Re: [PATCH v3] ARM: smp: add support for per-task stack canaries

From: Russell King - ARM Linux admin
Date: Wed Mar 11 2020 - 16:45:47 EST


On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 11:47:20AM -0700, Kees Cook wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 11:31:13AM -0700, Guenter Roeck wrote:
> > On 3/11/20 10:21 AM, Kees Cook wrote:
> > > On Mon, Mar 09, 2020 at 09:49:31AM -0700, Guenter Roeck wrote:
> > >> On Thu, Dec 06, 2018 at 09:32:57AM +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> > >>> On ARM, we currently only change the value of the stack canary when
> > >>> switching tasks if the kernel was built for UP. On SMP kernels, this
> > >>> is impossible since the stack canary value is obtained via a global
> > >>> symbol reference, which means
> > >>> a) all running tasks on all CPUs must use the same value
> > >>> b) we can only modify the value when no kernel stack frames are live
> > >>> on any CPU, which is effectively never.
> > >>>
> > >>> So instead, use a GCC plugin to add a RTL pass that replaces each
> > >>> reference to the address of the __stack_chk_guard symbol with an
> > >>> expression that produces the address of the 'stack_canary' field
> > >>> that is added to struct thread_info. This way, each task will use
> > >>> its own randomized value.
> > >>>
> > >>> Cc: Russell King <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > >>> Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > >>> Cc: Emese Revfy <re.emese@xxxxxxxxx>
> > >>> Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx>
> > >>> Cc: Laura Abbott <labbott@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > >>> Cc: kernel-hardening@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > >>> Acked-by: Nicolas Pitre <nico@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > >>> Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > >>
> > >> Since this patch is in the tree, cc-option no longer works on
> > >> the arm architecture if CONFIG_STACKPROTECTOR_PER_TASK is enabled.
> > >>
> > >> Any idea how to fix that ?
> > >
> > > I thought Arnd sent a patch to fix it and it got picked up?
> > >
> >
> > Yes, but the fix is not upstream (it is only in -next), and I missed it.
>
> Ah, yes, I found it again now too; it went through rmk's tree.
>
> For thread posterity:
>
> ARM: 8961/2: Fix Kbuild issue caused by per-task stack protector GCC plugin
> https://www.arm.linux.org.uk/developer/patches/viewpatch.php?id=8961/2

It's in my fixes branch, waiting for me to do my (now usual) push
of fixes to Linus.

I'm not sure whether the above discussion is suggesting that there's
a problem with this patch, or whether it's trying to encourage me
to send it up to Linus. I _think_ there's the suggestion that it
causes a regression, hmm?

--
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