Re: [RFC PATCH 1/9] kernel: add support for patchable function pointers

From: Peter Zijlstra
Date: Fri Oct 05 2018 - 09:58:23 EST


On Fri, Oct 05, 2018 at 10:13:25AM +0200, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> Add a function pointer abstraction that can be implemented by the arch
> in a manner that avoids the downsides of function pointers, i.e., the
> fact that they are typically located in a writable data section, and
> their vulnerability to Spectre like defects.
>
> The FFP (or fast function pointer) is callable as a function, since
> the generic incarnation is simply that. However, due to the fact that
> C does not distinguish between functions and function pointers at the
> call site, the architecture can instead emit it as a patchable sequence
> of instructions consisting of ordinary branches.

This is basically a static_key, except for indirection function calls?
So why not call the thing static_func or static_call or something like
that?