Re: [RFC PATCH] x86/mm: Disable PTI for kernel_ident_mapping_init()

From: David Woodhouse
Date: Mon Nov 25 2024 - 13:54:45 EST


On Mon, 2024-11-25 at 10:31 -0800, Dave Hansen wrote:
> On 11/25/24 09:05, David Woodhouse wrote:
> > Not sure I like this very much, but it works, and mirrors what
> > arch/x86/boot/compressed/ident_map_64.c already does.
>
> I don't like it much, either.
>
> arch/x86/boot/compressed/ is already on the road to sharing no code with
> the core kernel and it's full of horrors. It should be an example of
> what *not* to do. ;)
>
> I think we have a lot of software-available space in the page table
> pointer entries. What would folks think if we set a special bit in those
> p4d entries that said:
>
> "I don't need to be propagated to
> the user portion of the page tables."
>
> It would obviously get set in this code that you're trying to fix. It
> might _also_ be able to be set in in "_USR", like here:
>
> #define _KERNPG_TABLE_NOENC  (__PP|__RW|   0|___A|   0|___D|   0|   0)
> #define _PAGE_TABLE_NOENC    (__PP|__RW|_USR|___A|   0|___D|   0|   0)
>
> like:
>
> #define _USR _PAGE_USER|_PAGE_SW_WHATEVER

In fact, do we even need a separate bit? Any PTE without the _PAGE_USER
bit set clearly doesn't need to be mirrored into the user page
tables...?

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