linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v8 3/7] kernel: Implement selective syscall userspace redirection

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Date:   Tue, 1 Dec 2020 14:57:25 -0800
From:   Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>
To:     Gabriel Krisman Bertazi <krisman@...labora.com>
Cc:     luto@...nel.org, tglx@...utronix.de, gofmanp@...il.com,
        christian.brauner@...ntu.com, peterz@...radead.org,
        willy@...radead.org, shuah@...nel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-api@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kselftest@...r.kernel.org, x86@...nel.org,
        kernel@...labora.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v8 3/7] kernel: Implement selective syscall userspace
 redirection

On Fri, Nov 27, 2020 at 02:32:34PM -0500, Gabriel Krisman Bertazi wrote:
> Introduce a mechanism to quickly disable/enable syscall handling for a
> specific process and redirect to userspace via SIGSYS.  This is useful
> for processes with parts that require syscall redirection and parts that
> don't, but who need to perform this boundary crossing really fast,
> without paying the cost of a system call to reconfigure syscall handling
> on each boundary transition.  This is particularly important for Windows
> games running over Wine.
> 
> The proposed interface looks like this:
> 
>   prctl(PR_SET_SYSCALL_USER_DISPATCH, <op>, <off>, <length>, [selector])
> 
> The range [<offset>,<offset>+<length>) is a part of the process memory
> map that is allowed to by-pass the redirection code and dispatch
> syscalls directly, such that in fast paths a process doesn't need to
> disable the trap nor the kernel has to check the selector.  This is
> essential to return from SIGSYS to a blocked area without triggering
> another SIGSYS from rt_sigreturn.
> 
> selector is an optional pointer to a char-sized userspace memory region
> that has a key switch for the mechanism. This key switch is set to
> either PR_SYS_DISPATCH_ON, PR_SYS_DISPATCH_OFF to enable and disable the
> redirection without calling the kernel.
> 
> The feature is meant to be set per-thread and it is disabled on
> fork/clone/execv.
> 
> Internally, this doesn't add overhead to the syscall hot path, and it
> requires very little per-architecture support.  I avoided using seccomp,
> even though it duplicates some functionality, due to previous feedback
> that maybe it shouldn't mix with seccomp since it is not a security
> mechanism.  And obviously, this should never be considered a security
> mechanism, since any part of the program can by-pass it by using the
> syscall dispatcher.
> 
> For the sysinfo benchmark, which measures the overhead added to
> executing a native syscall that doesn't require interception, the
> overhead using only the direct dispatcher region to issue syscalls is
> pretty much irrelevant.  The overhead of using the selector goes around
> 40ns for a native (unredirected) syscall in my system, and it is (as
> expected) dominated by the supervisor-mode user-address access.  In
> fact, with SMAP off, the overhead is consistently less than 5ns on my
> test box.
> 
> Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>
> Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>
> Cc: Paul Gofman <gofmanp@...il.com>
> Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>
> Cc: linux-api@...r.kernel.org
> Signed-off-by: Gabriel Krisman Bertazi <krisman@...labora.com>

Acked-by: Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>


-- 
Kees Cook