Date:   Fri, 24 May 2019 10:20:45 -0500
From:   Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@...hat.com>
To:     Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@....com>
Cc:     Will Deacon <will.deacon@....com>,
        linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org, marc.zyngier@....com,
        james.morse@....com, guillaume.gardet@....com,
        mark.rutland@....com, mingo@...nel.org, jeyu@...nel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-arch@...r.kernel.org,
        arnd@...db.de, x86@...nel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] module/ksymtab: use 64-bit relative reference for target
 symbol

On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 10:29:39AM +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> 
> 
> On 5/23/19 10:18 AM, Will Deacon wrote:
> > On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 09:41:40AM +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On 5/22/19 5:28 PM, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > On 5/22/19 4:02 PM, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> > > > > The following commit
> > > > > 
> > > > >     7290d5809571 ("module: use relative references for __ksymtab entries")
> > > > > 
> > > > > updated the ksymtab handling of some KASLR capable architectures
> > > > > so that ksymtab entries are emitted as pairs of 32-bit relative
> > > > > references. This reduces the size of the entries, but more
> > > > > importantly, it gets rid of statically assigned absolute
> > > > > addresses, which require fixing up at boot time if the kernel
> > > > > is self relocating (which takes a 24 byte RELA entry for each
> > > > > member of the ksymtab struct).
> > > > > 
> > > > > Since ksymtab entries are always part of the same module as the
> > > > > symbol they export (or of the core kernel), it was assumed at the
> > > > > time that a 32-bit relative reference is always sufficient to
> > > > > capture the offset between a ksymtab entry and its target symbol.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Unfortunately, this is not always true: in the case of per-CPU
> > > > > variables, a per-CPU variable's base address (which usually differs
> > > > > from the actual address of any of its per-CPU copies) could be at
> > > > > an arbitrary offset from the ksymtab entry, and so it may be out
> > > > > of range for a 32-bit relative reference.
> > > > > 
> > > 
> > > (Apologies for the 3-act monologue)
> > 
> > Exposition, development and recapitulation ;)
> > 
> > > This turns out to be incorrect. The symbol address of per-CPU variables
> > > exported by modules is always in the vicinity of __per_cpu_start, and so it
> > > is simply a matter of making sure that the core kernel is in range for
> > > module ksymtab entries containing 32-bit relative references.
> > > 
> > > When running the arm64 with kaslr enabled, we currently randomize the module
> > > space based on the range of ADRP/ADD instruction pairs, which have a -/+ 4
> > > GB range rather than the -/+ 2 GB range of 32-bit place relative data
> > > relocations. So we can fix this by simply reducing the randomization window
> > > to 2 GB.
> > 
> > Makes sense. Do you see the need for an option to disable PREL relocs
> > altogether in case somebody wants the additional randomization range?
> > 
> 
> No, not really. To be honest, I don't think
> CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_MODULE_REGION_FULL is that useful to begin with, and the
> only reason we enabled it by default at the time was to ensure that the PLT
> code got some coverage after we introduced it.

In code, percpu variables are accessed with absolute relocations, right?
Before I read your 3rd act, I was wondering if it would make sense to do
the same with the ksymtab relocations.

Like if we somehow [ insert much hand waving ] ensured that everybody
uses EXPORT_PER_CPU_SYMBOL() for percpu symbols instead of just
EXPORT_SYMBOL() then we could use a different macro to create the
ksymtab relocations for percpu variables, such that they use absolute
relocations.

Just an idea.  Maybe the point is moot now.

-- 
Josh

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