[PATCH 0/2] arm64: Implement support for BTI veneers

From: Ard Biesheuvel

Date: Wed Aug 12 2026 - 12:29:05 EST


Recent toolchains will omit BTI landing pads from functions with static
linkage that never have their address taken. If a landing pad is needed
nonetheless, it is up to the static linker to emit a BTI veneer withing
direct branching range of the target, and direct the call to the veneer
instead.

Modules are partially linked objects, and so there is no static linker
that can do this for us. Instead, the module loader must see to this.

So implement this for the arm64 module loader. Patch #2 contains a test
module that was used to validate the approach.

Cc: Mark Brown <broonie@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@xxxxxxxxxx>

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/ed4fe1f95071897859ec7fbe9176246cbd4962bf.1786138806.git.jpoimboe@xxxxxxxxxx/

Ard Biesheuvel (2):
arm64: module: Emit BTI veneers for cross-section calls
DONOTMERGE: arm64: module: Test module for BTI veneers

arch/arm64/Kconfig | 2 -
arch/arm64/include/asm/module.h | 12 ++
arch/arm64/include/asm/module.lds.h | 3 +
arch/arm64/kernel/Makefile | 1 +
arch/arm64/kernel/bti_veneer_test.c | 26 ++++
arch/arm64/kernel/module-plts.c | 128 +++++++++++++++++++-
6 files changed, 165 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 arch/arm64/kernel/bti_veneer_test.c

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2.47.3