[PATCH] x86: Disable CET instrumentation in the kernel

From: Josh Poimboeuf
Date: Thu Jan 28 2021 - 16:54:46 EST



With retpolines disabled, some configurations of GCC will add Intel CET
instrumentation to the kernel by default. That breaks certain tracing
scenarios by adding a superfluous ENDBR64 instruction before the fentry
call, for functions which can be called indirectly.

CET instrumentation isn't currently necessary in the kernel, as CET is
only supported in user space. Disable it unconditionally.

Reported-by: Nikolay Borisov <nborisov@xxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Makefile | 6 ------
arch/x86/Makefile | 3 +++
2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e0af7a4a5598..51c2bf34142d 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -948,12 +948,6 @@ KBUILD_CFLAGS += $(call cc-option,-Werror=designated-init)
# change __FILE__ to the relative path from the srctree
KBUILD_CPPFLAGS += $(call cc-option,-fmacro-prefix-map=$(srctree)/=)

-# ensure -fcf-protection is disabled when using retpoline as it is
-# incompatible with -mindirect-branch=thunk-extern
-ifdef CONFIG_RETPOLINE
-KBUILD_CFLAGS += $(call cc-option,-fcf-protection=none)
-endif
-
# include additional Makefiles when needed
include-y := scripts/Makefile.extrawarn
include-$(CONFIG_KASAN) += scripts/Makefile.kasan
diff --git a/arch/x86/Makefile b/arch/x86/Makefile
index 32dcdddc1089..109c7f86483c 100644
--- a/arch/x86/Makefile
+++ b/arch/x86/Makefile
@@ -120,6 +120,9 @@ else

KBUILD_CFLAGS += -mno-red-zone
KBUILD_CFLAGS += -mcmodel=kernel
+
+ # Intel CET isn't enabled in the kernel
+ KBUILD_CFLAGS += $(call cc-option,-fcf-protection=none)
endif

ifdef CONFIG_X86_X32
--
2.29.2