linux-hardening - Re: [PATCH v3 2/3] prandom: Convert prandom_u32_state() to __always

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <719b7b99-3615-46cd-84d9-8b8fc21e3ce9@arm.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2026 14:09:26 +0000
From: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@....com>
To: "Jason A. Donenfeld" <Jason@...c4.com>
Cc: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@....com>, Will Deacon <will@...nel.org>,
 Huacai Chen <chenhuacai@...nel.org>,
 Madhavan Srinivasan <maddy@...ux.ibm.com>,
 Michael Ellerman <mpe@...erman.id.au>, Paul Walmsley <pjw@...nel.org>,
 Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@...belt.com>, Albert Ou <aou@...s.berkeley.edu>,
 Heiko Carstens <hca@...ux.ibm.com>, Vasily Gorbik <gor@...ux.ibm.com>,
 Alexander Gordeev <agordeev@...ux.ibm.com>,
 Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
 Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>, Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com>,
 Kees Cook <kees@...nel.org>, "Gustavo A. R. Silva" <gustavoars@...nel.org>,
 Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>, Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@....com>,
 Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@...nel.org>, Jeremy Linton <jeremy.linton@....com>,
 linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org,
 loongarch@...ts.linux.dev, linuxppc-dev@...ts.ozlabs.org,
 linux-riscv@...ts.infradead.org, linux-s390@...r.kernel.org,
 linux-hardening@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 2/3] prandom: Convert prandom_u32_state() to
 __always_inline

On 02/01/2026 13:39, Jason A. Donenfeld wrote:
> Hi Ryan,
> 
> On Fri, Jan 2, 2026 at 2:12 PM Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@....com> wrote:
>> context. Given the function is just a handful of operations and doesn't
> 
> How many? What's this looking like in terms of assembly? 

25 instructions on arm64:

0000000000000000 <prandom_u32_state>:
   0:	29401403 	ldp	w3, w5, [x0]
   4:	aa0003e1 	mov	x1, x0
   8:	29410002 	ldp	w2, w0, [x0, #8]
   c:	531e74a4 	lsl	w4, w5, #2
  10:	530e3468 	lsl	w8, w3, #18
  14:	4a0400a5 	eor	w5, w5, w4
  18:	4a031863 	eor	w3, w3, w3, lsl #6
  1c:	53196047 	lsl	w7, w2, #7
  20:	53134806 	lsl	w6, w0, #13
  24:	4a023442 	eor	w2, w2, w2, lsl #13
  28:	4a000c00 	eor	w0, w0, w0, lsl #3
  2c:	121b6884 	and	w4, w4, #0xffffffe0
  30:	120d3108 	and	w8, w8, #0xfff80000
  34:	121550e7 	and	w7, w7, #0xfffff800
  38:	120c2cc6 	and	w6, w6, #0xfff00000
  3c:	2a456c85 	orr	w5, w4, w5, lsr #27
  40:	2a433504 	orr	w4, w8, w3, lsr #13
  44:	2a4254e3 	orr	w3, w7, w2, lsr #21
  48:	2a4030c2 	orr	w2, w6, w0, lsr #12
  4c:	4a020066 	eor	w6, w3, w2
  50:	4a050080 	eor	w0, w4, w5
  54:	4a0000c0 	eor	w0, w6, w0
  58:	29001424 	stp	w4, w5, [x1]
  5c:	29010823 	stp	w3, w2, [x1, #8]
  60:	d65f03c0 	ret

> It'd also be
> nice to have some brief analysis of other call sites to have
> confirmation this isn't blowing up other users.

I compiled defconfig before and after this patch on arm64 and compared the text
sizes:

$ ./scripts/bloat-o-meter -t vmlinux.before vmlinux.after
add/remove: 3/4 grow/shrink: 4/1 up/down: 836/-128 (708)
Function                                     old     new   delta
prandom_seed_full_state                      364     932    +568
pick_next_task_fair                         1940    2036     +96
bpf_user_rnd_u32                             104     196     +92
prandom_bytes_state                          204     260     +56
e843419@...b_00012d69_e34                      -       8      +8
e843419@...7_00010ec3_23ec                     -       8      +8
e843419@...b_00003767_25c                      -       8      +8
bpf_prog_select_runtime                      448     444      -4
e843419@...3_0000cfd1_1580                     8       -      -8
e843419@...2_0000cfba_147c                     8       -      -8
e843419@...f_00008d8c_184                      8       -      -8
prandom_u32_state                            100       -    -100
Total: Before=19078072, After=19078780, chg +0.00%

So 708 bytes more after inlining. The main cost is prandom_seed_full_state(),
which calls prandom_u32_state() 10 times (via prandom_warmup()). I expect we
could turn that into a loop to reduce ~450 bytes overall.

I'm not really sure if 708 is good or bad...

> 
>> +static __always_inline u32 prandom_u32_state(struct rnd_state *state)
> 
> Why not just normal `inline`? Is gcc disagreeing with the inlinability
> of this function?

Given this needs to be called from a noinstr function, I didn't want to give the
compiler the opportunity to decide not to inline it, since in that case, some
instrumentation might end up being applied to the function body which would blow
up when called in the noinstr context.

I think the other 2 options are to keep prandom_u32_state() in the c file but
mark it noinstr or rearrange all the users so that thay don't call it until
instrumentation is allowable. The latter is something I was trying to avoid.

There is some previous discussion of this at [1].

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/aS65LFUfdgRPKv1l@J2N7QTR9R3/

Perhaps keeping prandom_u32_state() in the c file and making it noinstr is the
best compromise?

Thanks,
Ryan

> 
> Jason