linux-kernel - Re: [PATCHv3 2/2] arch: Rename CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA and CONFIG_DEBUG_MODULE

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Date:   Fri, 17 Feb 2017 09:22:44 +0100
From:   Helge Deller <deller@....de>
To:     Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>, Pavel Machek <pavel@....cz>
Cc:     Laura Abbott <labbott@...hat.com>,
        Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@....com>,
        "linux-doc@...r.kernel.org" <linux-doc@...r.kernel.org>,
        Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@....com>,
        Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@...ibm.com>,
        "James E.J. Bottomley" <jejb@...isc-linux.org>,
        "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
        "kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com" 
        <kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com>,
        Rob Herring <robh@...nel.org>, Jessica Yu <jeyu@...hat.com>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
        "x86@...nel.org" <x86@...nel.org>,
        Russell King <linux@...linux.org.uk>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
        Len Brown <len.brown@...el.com>,
        "linux-s390@...r.kernel.org" <linux-s390@...r.kernel.org>,
        Will Deacon <will.deacon@....com>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        "linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org" 
        <linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>,
        linux-parisc <linux-parisc@...r.kernel.org>,
        Linux PM list <linux-pm@...r.kernel.org>,
        "Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@...ysocki.net>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Jason Wessel <jason.wessel@...driver.com>,
        Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@...ibm.com>,
        Robin Murphy <robin.murphy@....com>
Subject: Re: [PATCHv3 2/2] arch: Rename CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA and
 CONFIG_DEBUG_MODULE_RONX

On 17.02.2017 02:08, Kees Cook wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 2:25 PM, Pavel Machek <pavel@....cz> wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>>>
>>> -config DEBUG_RODATA
>>> +config STRICT_KERNEL_RWX
>>>       bool "Make kernel text and rodata read-only" if ARCH_OPTIONAL_KERNEL_RWX
>>>       depends on ARCH_HAS_STRICT_KERNEL_RWX
>>>       default !ARCH_OPTIONAL_KERNEL_RWX ||
>>
>> Debug features are expected to have runtime cost, so kconfig help is
>> silent about those. But there are runtime costs, right? It would be
>> nice to mention them in the help text...
> 
> It depends on the architecture. The prior help text for arm said:
> 
>          The tradeoff is that each region is padded to section-size (1MiB)
>          boundaries (because their permissions are different and splitting
>          the 1M pages into 4K ones causes TLB performance problems), which
>          can waste memory.
> 
> parisc (somewhat inaccurately) said:
> 
>          This option may have a slight performance impact because a
>          portion of the kernel code won't be covered by a TLB anymore.

The logic on parisc is actually:
If huge page support is enabled, we map 1MB pages (and behave like arm wrt alignments).
If huge page support is disabled we stay at 4k/PAGE_SIZE pages (without 1M alignment).
 
> IIUC, arm64 does what parisc is hinting at: mappings at the end are
> broken down to PAGE_SIZE. 

On parisc we never implemented that.

> On x86, IIUC, there's actually no change to
> TLB performance due to how the mappings are already set up.
> 
> I'm not sure the best way to express this in the new help text. Do you
> have some suggestions on wording? Personally, I don't really think
> it's worth mentioning this in Kconfig help,

I agree on this.

> which, in theory, is
> supposed to limit how technical it gets. And I think the performance
> impact is almost entirely negligible compared to the risks addressed.

Helge