[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]
Message-ID: <20130919093954.GD14112@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 11:39:54 +0200
From: Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>
To: Andi Kleen <ak@...ux.intel.com>
Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
Mike Galbraith <bitbucket@...ine.de>,
Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...ux.intel.com>,
Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com>,
Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
"linux-arch@...r.kernel.org" <linux-arch@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 01/11] x86: Use asm goto to implement better
modify_and_test() functions
* Andi Kleen <ak@...ux.intel.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 02:02:37PM -0500, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>
> > Yes, a bit sad. We allow bracketing with the get/put_user_try/catch
> > blocks, but that is x86-specific. I don't think a generic option is
> > possible without compiler support, but it might be possible to do
> > better than we do know.
>
> Letting the compiler do it is a bit risky, because it may open it up for
> really large blocks, thus defeating the security advantages.
Yeah, the compiler could cover other pointer dereferences in the put_user
block and that won't result in any visible breakage, so it's difficult to
prevent the compiler doing it accidentally or even intentionally.
Then again the many repeated STAC/CLAC sequences are really not nice.
So maybe we could add some macro magic to generate better assembly here -
if we coded up a __put_user_2field() primitive then we could already
optimize the filldir() case:
before:
if (__put_user(d_ino, &dirent->d_ino))
goto efault;
if (__put_user(reclen, &dirent->d_reclen))
goto efault;
if (copy_to_user(dirent->d_name, name, namlen))
goto efault;
if (__put_user(0, dirent->d_name + namlen))
goto efault;
if (__put_user(d_type, (char __user *) dirent + reclen - 1))
goto efault;
after:
if (__put_user_2field(d_ino, &dirent->d_ino, reclen, &dirent->d_reclen))
goto efault;
if (copy_to_user(dirent->d_name, name, namlen))
goto efault;
if (__put_user_2field(0, dirent->d_name + namlen, d_type, (char __user *) dirent + reclen - 1)))
goto efault;
That cuts down the inlined STAC/CLAC pairs from 4 to 2.
__put_user_2field() would be some truly disgusting (but hidden from most
people) macro and assembly magic.
We could also add __put_user_4field() and slightly reorder filldir():
if (__put_user_4field( d_ino, &dirent->d_ino,
reclen, &dirent->d_reclen,
0, dirent->d_name + namlen,
d_type, (char __user *) dirent + reclen - 1)))
goto efault;
if (copy_to_user(dirent->d_name, name, namlen))
goto efault;
That would reduce the inlined STAC/CLAC pairs to a minimal 1 (only one of
which would be visible in the filldir() disassembly).
In theory we could do something generic:
if (__put_user_fields( 4,
d_ino, &dirent->d_ino,
reclen, &dirent->d_reclen,
0, dirent->d_name + namlen,
d_type, (char __user *)dirent + reclen-1 ))
goto efault;
if (copy_to_user(dirent->d_name, name, namlen))
goto efault;
and implement it up to 4 or so. It will be some truly disgusting lowlevel
code (especially due to the size variations which could make it explode
combinatorically), with some generic header fallback that utilizes
existing put_user primitives.
But it's solvable IMO, if we want to solve it. On the high level it's also
more readable in a fashion and hence perhaps a bit less fragile than our
usual __put_user() patterns.
Btw., while at it we could also maybe fix the assignment ordering and use
copy_to_user() naming:
if (__copy_to_user_fields(4,
&dirent->d_ino, d_ino,
&dirent->d_reclen, reclen,
dirent->d_name + namlen, 0,
(char __user *)dirent + reclen-1, d_type ))
goto efault;
if (copy_to_user(dirent->d_name, name, namlen))
goto efault;
That would make it even more readable.
(Thinking about the macro tricks needed for something like this gave me a
bad headache though.)
Thanks,
Ingo
--
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