diff mbox series

x86/mm: Disable W^X detection and enforcement on 32-bit

Message ID 20220923221730.1860518-1-dave.hansen@linux.intel.com
State Accepted
Commit 8c4934f4754057e3577bb1536c6ecc0efa2c966e
Headers show
Series x86/mm: Disable W^X detection and enforcement on 32-bit | expand

Commit Message

Dave Hansen Sept. 23, 2022, 10:17 p.m. UTC
The 32-bit code is in a weird spot.  Some 32-bit builds (non-PAE) do not
even have NX support.  Even PAE builds that support NX have to contend
with things like EFI data and code mixed in the same pages where W+X
is unavoidable.

The folks still running X86_32=y kernels are unlikely to care much about
NX.  That combined with the fundamental inability fix _all_ of the W+X
things means this code had little value on X86_32=y.  Disable the checks.

Reported-by: Guenter Roeck <linux@roeck-us.net>
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>
Cc: Darren Hart <dvhart@infradead.org>
Cc: Andy Shevchenko <andy@infradead.org>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
Cc: x86@kernel.org
Cc: linux-efi@vger.kernel.org
Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAMj1kXHcF_iK_g0OZSkSv56Wmr=eQGQwNstcNjLEfS=mm7a06w@mail.gmail.com/
---
 arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c | 8 ++++++++
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)

Comments

Kirill A. Shutemov Sept. 24, 2022, 12:09 a.m. UTC | #1
On Fri, Sep 23, 2022 at 03:17:30PM -0700, Dave Hansen wrote:
> The 32-bit code is in a weird spot.  Some 32-bit builds (non-PAE) do not
> even have NX support.  Even PAE builds that support NX have to contend
> with things like EFI data and code mixed in the same pages where W+X
> is unavoidable.
> 
> The folks still running X86_32=y kernels are unlikely to care much about
> NX.  That combined with the fundamental inability fix _all_ of the W+X
> things means this code had little value on X86_32=y.  Disable the checks.

Maybe downgrade the check to a warning for X86_32=y?
Guenter Roeck Sept. 24, 2022, 4:38 a.m. UTC | #2
On 9/23/22 17:12, Dave Hansen wrote:
> On 9/23/22 17:09, Kirill A. Shutemov wrote:
>> On Fri, Sep 23, 2022 at 03:17:30PM -0700, Dave Hansen wrote:
>>> The 32-bit code is in a weird spot.  Some 32-bit builds (non-PAE) do not
>>> even have NX support.  Even PAE builds that support NX have to contend
>>> with things like EFI data and code mixed in the same pages where W+X
>>> is unavoidable.
>>>
>>> The folks still running X86_32=y kernels are unlikely to care much about
>>> NX.  That combined with the fundamental inability fix _all_ of the W+X
>>> things means this code had little value on X86_32=y.  Disable the checks.
>> Maybe downgrade the check to a warning for X86_32=y?
> 
> But for this EFI case, we really don't want the warning.  It's unfixable.
> 
> I'm also not sure we want to go to the trouble to properly silence the
> warning in these unfixable cases.  There was an argument elsewhere in
> the thread that we really shouldn't be warning on things that we don't
> have full intentions to fix.  I buy that argument.

Yes, there are already way too many such useless warnings around.
Please don't add more of them.

Guenter
Ard Biesheuvel Sept. 24, 2022, 7:26 a.m. UTC | #3
On Sat, 24 Sept 2022 at 00:17, Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com> wrote:
>
> The 32-bit code is in a weird spot.  Some 32-bit builds (non-PAE) do not
> even have NX support.  Even PAE builds that support NX have to contend
> with things like EFI data and code mixed in the same pages where W+X
> is unavoidable.
>
> The folks still running X86_32=y kernels are unlikely to care much about
> NX.  That combined with the fundamental inability fix _all_ of the W+X
> things means this code had little value on X86_32=y.  Disable the checks.
>
> Reported-by: Guenter Roeck <linux@roeck-us.net>
> Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>
> Cc: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>
> Cc: Darren Hart <dvhart@infradead.org>
> Cc: Andy Shevchenko <andy@infradead.org>
> Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
> Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
> Cc: x86@kernel.org
> Cc: linux-efi@vger.kernel.org
> Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
> Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAMj1kXHcF_iK_g0OZSkSv56Wmr=eQGQwNstcNjLEfS=mm7a06w@mail.gmail.com/

Acked-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>

> ---
>  arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c | 8 ++++++++
>  1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c b/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
> index 20b1e24baa85..efe882c753ca 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
> +++ b/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
> @@ -587,6 +587,14 @@ static inline pgprot_t verify_rwx(pgprot_t old, pgprot_t new, unsigned long star
>  {
>         unsigned long end;
>
> +       /*
> +        * 32-bit has some unfixable W+X issues, like EFI code
> +        * and writeable data being in the same page.  Disable
> +        * detection and enforcement there.
> +        */
> +       if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_32))
> +               return new;
> +
>         /* Only enforce when NX is supported: */
>         if (!(__supported_pte_mask & _PAGE_NX))
>                 return new;
> --
> 2.34.1
>
Pavel Machek Oct. 2, 2022, 10:33 a.m. UTC | #4
Hi!

> The 32-bit code is in a weird spot.  Some 32-bit builds (non-PAE) do not
> even have NX support.  Even PAE builds that support NX have to contend
> with things like EFI data and code mixed in the same pages where W+X
> is unavoidable.
> 
> The folks still running X86_32=y kernels are unlikely to care much about
> NX.  That combined with the fundamental inability fix _all_ of the W+X
> things means this code had little value on X86_32=y.  Disable the checks.

> ---
>  arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c | 8 ++++++++
>  1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c b/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
> index 20b1e24baa85..efe882c753ca 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
> +++ b/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
> @@ -587,6 +587,14 @@ static inline pgprot_t verify_rwx(pgprot_t old, pgprot_t new, unsigned long star
>  {
>  	unsigned long end;
>  
> +	/*
> +	 * 32-bit has some unfixable W+X issues, like EFI code
> +	 * and writeable data being in the same page.  Disable
> +	 * detection and enforcement there.
> +	 */
> +	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_32))
> +		return new;
> +

You are going from extreme to extreme. W^X is useful on x86-32 at
least in some configs, so it would make sense to detect and inform
about the issues (perhaps with something like KERN_INFO).

Best regards,
							Pavel
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c b/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
index 20b1e24baa85..efe882c753ca 100644
--- a/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
+++ b/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
@@ -587,6 +587,14 @@  static inline pgprot_t verify_rwx(pgprot_t old, pgprot_t new, unsigned long star
 {
 	unsigned long end;
 
+	/*
+	 * 32-bit has some unfixable W+X issues, like EFI code
+	 * and writeable data being in the same page.  Disable
+	 * detection and enforcement there.
+	 */
+	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_32))
+		return new;
+
 	/* Only enforce when NX is supported: */
 	if (!(__supported_pte_mask & _PAGE_NX))
 		return new;