linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 31/32] x86, pkeys: execute-only support

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:	Mon, 14 Dec 2015 12:05:25 -0800
From:	Kees Cook <keescook@...gle.com>
To:	Dave Hansen <dave@...1.net>
Cc:	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, Linux-MM <linux-mm@...ck.org>,
	"x86@...nel.org" <x86@...nel.org>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>,
	Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 31/32] x86, pkeys: execute-only support

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 11:06 AM, Dave Hansen <dave@...1.net> wrote:
>
> From: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com>
>
> Protection keys provide new page-based protection in hardware.
> But, they have an interesting attribute: they only affect data
> accesses and never affect instruction fetches.  That means that
> if we set up some memory which is set as "access-disabled" via
> protection keys, we can still execute from it.
>
> This patch uses protection keys to set up mappings to do just that.
> If a user calls:
>
>         mmap(..., PROT_EXEC);
> or
>         mprotect(ptr, sz, PROT_EXEC);
>
> (note PROT_EXEC-only without PROT_READ/WRITE), the kernel will
> notice this, and set a special protection key on the memory.  It
> also sets the appropriate bits in the Protection Keys User Rights
> (PKRU) register so that the memory becomes unreadable and
> unwritable.
>
> I haven't found any userspace that does this today.

To realistically take advantage of this, it sounds like the linker
would need to know to keep bss and data page-aligned away from text,
and then set text to PROT_EXEC only?

Do you have any example linker scripts for this?

-Kees

-- 
Kees Cook
Chrome OS & Brillo Security
--
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/