Re: [PATCH] x86: Let AS_WRUSS depend on X86_64

From: Jiri Slaby
Date: Tue Oct 31 2023 - 10:06:05 EST


On 31. 10. 23, 14:53, Dave Hansen wrote:
On 10/31/23 03:21, Jiri Slaby (SUSE) wrote:
...
Provided the wruss instruction is 64-bit only (and used in pure 64-bit
X86_USER_SHADOW_STACK), it has little sense to have AS_WRUSS=y set on
32-bit.

Therefore, make the whole test dependent on X86_64 to ensure it's set
only on 64-bit.
...
config AS_WRUSS
def_bool $(as-instr,wrussq %rax$(comma)(%rbx))
+ depends on X86_64
help
Supported by binutils >= 2.31 and LLVM integrated assembler

What's the downside to just leaving this alone?

This patch just seems wrong logically. Suppose some deranged person
wanted 32-bit shadow stack support. They'd have to go hunt this down
via trial and error instead of just enabling X86_USER_SHADOW_STACK.

All wrussq, rax, rbx can never be right on 32-bit anyway...

Granted, that would take one crazy person five minutes to figure out why
their .config is broken, but it still seems wrong. It's especially
wrong without a comment because it logically reads something along the
lines of "WRUSS is only available on x86_64 configs".

Which is right, or what am I missing?

A better way to do this would be:

config HAS_SHADOW_STACKS
depends on X86_64

config AS_WRUSS
...
# Avoid setting AS_WRUSS on configs that don't need it:
depends on HAS_SHADOW_STACKS

config X86_USER_SHADOW_STACK
bool "X86 userspace shadow stack"
depends on AS_WRUSS
depends on HAS_SHADOW_STACKS

But that honestly doesn't seem worth it because (circling back to the
first thing I wrote...) I don't really know what the benefit is to doing
this in the first place.

Again, to avoid nonsense in 32bit configs produced by oldconfig (as I noted in the commit log).

thanks,
--
js
suse labs