linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v4 04/10] x86/xsaves: Introduce a new check that allows correct xstates copy from kernel to user directly

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Date:	Mon, 2 May 2016 09:43:47 -0700
From:	Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com>
To:	Yu-cheng Yu <yu-cheng.yu@...el.com>
Cc:	x86@...nel.org, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>,
	Borislav Petkov <bp@...e.de>,
	Sai Praneeth Prakhya <sai.praneeth.prakhya@...el.com>,
	"Ravi V. Shankar" <ravi.v.shankar@...el.com>,
	Fenghua Yu <fenghua.yu@...el.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 04/10] x86/xsaves: Introduce a new check that allows
 correct xstates copy from kernel to user directly

On 05/02/2016 09:34 AM, Yu-cheng Yu wrote:
> On Mon, May 02, 2016 at 09:06:41AM -0700, Dave Hansen wrote:
>> On 05/02/2016 08:57 AM, Yu-cheng Yu wrote:
>>> On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 05:36:48PM -0700, Dave Hansen wrote:
>>>> If may_copy_fpregs_to_sigframe() were called from a slightly different
>>>> context, or if we change the call-site, what breaks?
>>>>
>>>> In other words. if we can still "may_copy_fpregs_to_sigframe()" no
>>>> matter the state of fpu.fpstate_active, then I don't think we should be
>>>> checking it in may_copy_fpregs_to_sigframe().
>>>
>>> Do you mean, don't check fpu.fpstate_active here?
>>
>> Not really.  I'm asking *why* the check is there.
> 
> If (fpu.fpstate_active == 0), then the task does not use FPU; we don't
> want to save these registers, right?  

No.  It's possible to have fpstate_active=0 while fpregs_active=1.  Such
a task uses the FPU, but just hasn't done an XSAVE* to save the register
content to the fpstate buffer.

Note, this is just theoretical, and does not happen in this particular
call path today.