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Marco Elver aebc7b0d8d list: Introduce CONFIG_LIST_HARDENED
Numerous production kernel configs (see [1, 2]) are choosing to enable
CONFIG_DEBUG_LIST, which is also being recommended by KSPP for hardened
configs [3]. The motivation behind this is that the option can be used
as a security hardening feature (e.g. CVE-2019-2215 and CVE-2019-2025
are mitigated by the option [4]).

The feature has never been designed with performance in mind, yet common
list manipulation is happening across hot paths all over the kernel.

Introduce CONFIG_LIST_HARDENED, which performs list pointer checking
inline, and only upon list corruption calls the reporting slow path.

To generate optimal machine code with CONFIG_LIST_HARDENED:

  1. Elide checking for pointer values which upon dereference would
     result in an immediate access fault (i.e. minimal hardening
     checks).  The trade-off is lower-quality error reports.

  2. Use the __preserve_most function attribute (available with Clang,
     but not yet with GCC) to minimize the code footprint for calling
     the reporting slow path. As a result, function size of callers is
     reduced by avoiding saving registers before calling the rarely
     called reporting slow path.

     Note that all TUs in lib/Makefile already disable function tracing,
     including list_debug.c, and __preserve_most's implied notrace has
     no effect in this case.

  3. Because the inline checks are a subset of the full set of checks in
     __list_*_valid_or_report(), always return false if the inline
     checks failed.  This avoids redundant compare and conditional
     branch right after return from the slow path.

As a side-effect of the checks being inline, if the compiler can prove
some condition to always be true, it can completely elide some checks.

Since DEBUG_LIST is functionally a superset of LIST_HARDENED, the
Kconfig variables are changed to reflect that: DEBUG_LIST selects
LIST_HARDENED, whereas LIST_HARDENED itself has no dependency on
DEBUG_LIST.

Running netperf with CONFIG_LIST_HARDENED (using a Clang compiler with
"preserve_most") shows throughput improvements, in my case of ~7% on
average (up to 20-30% on some test cases).

Link: https://r.android.com/1266735 [1]
Link: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/linux/-/blob/main/config [2]
Link: https://kernsec.org/wiki/index.php/Kernel_Self_Protection_Project/Recommended_Settings [3]
Link: https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2019/11/bad-binder-android-in-wild-exploit.html [4]
Signed-off-by: Marco Elver <elver@google.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230811151847.1594958-3-elver@google.com
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
2023-08-15 14:57:25 -07:00
arch list: Introduce CONFIG_LIST_HARDENED 2023-08-15 14:57:25 -07:00
block SCSI fixes on 20230714 2023-07-14 19:57:29 -07:00
certs KEYS: Add missing function documentation 2023-04-24 16:15:52 +03:00
crypto crypto: algif_hash - Fix race between MORE and non-MORE sends 2023-07-08 22:48:42 +10:00
Documentation SCSI fixes on 20230714 2023-07-14 19:57:29 -07:00
drivers list: Introduce CONFIG_LIST_HARDENED 2023-08-15 14:57:25 -07:00
fs Five smb3 client fixes 2023-07-16 12:49:05 -07:00
include list: Introduce CONFIG_LIST_HARDENED 2023-08-15 14:57:25 -07:00
init Kbuild updates for v6.5 2023-07-01 09:24:31 -07:00
io_uring io_uring-6.5-2023-07-14 2023-07-14 19:46:54 -07:00
ipc Merge branch 'work.namespace' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs 2023-02-24 19:20:07 -08:00
kernel perf: Replace strlcpy with strscpy 2023-07-27 08:51:25 -07:00
lib list: Introduce CONFIG_LIST_HARDENED 2023-08-15 14:57:25 -07:00
LICENSES LICENSES: Add the copyleft-next-0.3.1 license 2022-11-08 15:44:01 +01:00
mm mm: lock newly mapped VMA with corrected ordering 2023-07-08 16:44:11 -07:00
net A fix to prevent a potential buffer overrun in the messenger, marked 2023-07-14 09:05:15 -07:00
rust rust: error: impl Debug for Error with errname() integration 2023-06-13 01:24:42 +02:00
samples arm64: ftrace: Add direct call trampoline samples support 2023-07-10 17:51:54 -04:00
scripts gcc-plugins: Rename last_stmt() for GCC 14+ 2023-08-10 23:10:09 -07:00
security list: Introduce CONFIG_LIST_HARDENED 2023-08-15 14:57:25 -07:00
sound sound fixes for 6.5-rc1 2023-07-07 15:40:17 -07:00
tools selftests/harness: Actually report SKIP for signal tests 2023-08-10 23:10:09 -07:00
usr initramfs: Encode dependency on KBUILD_BUILD_TIMESTAMP 2023-06-06 17:54:49 +09:00
virt ARM64: 2023-07-03 15:32:22 -07:00
.clang-format iommu: Add for_each_group_device() 2023-05-23 08:15:51 +02:00
.cocciconfig scripts: add Linux .cocciconfig for coccinelle 2016-07-22 12:13:39 +02:00
.get_maintainer.ignore get_maintainer: add Alan to .get_maintainer.ignore 2022-08-20 15:17:44 -07:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set diff driver for Rust source code files 2023-05-31 17:48:25 +02:00
.gitignore Revert ".gitignore: ignore *.cover and *.mbx" 2023-07-04 15:05:12 -07:00
.mailmap spi: Fixes for v6.5 2023-07-15 08:51:02 -07:00
.rustfmt.toml rust: add .rustfmt.toml 2022-09-28 09:02:20 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS - Address -Wmissing-prototype warnings 2023-06-26 16:43:54 -07:00
Kbuild Kbuild updates for v6.1 2022-10-10 12:00:45 -07:00
Kconfig kbuild: ensure full rebuild when the compiler is updated 2020-05-12 13:28:33 +09:00
MAINTAINERS hardening fixes for v6.5-rc2 2023-07-16 12:18:18 -07:00
Makefile Linux 6.5-rc2 2023-07-16 15:10:37 -07:00
README Drop all 00-INDEX files from Documentation/ 2018-09-09 15:08:58 -06:00

Linux kernel
============

There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.

In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``.  The formatted documentation can also be read online at:

    https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/

There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.

Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.