linux-kernel - [PATCH v4 17/24] objtool: Add action to check for absence of absolute relocations

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Message-ID: <20250709080840.2233208-43-ardb+git@google.com>
Date: Wed,  9 Jul 2025 10:08:58 +0200
From: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb+git@...gle.com>
To: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc: linux-efi@...r.kernel.org, x86@...nel.org, 
	Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@...nel.org>, Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>, 
	Dionna Amalie Glaze <dionnaglaze@...gle.com>, Kevin Loughlin <kevinloughlin@...gle.com>, 
	Tom Lendacky <thomas.lendacky@....com>, Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@...nel.org>, 
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
Subject: [PATCH v4 17/24] objtool: Add action to check for absence of absolute relocations

From: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@...nel.org>

The x86 startup code must not use absolute references to code or data,
as it executes before the kernel virtual mapping is up.

Add an action to objtool to check all allocatable sections (with the
exception of __patchable_function_entries, which uses absolute
references for nebulous reasons) and raise an error if any absolute
references are found.

Note that debug sections typically contain lots of absolute references
too, but those are not allocatable so they will be ignored.

Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@...nel.org>
---
 tools/objtool/builtin-check.c           |  2 ++
 tools/objtool/check.c                   | 36 ++++++++++++++++++++
 tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h |  1 +
 3 files changed, 39 insertions(+)

diff --git a/tools/objtool/builtin-check.c b/tools/objtool/builtin-check.c
index 80239843e9f0..0f6b197cfcb0 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/builtin-check.c
+++ b/tools/objtool/builtin-check.c
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ static const struct option check_options[] = {
 	OPT_BOOLEAN('t', "static-call", &opts.static_call, "annotate static calls"),
 	OPT_BOOLEAN('u', "uaccess", &opts.uaccess, "validate uaccess rules for SMAP"),
 	OPT_BOOLEAN(0  , "cfi", &opts.cfi, "annotate kernel control flow integrity (kCFI) function preambles"),
+	OPT_BOOLEAN(0  , "noabs", &opts.noabs, "reject absolute references in allocatable sections"),
 	OPT_CALLBACK_OPTARG(0, "dump", NULL, NULL, "orc", "dump metadata", parse_dump),
 
 	OPT_GROUP("Options:"),
@@ -162,6 +163,7 @@ static bool opts_valid(void)
 	    opts.hack_noinstr		||
 	    opts.ibt			||
 	    opts.mcount			||
+	    opts.noabs			||
 	    opts.noinstr		||
 	    opts.orc			||
 	    opts.retpoline		||
diff --git a/tools/objtool/check.c b/tools/objtool/check.c
index d967ac001498..5d1d38404892 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/check.c
+++ b/tools/objtool/check.c
@@ -4643,6 +4643,39 @@ static void disas_warned_funcs(struct objtool_file *file)
 		disas_funcs(funcs);
 }
 
+static int check_abs_references(struct objtool_file *file)
+{
+	struct section *sec;
+	struct reloc *reloc;
+	int ret = 0;
+
+	for_each_sec(file, sec) {
+		/* absolute references in non-loadable sections are fine */
+		if (!(sec->sh.sh_flags & SHF_ALLOC))
+			continue;
+
+		/* section must have an associated .rela section */
+		if (!sec->rsec)
+			continue;
+
+		/*
+		 * Special case for compiler generated metadata that is not
+		 * consumed until after boot.
+		 */
+		if (!strcmp(sec->name, "__patchable_function_entries"))
+			continue;
+
+		for_each_reloc(sec->rsec, reloc) {
+			if (reloc_type(reloc) == R_ABS64) {
+				WARN("section %s has absolute relocation at offset 0x%lx",
+				     sec->name, reloc_offset(reloc));
+				ret++;
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return ret;
+}
+
 struct insn_chunk {
 	void *addr;
 	struct insn_chunk *next;
@@ -4776,6 +4809,9 @@ int check(struct objtool_file *file)
 			goto out;
 	}
 
+	if (opts.noabs)
+		warnings += check_abs_references(file);
+
 	if (opts.orc && nr_insns) {
 		ret = orc_create(file);
 		if (ret)
diff --git a/tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h b/tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h
index 6b08666fa69d..ab22673862e1 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h
+++ b/tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ struct opts {
 	bool uaccess;
 	int prefix;
 	bool cfi;
+	bool noabs;
 
 	/* options: */
 	bool backtrace;
-- 
2.50.0.727.gbf7dc18ff4-goog