Re: [RFC PATCH] x86/boot/compressed: Disable physical KASLR when memmap= appears

From: Borislav Petkov

Date: Fri Nov 07 2025 - 15:50:39 EST


On Thu, Nov 06, 2025 at 06:30:20PM +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> Reported-by: Michal Clapinski <mclapinski@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Reported-by: Chris Li <chrisl@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> arch/x86/boot/compressed/kaslr.c | 100 ++-----------------------------
> 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 94 deletions(-)

I love diffstats like that.

How about this simplification ontop of yours:

---

diff --git a/arch/x86/boot/compressed/kaslr.c b/arch/x86/boot/compressed/kaslr.c
index 96805d6c10a4..7875ae2d514e 100644
--- a/arch/x86/boot/compressed/kaslr.c
+++ b/arch/x86/boot/compressed/kaslr.c
@@ -67,8 +67,6 @@ static unsigned long get_boot_seed(void)
#define KASLR_COMPRESSED_BOOT
#include "../../lib/kaslr.c"

-static bool memmap_found;
-
/*
* Store memory limit: MAXMEM on 64-bit and KERNEL_IMAGE_SIZE on 32-bit.
* It may be reduced by "mem=nn[KMG]" command line options.
@@ -165,9 +163,7 @@ static void handle_mem_options(void)
if (!val && strcmp(param, "--") == 0)
break;

- if (!strcmp(param, "memmap")) {
- memmap_found = true;
- } else if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_64) && strstr(param, "hugepages")) {
+ if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_64) && strstr(param, "hugepages")) {
parse_gb_huge_pages(param, val);
} else if (!strcmp(param, "mem")) {
char *p = val;
@@ -724,12 +720,6 @@ static unsigned long find_random_phys_addr(unsigned long minimum,
if (minimum + image_size > mem_limit)
return 0;

- /* Check if memmap= appears on the command line */
- if (memmap_found) {
- debug_putstr("memmap= found on the command line, disabling physical KASLR\n");
- return 0;
- }
-
/*
* During kexec handover only process KHO scratch areas that are known
* not to contain any data that must be preserved.
@@ -783,6 +773,11 @@ void choose_random_location(unsigned long input,
return;
}

+ if (cmdline_find_option_bool("memmap")) {
+ warn("KASLR disabled: 'memmap' on cmdline.");
+ return;
+ }
+
boot_params_ptr->hdr.loadflags |= KASLR_FLAG;

if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_32))


--
Regards/Gruss,
Boris.

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