Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752045AbbKYPDm (ORCPT ); Wed, 25 Nov 2015 10:03:42 -0500 Received: from mail-ig0-f175.google.com ([209.85.213.175]:36899 "EHLO mail-ig0-f175.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750726AbbKYPDj (ORCPT ); Wed, 25 Nov 2015 10:03:39 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <1448412883.3762.1.camel@ellerman.id.au> References: <1448401114-24650-1-git-send-email-keescook@chromium.org> <1448401114-24650-2-git-send-email-keescook@chromium.org> <1448412883.3762.1.camel@ellerman.id.au> Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2015 07:03:37 -0800 X-Google-Sender-Auth: YlxUrTCdIRiWUcviSyhxd_FmXiQ Message-ID: Subject: Re: [kernel-hardening] Re: [PATCH 1/2] x86: introduce post-init read-only memory From: Kees Cook To: Michael Ellerman Cc: "kernel-hardening@lists.openwall.com" , Andy Lutomirski , linux-arch , Thomas Gleixner , Ingo Molnar , "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" , Arnd Bergmann , X86 ML , "H. Peter Anvin" Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2134 Lines: 48 On Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 4:54 PM, Michael Ellerman wrote: > On Tue, 2015-11-24 at 16:44 -0800, Kees Cook wrote: >> On Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 4:34 PM, Andy Lutomirski wrote: >> > On Nov 24, 2015 1:38 PM, "Kees Cook" wrote: >> > > >> > > One of the easiest ways to protect the kernel from attack is to reduce >> > > the internal attack surface exposed when a "write" flaw is available. By >> > > making as much of the kernel read-only as possible, we reduce the >> > > attack surface. >> > > >> > > Many things are written to only during __init, and never changed >> > > again. These cannot be made "const" since the compiler will do the wrong >> > > thing (we do actually need to write to them). Instead, move these items >> > > into a memory region that will be made read-only during mark_rodata_ro() >> > > which happens after all kernel __init code has finished. >> > > >> > > This introduces __read_only as a way to mark such memory, and adds some >> > > documentation about the existing __read_mostly marking. >> > >> > Obligatory bikeshed: __ro_after_init, please. It's barely longer, >> > and it directly explains what's going on. __read_only makes me think >> > that it's really read-only and could, for example, actually be in ROM. >> >> I'm fine with that. Anyone else want to chime in before I send a v2? > > I'm not clear on why this is x86 only? I was initially looking at how __read_mostly got implemented, and it seemed like section names were done on a per-arch basis. But it doesn't seem like that needs to be true. > It looks like it would work on any arch, or is there some toolchain > requirement? Given that the other sections are in the common linux.lds.h file, it seems unlikely to me. I'll try it in an arch-agnostic way and see what happens. :) -Kees -- Kees Cook Chrome OS & Brillo Security -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/