Re: [PATCH 06/11] x86-64: Fix %cs value in convert_from_fxsr()

From: Brian Gerst
Date: Sun Aug 29 2010 - 20:25:23 EST


On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 2:41 PM, Pekka Enberg <penberg@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 7:04 PM, Brian Gerst <brgerst@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> While %ds still contains the userspace selector, %cs is KERNEL_CS
>> at this point. ÂAlways get %cs from pt_regs.
>>
>> It actually is possible to get the correct segments for compat tasks,
>> but that involves using the [f]xsave instruction without a REX.W prefix.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Brian Gerst <brgerst@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> It might be just me but the above description doesn't explain
> anything. What's the problem here? What is this fixing?

The %cs segment being reported to a compat task is flat out wrong. It
is getting KERNEL_CS when it should be some userspace segment. The
code segment may still be wrong, because the %cs in pt_regs may not
have been the segment where the instruction that flagged the exception
executed from. That could be fixed by using fxsave without a REX.W
prefix when saving the state of compat tasks, which would save the
segment and 32-bit offset instead of the 64-bit offset for the code
and data pointers. This is such a corner case that it probably isn't
worth putting much effort into fixing unless someone demonstrates a
real need for it.

--
Brian Gerst
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