/02/2020 18:45, Ionela Voinescu wrote:
The activity monitors extension is an optional extension introduced
by the ARMv8.4 CPU architecture. In order to access the activity
monitors counters safely, if desired, the kernel should detect the
presence of the extension through the feature register, and mediate
the access.

Therefore, disable direct accesses to activity monitors counters
from EL0 (userspace) and trap them to EL1 (kernel).

To be noted that the ARM64_AMU_EXTN kernel config and the disable_amu
kernel parameter do not have an effect on this code. Given that the
amuserenr_el0 resets to an UNKNOWN value, setting the trap of EL0
accesses to EL1 is always attempted for safety and security
considerations. Therefore firmware should still ensure accesses to
AMU registers are not trapped in EL2/EL3 as this code cannot be
bypassed if the CPU implements the Activity Monitors Unit.

Signed-off-by: Ionela Voinescu <ionela.voinescu@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Will Deacon <will@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Steve Capper <steve.capper@xxxxxxx>
---

Reviewed-by: Suzuki K Poulose <suzuki.poulose@xxxxxxx>