Re: [PATCH] mfd: syscon: Use of_io_request_and_map() for IO mapping

[Loic Poulain]

On Fri, 31 Mar 2023 at 15:06, Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Mar 30, 2023, at 15:22, Loic Poulain wrote:
> > On Thu, 30 Mar 2023 at 14:45, Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> On Thu, Mar 30, 2023, at 13:42, Lee Jones wrote:
> >> > On Mon, 20 Mar 2023, Loic Poulain wrote:
> >>
> >> Thanks for pinging me. I would indeed expect this to cause
> >> problems, as syscon mappings are likely to be used in a way
> >> that is not entirely clean, with other devices defining
> >> overlapping ranges.
> >
> > Isn't syscon exactly here to address that collision/overlapping issue?
> > From a syscon perspective, it seems to be handled correctly at least
> > since the mapping is only setup once, with the first user device (in
> > syscon_node_to_regmap). Or are you thinking about non syscon devices
> > overlapping the syscon area?
>
> I meant them overlapping with other devices. Ideally this should
> not exist, but most likely we have to deal with dtb files where
> some other device does overlap with a syscon.

Ok in that case, this is indeed a no-go, but my main concern is about
CONFIG_IO_STRICT_DEVMEM which is supposed to restrict userspace access
to *idle* io-memory only, i.e. not in-use by a driver. In our case the
range is obviously in-use by one or even several drivers, but because
the range is not requested and marked busy, we fail to prevent such
access. It's kind of a security concern since syscon is widely adopted
in devicetree, sometimes for sensitive controllers such as OTP,
platform-reset, etc.

There are some alternatives, that may not be entirely satisfying:
- Introduce a new syscon 'exclusive' devicetree property, for
enforcing range request while keeping compatibility with 'bad'
overlapping dtb.
- Use range requests only when CONFIG_IO_STRICT_DEVMEM is enabled,
ensuring security, but possibly breaking some devices.
- Introduce a new 'IORESOURCE_SHARED' flag for syscon resources,
allowing the resource framework to allocate overlapping
IORESOURCE_BUSY regions while preventing userspace access/mapping.

Regards,
Loic