* Rik van Riel <r...@redhat.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 2017-11-10 at 11:31 -0800, Dave Hansen wrote:
> > From: Dave Hansen <dave.han...@linux.intel.com>
> >
> > Global pages stay in the TLB across context switches. Since all
> > contexts
> > share the same kernel mapping, these mappings are marked as global
> > pages
> > so kernel entries in the TLB are not flushed out on a context switch.
> >
> > But, even having these entries in the TLB opens up something that an
> > attacker can use [1].
> >
> > That means that even when KAISER switches page tables on return to
> > user
> > space the global pages would stay in the TLB cache.
> >
> > Disable global pages so that kernel TLB entries can be flushed before
> > returning to user space. This way, all accesses to kernel addresses
> > from
> > userspace result in a TLB miss independent of the existence of a
> > kernel
> > mapping.
> >
> > Replace _PAGE_GLOBAL by __PAGE_KERNEL_GLOBAL and keep _PAGE_GLOBAL
> > available so that it can still be used for a few selected kernel
> > mappings
> > which must be visible to userspace, when KAISER is enabled, like the
> > entry/exit code and data.
>
> Nice changelog.
>
> Why am I pointing this out?
>
> > +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable_types.h 2017-11-10
> > 11:22:06.626244956 -0800
> > @@ -179,8 +179,20 @@ enum page_cache_mode {
> > #define PAGE_READONLY_EXEC __pgprot(_PAGE_PRESENT |
> > _PAGE_USER | \
> > _PAGE_ACCESSED)
> >
> > +/*
> > + * Disable global pages for anything using the default
> > + * __PAGE_KERNEL* macros. PGE will still be enabled
> > + * and _PAGE_GLOBAL may still be used carefully.
> > + */
> > +#ifdef CONFIG_KAISER
> > +#define __PAGE_KERNEL_GLOBAL 0
> > +#else
> > +#define __PAGE_KERNEL_GLOBAL _PAGE_GLOBAL
> > +#endif
> > +
>
> The comment above could use a little more info
> on why things are done that way, though :)
Good point - I've updated these comments to say:
/*
* Disable global pages for anything using the default
* __PAGE_KERNEL* macros.
*
* PGE will still be enabled and _PAGE_GLOBAL may still be used carefully
* for a few selected kernel mappings which must be visible to userspace,
* when KAISER is enabled, like the entry/exit code and data.
*/
#ifdef CONFIG_KAISER
#define __PAGE_KERNEL_GLOBAL 0
#else
#define __PAGE_KERNEL_GLOBAL _PAGE_GLOBAL
#endif
... and I've added your Reviewed-by tag which I assume now applies?
Thanks,
Ingo
