[PATCH v3 3/3] security: Implement Clang's stack initialization

From: Kees Cook
Date: Tue Apr 23 2019 - 15:49:43 EST


CONFIG_INIT_STACK_ALL turns on stack initialization based on
-ftrivial-auto-var-init in Clang builds, which has greater coverage
than CONFIG_GCC_PLUGINS_STRUCTLEAK_BYREF_ALL.

-ftrivial-auto-var-init Clang option provides trivial initializers for
uninitialized local variables, variable fields and padding.

It has three possible values:
pattern - uninitialized locals are filled with a fixed pattern
(mostly 0xAA on 64-bit platforms, see https://reviews.llvm.org/D54604
for more details, but 0x000000AA for 32-bit pointers) likely to cause
crashes when uninitialized value is used;
zero (it's still debated whether this flag makes it to the official
Clang release) - uninitialized locals are filled with zeroes;
uninitialized (default) - uninitialized locals are left intact.

This patch uses only the "pattern" mode when CONFIG_INIT_STACK_ALL is
enabled.

Developers have the possibility to opt-out of this feature on a
per-variable basis by using __attribute__((uninitialized)), but such
use should be well justified in comments.

Co-developed-by: Alexander Potapenko <glider@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Alexander Potapenko <glider@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
Makefile | 5 +++++
security/Kconfig.hardening | 14 ++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 19 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c0a34064c574..a7d9c6cd0267 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -745,6 +745,11 @@ KBUILD_CFLAGS += -fomit-frame-pointer
endif
endif

+# Initialize all stack variables with a pattern, if desired.
+ifdef CONFIG_INIT_STACK_ALL
+KBUILD_CFLAGS += -ftrivial-auto-var-init=pattern
+endif
+
DEBUG_CFLAGS := $(call cc-option, -fno-var-tracking-assignments)

ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO
diff --git a/security/Kconfig.hardening b/security/Kconfig.hardening
index a96d4a43ca65..0a1d4ca314f4 100644
--- a/security/Kconfig.hardening
+++ b/security/Kconfig.hardening
@@ -18,9 +18,13 @@ config GCC_PLUGIN_STRUCTLEAK

menu "Memory initialization"

+config CC_HAS_AUTO_VAR_INIT
+ def_bool $(cc-option,-ftrivial-auto-var-init=pattern)
+
choice
prompt "Initialize kernel stack variables at function entry"
default GCC_PLUGIN_STRUCTLEAK_BYREF_ALL if COMPILE_TEST && GCC_PLUGINS
+ default INIT_STACK_ALL if COMPILE_TEST && CC_HAS_AUTO_VAR_INIT
default INIT_STACK_NONE
help
This option enables initialization of stack variables at
@@ -76,6 +80,16 @@ choice
of uninitialized stack variable exploits and information
exposures.

+ config INIT_STACK_ALL
+ bool "0xAA-init everything on the stack (strongest)"
+ depends on CC_HAS_AUTO_VAR_INIT
+ help
+ Initializes everything on the stack with a 0xAA
+ pattern. This is intended to eliminate all classes
+ of uninitialized stack variable exploits and information
+ exposures, even variables that were warned to have been
+ left uninitialized.
+
endchoice

config GCC_PLUGIN_STRUCTLEAK_VERBOSE
--
2.17.1