Message-ID: <63e3f989.170a0220.60c91.c5ce@mx.google.com>
Date:   Wed, 8 Feb 2023 11:35:37 -0800
From:   Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
To:     Dan Li <ashimida.1990@gmail.com>
Cc:     concord@gentoo.org, linux-hardening@vger.kernel.org,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
        Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@kernel.org>,
        Michal Marek <michal.lkml@markovi.net>,
        Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@google.com>,
        Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>,
        Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>,
        Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@google.com>,
        Nathan Chancellor <nathan@kernel.org>,
        Tom Rix <trix@redhat.com>, Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>,
        Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>,
        Qing Zhao <qing.zhao@oracle.com>,
        "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>,
        Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@kernel.org>,
        "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@xmission.com>,
        Marco Elver <elver@google.com>,
        Christophe Leroy <christophe.leroy@csgroup.eu>,
        Song Liu <song@kernel.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
        Uros Bizjak <ubizjak@gmail.com>,
        Kumar Kartikeya Dwivedi <memxor@gmail.com>,
        Juergen Gross <jgross@suse.com>,
        Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@kernel.org>,
        Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de>,
        Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>,
        Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com>,
        Aaron Tomlin <atomlin@redhat.com>,
        Kalesh Singh <kaleshsingh@google.com>,
        Yuntao Wang <ytcoode@gmail.com>,
        Changbin Du <changbin.du@intel.com>,
        linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
        linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org, llvm@lists.linux.dev
Subject: Re: [RFC/RFT] CFI: Add support for gcc CFI in aarch64
References: <20221219061758.23321-1-ashimida.1990@gmail.com>
 <Y6A/k7/KrCCDuux6@hirez.programming.kicks-ass.net>
 <20221219132731.6ng4sz2nv6ujvu7i@ubuntu>
 <202301061929.6881F6CD40@keescook>
 <20230107154213.ocyghxd2k66gbvv6@ubuntu>
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On Sat, Jan 07, 2023 at 07:42:13AM -0800, Dan Li wrote:
> Hi Kees,
> 
> On 01/06, Kees Cook wrote:
> > On Mon, Dec 19, 2022 at 05:32:04AM -0800, Dan Li wrote:
> > > Hi Peter,
> > Hi!
> > 
> > First of all, thank you thank you for working on this in GCC. This will
> > make a big difference for folks that don't have the option to build with
> > Clang to gain CFI coverage.
> > 
> > As for the implementation details, the core issue is really that this
> > type of CFI is specifically designed for the Linux kernel, and it took a
> > rather long time to figure out all the specifics needed (down to the
> > byte counts and instruction layouts). GCC's version will ultimately need
> > to exactly match the Clang output, or Linux is unlikely to support it.
> > 
> > We're already on our second CFI -- the original Clang CFI was just too
> > clunky for long-term use in Linux, so unless we're going to improve on
> > the latest Clang KCFI implementation in some way, it's better to stick
> > to exactly byte-for-byte identical results. The KCFI support in Linux
> > depends on the arm64 and x86_64 runtimes for catching the traps, and the
> > post-processing done (on x86_64) with objtool that prepares the kernel
> > for IBT use, and converts to the optional FineIBT CFI mechanism. With
> > all those moving parts, there needs to be a very compelling reason to
> > have GCC KCFI implementation differ from Clang's.
> > 
> > Hopefully that context helps a little. I'm excited to try out future
> > versions!
> 
> Thanks for the context, it makes sense and helped me a lot. :)
> 
> In the next version I'll make the gcc implementation consistent with clang.

Hi!

Just checking in on this, since there are a lot of interested folks. :)
What's the status on the next version (and has anyone been found to
tackle the x86 backend part)? Is there anything we can help with?

Thanks!

-Kees

-- 
Kees Cook