Re: [PATCH] module: Taint the kernel when write-protecting ro_after_init fails

From: Christophe Leroy
Date: Fri Mar 14 2025 - 13:20:36 EST




Le 12/03/2025 à 17:30, Kees Cook a écrit :
On Wed, Mar 12, 2025 at 04:45:24PM +0100, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
On 3/6/25 17:57, Luis Chamberlain wrote:
+ linux-mm since we're adding TAINT_BAD_PAGE

On Thu, Mar 06, 2025 at 11:36:55AM +0100, Petr Pavlu wrote:
In the unlikely case that setting ro_after_init data to read-only fails, it
is too late to cancel loading of the module. The loader then issues only
a warning about the situation. Given that this reduces the kernel's
protection, it was suggested to make the failure more visible by tainting
the kernel.

Allow TAINT_BAD_PAGE to be set per-module and use it in this case. The flag
is set in similar situations and has the following description in
Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst: "bad page referenced or some
unexpected page flags".

Adjust the warning that reports the failure to avoid references to internal
functions and to add information about the kernel being tainted, both to
match the style of other messages in the file. Additionally, merge the
message on a single line because checkpatch.pl recommends that for the
ability to grep for the string.

Suggested-by: Kees Cook <kees@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Petr Pavlu <petr.pavlu@xxxxxxxx>
---
I opted to use TAINT_BAD_PAGE for now because it seemed unnecessary to me
to introduce a new flag only for this specific case. However, if we end up
similarly checking set_memory_*() in the boot context, a separate flag
would be probably better.
---
kernel/module/main.c | 7 ++++---
kernel/panic.c | 2 +-
2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/module/main.c b/kernel/module/main.c
index 1fb9ad289a6f..8f424a107b92 100644
--- a/kernel/module/main.c
+++ b/kernel/module/main.c
@@ -3030,10 +3030,11 @@ static noinline int do_init_module(struct module *mod)
rcu_assign_pointer(mod->kallsyms, &mod->core_kallsyms);
#endif
ret = module_enable_rodata_ro_after_init(mod);
- if (ret)
- pr_warn("%s: module_enable_rodata_ro_after_init() returned %d, "
- "ro_after_init data might still be writable\n",
+ if (ret) {
+ pr_warn("%s: write-protecting ro_after_init data failed with %d, the data might still be writable - tainting kernel\n",
mod->name, ret);
+ add_taint_module(mod, TAINT_BAD_PAGE, LOCKDEP_STILL_OK);
+ }
mod_tree_remove_init(mod);
module_arch_freeing_init(mod);
diff --git a/kernel/panic.c b/kernel/panic.c
index d8635d5cecb2..794c443bfb5c 100644
--- a/kernel/panic.c
+++ b/kernel/panic.c
@@ -497,7 +497,7 @@ const struct taint_flag taint_flags[TAINT_FLAGS_COUNT] = {
TAINT_FLAG(CPU_OUT_OF_SPEC, 'S', ' ', false),
TAINT_FLAG(FORCED_RMMOD, 'R', ' ', false),
TAINT_FLAG(MACHINE_CHECK, 'M', ' ', false),
- TAINT_FLAG(BAD_PAGE, 'B', ' ', false),
+ TAINT_FLAG(BAD_PAGE, 'B', ' ', true),
TAINT_FLAG(USER, 'U', ' ', false),
TAINT_FLAG(DIE, 'D', ' ', false),
TAINT_FLAG(OVERRIDDEN_ACPI_TABLE, 'A', ' ', false),

Reviewed-by: Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@xxxxxxxxxx>

For our needs this makes sense, however I am curious if TAINT_BAD_PAGE
is too broadly generic, and also if we're going to add it, if there are
other mm uses for such a thing.

I'm not sure BAD_PAGE is a good fit. If there was a new flag that meant "a
hardening measure failed", would that have other possible uses? The
semantics would be that the kernel self-protection was weakened wrt
expectations, even if not yet a corruption due to attack would be detected.
Some admins could opt-in to panic in such case anyway, etc. Any other
hardening features where such "failure to harden" is possible and could use
this too? Kees?

Yeah, it could certainly be used. The direction the hardening stuff has
taken is to use WARN() (as Linus requires no direct BUG() usage), and to
recommend that end users tune their warn_limit sysctl as needed.

Being able to TAINT might be useful, but I don't have any places that
immediately come to mind that seem appropriate for it (besides this
case). Hm, well, maybe in the case of a W^X test failure? (I note that
this is also a "safe memory permission" failure...)

Can be anything that fails in function mark_readonly() ? :

jump_label_init_ro();
mark_rodata_ro();
debug_checkwx();
rodata_test();


Christophe