Re: [PATCH] m68k: virt: pass RNG seed via bootinfo block

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for your patch!

On Sat, Jun 25, 2022 at 6:26 PM Jason A. Donenfeld <Jason@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 25, 2022 at 6:24 PM Laurent Vivier <laurent@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Le 25/06/2022 à 18:19, Jason A. Donenfeld a écrit :
> > > On Sat, Jun 25, 2022 at 6:08 PM Laurent Vivier <laurent@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >> Le 25/06/2022 à 17:38, Jason A. Donenfeld a écrit :
> > >>> Other virt VMs can pass RNG seeds via the "rng-seed" device tree

FTR, "rng-seed" does not seem to be documented anywhere, not under
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/, and not in the Devicetree
Specification?

> > >>> property or via UEFI, but m68k doesn't have either. Instead it has its
> > >>> own bootinfo protocol. So this commit adds support for receiving a RNG
> > >>> seed from it, which will be used at the earliest possible time in boot,
> > >>> just like device tree.
> > >>>
> > >>> Signed-off-by: Jason A. Donenfeld <Jason@xxxxxxxxx>
> > >>> --- a/arch/m68k/include/uapi/asm/bootinfo-virt.h
> > >>> +++ b/arch/m68k/include/uapi/asm/bootinfo-virt.h
> > >>> @@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
> > >>>    #define BI_VIRT_GF_TTY_BASE 0x8003
> > >>>    #define BI_VIRT_VIRTIO_BASE 0x8004
> > >>>    #define BI_VIRT_CTRL_BASE   0x8005
> > >>> +#define BI_VIRT_RNG_SEED     0x8006

Please add a comment documenting the record format.

Laurent: Would be nice if you could add this for the other BI_*, too.

> > >>>
> > >>>    #define VIRT_BOOTI_VERSION  MK_BI_VERSION(2, 0)
> > >>>
> > >>> diff --git a/arch/m68k/virt/config.c b/arch/m68k/virt/config.c
> > >>> index 632ba200ad42..ad71af8273ec 100644
> > >>> --- a/arch/m68k/virt/config.c
> > >>> +++ b/arch/m68k/virt/config.c
> > >>> @@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
> > >>>
> > >>>    #include <linux/reboot.h>
> > >>>    #include <linux/serial_core.h>
> > >>> +#include <linux/random.h>
> > >>>    #include <clocksource/timer-goldfish.h>
> > >>>
> > >>>    #include <asm/bootinfo.h>
> > >>> @@ -92,6 +93,9 @@ int __init virt_parse_bootinfo(const struct bi_record *record)
> > >>>                data += 4;
> > >>>                virt_bi_data.virtio.irq = be32_to_cpup(data);
> > >>>                break;
> > >>> +     case BI_VIRT_RNG_SEED:
> > >>> +             add_bootloader_randomness(data + 4, be32_to_cpup(data));
> > >>
> > >> In fact, why don't you use the record->size to get the size of the buffer?
> > >>
> > >> It seems useless to encode twice the length of the buffer, the second time on a 32bit while the
> > >> length cannot exceed a 16bit value.
> > >
> > > Doesn't that make the length ambiguous because of required alignment?
> >
> > I agree, it's why I understand reviewing the QEMU part of your patch.
> >
> > > Would rather keep this general. As is, it's also much more like the
> > > others and more uniform to keep it that way. You were able to review
> > > it and see that it was right after glancing for a second. That seems
> > > superior to any imaginary gains we'd get by overloading the record
> > > size.
> >
> > And what about using a 16bit field rather than a 32bit field as the encoded length cannot be greater
> > than the record length?
>
> I guess but that's different from all other length fields, and means
> we can't expand past 65k if somebody wants to use this for something
> more interesting later. Again I wonder what stinginess here gets us.
> This is just a boot parameter... No need to go crazy optimizing it.

You cannot extend this past (64 KiB - sizeof(struct bi_record))
anyway, as the total record size is limited to 64 KiB, regardless of
the additional buffer size you try to encode inside your own 32-bit
size field.

So either just store the data inside the record, rely on bi_record.size,
and live with random data that must be a number of even bytes (does
it really hurt to drop the last byte, or add a dummy byte?), or store
a pointer/size, like is done for e.g. BI_RAMDISK.

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

                        Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                -- Linus Torvalds