Re: [PATCH v12 00/18] Enable FSGSBASE instructions

[Thomas Gleixner]

Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko.sakkinen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> On Mon, 2020-05-18 at 08:34 -0700, Andi Kleen wrote:
>> > Yes, for SGX this is functional feature because enclave entry points,
>> > thread control structures (aka TCS's), reset FSBASE and GSBASE registers
>> > to fixed (albeit user defined) values. And syscall's can be done only
>> > outside of enclave.
>> > 
>> > This is a required feature for fancier runtimes (such as Graphene).
>> 
>> Can you please explain a bit more? What do they need GS for?
>
> Apparently, uses only wrfsbase:
>
> https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oscarlab/graphene/master/Pal/src/host/Linux-SGX/db_misc.c
>
> I'm not too familiar with the codebase yet but by reading some research
> papers in the past the idea is to multiplex one TCS for multiple virtual
> threads inside the enclave.
>
> E.g. TCS could represent a vcpu for a libos type of container and on
> entry would pick on a thread and set fsbase accordingly for a thread
> control block.

That justifies to write books which recommend to load a kernel module
which creates a full unpriviledged root hole. I bet none of these papers
ever mentioned that.

Thanks,

        tglx