[<prev] [next>] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]
Message-ID: <47CF44E7.3020106@zytor.com>
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:12:07 -0800
From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
To: Chris Lattner <clattner@...le.com>
CC: Michael Matz <matz@...e.de>,
Richard Guenther <richard.guenther@...il.com>,
Joe Buck <Joe.Buck@...opsys.com>, Jan Hubicka <hubicka@....cz>,
Aurelien Jarno <aurelien@...el32.net>,
linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, gcc@....gnu.org
Subject: Re: RELEASE BLOCKER: Linux doesn't follow x86/x86-64 ABI wrt direction
flag
Chris Lattner wrote:
>>
>> Upon return to userspace, the modified state kicks in. Thus the
>> signal handler is entered with DF from userspace at trap time, not DF=0.
>>
>> So it's an asynchronous state leak from one piece of userspace to
>> another.
>
> Fine, it can happen either way. In either case, the distro vendor
> should fix the the signal handler in the kernels they distribute. If
> you don't do that, you are still leaking information from one piece of
> user space code to another, you're just papering over it in a horrible
> way :)
>
> GCC defines the direction flag to be clear before inline asm. Enforcing
> the semantics you propose would require issuing a cld before every
> inline asm, not just before every string operation.
>
It's a kernel bug, and it needs to be fixed. The discussion is about
what to do in the meantime.
(And yes, you're absolutely right: between global subroutine entry and
the first asm or string operation, you'd have to emit cld.)
-hpa
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
Powered by blists - more mailing lists