[PATCH v2 0/8] vsyscall xonly mode

From: Andy Lutomirski
Date: Thu Jun 27 2019 - 00:45:25 EST


Hi all-

This adds a new "xonly" mode for vsyscalls and makes it the default.
xonly is a bit more secure -- Kees knows about an exploit that relied on
read access to the vsyscall page. It's also nicer from a paging
perspective, as it doesn't require user access to any of the kernel
address space as far as the CPU is concerned. This would, for example,
allow a much simpler implementation of per-process vsyscall disabling.

I will follow up with two non-x86 changes that are related but have
no dependencies.

Changes from v1:
- Minor cleanups (Kees)
- Add a searchable message when a vsyscall read is denied (Kees)
- The test case is vastly improved
- Get rid of the extra gate vma object
- Add the __ro_after_init patch

Andy Lutomirski (8):
x86/vsyscall: Remove the vsyscall=native documentation
x86/vsyscall: Add a new vsyscall=xonly mode
x86/vsyscall: Show something useful on a read fault
x86/vsyscall: Document odd SIGSEGV error code for vsyscalls
selftests/x86/vsyscall: Verify that vsyscall=none blocks execution
x86/vsyscall: Change the default vsyscall mode to xonly
x86/vsyscall: Add __ro_after_init to global variables
selftests/x86: Add a test for process_vm_readv() on the vsyscall page

.../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt | 11 +-
arch/x86/Kconfig | 35 +++--
arch/x86/entry/vsyscall/vsyscall_64.c | 37 +++++-
arch/x86/include/asm/vsyscall.h | 6 +-
arch/x86/mm/fault.c | 18 ++-
tools/testing/selftests/x86/test_vsyscall.c | 120 ++++++++++++++----
6 files changed, 174 insertions(+), 53 deletions(-)

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2.21.0