linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2] x86/mm: warn on W+x mappings

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Message-ID: <20151014164744.GA14705@x>
Date:	Wed, 14 Oct 2015 09:47:45 -0700
From:	Josh Triplett <josh@...htriplett.org>
To:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>
Cc:	Matt Fleming <matt@...eblueprint.co.uk>,
	Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
	Stephen Smalley <sds@...ho.nsa.gov>, x86@...nel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, keescook@...omium.org,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] x86/mm: warn on W+x mappings

On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 05:19:40PM +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> 
> * Josh Triplett <josh@...htriplett.org> wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 04:17:54PM +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> > > * Matt Fleming <matt@...eblueprint.co.uk> wrote:
> > > > On Mon, 12 Oct, at 02:49:36PM, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> > > > > So why not unmap them after bootup? Is there any reason to call into EFI code 
> > > > > while the system is up and running?
> > > > 
> > > > That's where the runtime services code lives. So if you want things like EFI 
> > > > variables (used by the distro installer, among other things) you need to map the 
> > > > runtime regions.
> > > 
> > > So EFI variables could be queried during bootup and saved on the Linux side.
> > 
> > That wouldn't support writing to EFI variables.  Or using the EFI
> > capsule update system to update firmware.
> 
> Well, if we know the location of those pages then we could map those 'rw-' - while 
> the rest would be mapped 'r-x'.

We have no way to do so in the absence of the additional code/data
separation information provided by more recent firmware.

- Josh Triplett
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