Re: [PATCH v2] x86/mm: warn on W+x mappings

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Mon Oct 12 2015 - 10:18:06 EST



* Matt Fleming <matt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Mon, 12 Oct, at 02:49:36PM, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> >
> >
> > So why not unmap them after bootup? Is there any reason to call into EFI code
> > while the system is up and running?
>
> That's where the runtime services code lives. So if you want things like EFI
> variables (used by the distro installer, among other things) you need to map the
> runtime regions.

So EFI variables could be queried during bootup and saved on the Linux side.

Calling into firmware after the kernel has booted up is fragile in general -
beyond W+X the security considerations.

Thanks,

Ingo
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