[RFC][PATCH] x86,static_call: Fix __static_call_return0 for i386

From: Peter Zijlstra
Date: Fri Mar 18 2022 - 16:44:41 EST



Paolo reported that the instruction sequence that is used to replace:

call __static_call_return0

namely:

66 66 48 31 c0 data16 data16 xor %rax,%rax

decodes to something else on i386, namely:

66 66 48 data16 dec %ax
31 c0 xor %eax,%eax

Which is a nonsensical sequence that happens to have the same outcome.
*However* an important distinction is that it consists of 2
instructions which is a problem when it needs to be overwriten with a
regular call instruction again.

As such, replace the instruction with something that is a 5 byte single
instruction and decodes the same on both i386 and x86_64.

Fixes: 3f2a8fc4b15d ("static_call/x86: Add __static_call_return0()")
Reported-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/kernel/static_call.c | 5 ++---
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

--- a/arch/x86/kernel/static_call.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/static_call.c
@@ -12,10 +12,9 @@ enum insn_type {
};

/*
- * data16 data16 xorq %rax, %rax - a single 5 byte instruction that clears %rax
- * The REX.W cancels the effect of any data16.
+ * cs cs cs xorl %eax, %eax - a single 5 byte instruction that clears %[er]ax
*/
-static const u8 xor5rax[] = { 0x66, 0x66, 0x48, 0x31, 0xc0 };
+static const u8 xor5rax[] = { 0x2e, 0x2e, 0x2e, 0x31, 0xc0 };

static const u8 retinsn[] = { RET_INSN_OPCODE, 0xcc, 0xcc, 0xcc, 0xcc };