linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 0/5] ftrace: to kill a daemon

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

Date:	Fri, 8 Aug 2008 13:22:59 -0400
From:	Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...ymtl.ca>
To:	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Roland McGrath <roland@...hat.com>,
	Ulrich Drepper <drepper@...hat.com>,
	Rusty Russell <rusty@...tcorp.com.au>,
	Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@...p.org>,
	Gregory Haskins <ghaskins@...ell.com>,
	Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@...hat.com>,
	"Luis Claudio R. Goncalves" <lclaudio@...g.org>,
	Clark Williams <williams@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/5] ftrace: to kill a daemon

* Steven Rostedt (rostedt@...dmis.org) wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 7 Aug 2008, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Hi Steven,
> > 
> > If you really want to stop using stop_machine, I think you should have a
> > look at my immediate values infrastructure :
> > 
> > see:
> > http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/compudj/linux-2.6-lttng.git;a=blob;f=arch/x86/kernel/immediate.c;h=0958c02b49eed3bbc00bdc5aceeee17a6d0c7ab4;hb=HEAD
> > 
> > particularly replace_instruction_safe(), which uses a temporary
> > breakpoint to safely replace an instruction on a live SMP system without
> > using stop_machine. Feel free to try it in ftrace. :)
> > 
> > You may need to tweak the imv_notifier(), which is responsible for
> > executing the breakpoint. The only special thing this handler has to
> > know is the non-relocatable instructions you might want to insert (it
> > only cares about the new instructions, not the old ones being replaced).
> > The current code deals with 5-bytes jumps. Note that the instruction is
> > executed in the breakpoint handler with preemption disabled, which might
> > not be well suited for a call instruction.
> > 
> > I would recommend to patch in a 5-bytes jmp with 0 offset
> > (e9 00 00 00 00) when disabled (this makes a single 5-bytes instruction
> > and thus makes sure no instruction pointer can iret in the middle).
> > 
> > When enabling the site, you could patch-in the original call, but you
> > should tweak the imv_notifier() so that it uses the jmp offset 0 in the
> > bypass instead of the function call, because preemption would otherwise
> > be disabled around the call when executed in the breakpoint bypass.
> > 
> > Therefore, simply statically forcing the bypass code to e9 00 00 00 00
> > in all the cases (a nop) would do the job for your needs.
> 
> I originally used jumps instead of nops, but unfortunately, they actually 
> hurt performance more than adding nops. Ingo told me it was probably due
> to using up the jump predictions of the CPU.
> 

Hrm, are you sure you use a single 5-bytes nop instruction then, or do
you use a mix of various nop sizes (add_nops) on some architectures ?

You can consume the branch prediction buffers for conditional branches,
but I doubt static jumps have this impact ? I don't see what "jump
predictions" you are referring to here exactly.

Mathieu

> -- Steve
> 

-- 
Mathieu Desnoyers
OpenPGP key fingerprint: 8CD5 52C3 8E3C 4140 715F  BA06 3F25 A8FE 3BAE 9A68
--
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/