Re: [PATCH 3/4] x86: call verify_cpu during 32bit CPU startup

From: Kees Cook
Date: Tue Nov 09 2010 - 14:19:18 EST


On Tue, Nov 09, 2010 at 09:09:18PM +0200, Pekka Enberg wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 8:15 PM, Kees Cook <kees.cook@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > The XD_DISABLE-clearing side-effect needs to happen on 32bit CPU
> > start-up as well.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees.cook@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> The patch description here is pretty damn terse. Why do we need the
> clearing for? Does not clearing XD_DISABLE cause some problem?

The clearing needs to happen for both 32bit and 64bit, but the 32bit init
routines were not calling verify_cpu() yet. This adds that path to gain the
side-effect. (See patch 0 for why clearing XD_DISABLE is important.)

--
Kees Cook
Ubuntu Security Team
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