linux-kernel - Re: [RFC v5 12/38] mm: ability to disable execute permission on a key at creation

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Date:   Tue, 11 Jul 2017 14:51:05 -0700
From:   Ram Pai <linuxram@...ibm.com>
To:     Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@...nel.crashing.org>
Cc:     Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...el.com>, linuxppc-dev@...ts.ozlabs.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-arch@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-mm@...ck.org, x86@...nel.org, linux-doc@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kselftest@...r.kernel.org, arnd@...db.de, corbet@....net,
        mingo@...hat.com, paulus@...ba.org,
        aneesh.kumar@...ux.vnet.ibm.com, akpm@...ux-foundation.org,
        khandual@...ux.vnet.ibm.com
Subject: Re: [RFC v5 12/38] mm: ability to disable execute permission on a
 key at creation

On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 07:29:37AM +1000, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:
> On Tue, 2017-07-11 at 11:11 -0700, Dave Hansen wrote:
> > On 07/05/2017 02:21 PM, Ram Pai wrote:
> > > Currently sys_pkey_create() provides the ability to disable read
> > > and write permission on the key, at  creation. powerpc  has  the
> > > hardware support to disable execute on a pkey as well.This patch
> > > enhances the interface to let disable execute  at  key  creation
> > > time. x86 does  not  allow  this.  Hence the next patch will add
> > > ability  in  x86  to  return  error  if  PKEY_DISABLE_EXECUTE is
> > > specified.
> 
> That leads to the question... How do you tell userspace.
> 
> (apologies if I missed that in an existing patch in the series)
> 
> How do we inform userspace of the key capabilities ? There are at least
> two things userspace may want to know already:
> 
>  - What protection bits are supported for a key

the userspace is the one which allocates the keys and enables/disables the
protection bits on the key. the kernel is just a facilitator. Now if the
use space wants to know the current permissions on a given key, it can
just read the AMR/PKRU register on powerpc/intel respectively.

> 
>  - How many keys exist

There is no standard way of finding this other than trying to allocate
as many till you fail.  A procfs or sysfs file can be added to expose
this information.

> 
>  - Which keys are available for use by userspace. On PowerPC, the
> kernel can reserve some keys for itself, so can the hypervisor. In
> fact, they do.

this information can be exposed through /proc or /sysfs

I am sure there will be more demands and requirements as applications
start leveraging these feature.

RP
> 
> Cheers,
> Ben.

-- 
Ram Pai