linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v40 10/24] mm: Add 'mprotect' hook to struct vm_operations

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Message-ID: <20201106211311.GT17076@casper.infradead.org>
Date:   Fri, 6 Nov 2020 21:13:11 +0000
From:   Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>
To:     "Dr. Greg" <greg@...ellic.com>
Cc:     Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko.sakkinen@...ux.intel.com>, x86@...nel.org,
        linux-sgx@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Sean Christopherson <sean.j.christopherson@...el.com>,
        linux-mm@...ck.org, Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Jethro Beekman <jethro@...tanix.com>,
        Darren Kenny <darren.kenny@...cle.com>,
        andriy.shevchenko@...ux.intel.com, asapek@...gle.com, bp@...en8.de,
        cedric.xing@...el.com, chenalexchen@...gle.com,
        conradparker@...gle.com, cyhanish@...gle.com,
        dave.hansen@...el.com, haitao.huang@...el.com, kai.huang@...el.com,
        kai.svahn@...el.com, kmoy@...gle.com, ludloff@...gle.com,
        luto@...nel.org, nhorman@...hat.com, npmccallum@...hat.com,
        puiterwijk@...hat.com, rientjes@...gle.com, tglx@...utronix.de,
        yaozhangx@...gle.com, mikko.ylinen@...el.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v40 10/24] mm: Add 'mprotect' hook to struct
 vm_operations_struct

On Fri, Nov 06, 2020 at 11:43:59AM -0600, Dr. Greg wrote:
> The 900 pound primate in the room, that no one is acknowledging, is
> that this technology was designed to not allow the operating system to
> have any control over what it is doing.  In the mindset of kernel
> developers, the operating system is the absolute authority on
> security, so we find ourselves in a situation where the kernel needs
> to try and work around this fact so any solutions will be imperfect at
> best.
> 
> As I've noted before, this is actually a primary objective of enclave
> authors, since one of the desires for 'Confidential Computing' is to
> hide things like proprietary algorithms from the platform owners.  I
> think the driver needs to acknowledge this fact and equip platform
> owners with the simplest and most effective security solutions that
> are available.

Or we need to not merge "technology" that subverts the owner of
the hardware.  Remember: root kit authors are inventive buggers.