Re: [PATCHv2 1/4] perf/core: Add support to exclude kernel mode PMU tracing

[Doug Anderson]

Hi,

On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 11:05 AM Sai Prakash Ranjan
<saiprakash.ranjan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hardware assisted tracing families such as ARM Coresight, Intel PT
> provides rich tracing capabilities including instruction level
> tracing and accurate timestamps which are very useful for profiling
> and also pose a significant security risk. One such example of
> security risk is when kernel mode tracing is not excluded and these
> hardware assisted tracing can be used to analyze cryptographic code
> execution. In this case, even the root user must not be able to infer
> anything.
>
> To explain it more clearly in the words of a security team member
> (credits: Mattias Nissler),
>
> "Consider a system where disk contents are encrypted and the encryption
> key is set up by the user when mounting the file system. From that point
> on the encryption key resides in the kernel. It seems reasonable to
> expect that the disk encryption key be protected from exfiltration even
> if the system later suffers a root compromise (or even against insiders
> that have root access), at least as long as the attacker doesn't
> manage to compromise the kernel."
>
> Here the idea is to protect such important information from all users
> including root users since root privileges does not have to mean full
> control over the kernel [1] and root compromise does not have to be
> the end of the world.
>
> But "Peter said even the regular counters can be used for full branch
> trace, the information isn't as accurate as PT and friends and not easier
> but is good enough to infer plenty". This would mean that a global tunable
> config for all kernel mode pmu tracing is more appropriate than the one
> targeting the hardware assisted instruction tracing.
>
> Currently we can exclude kernel mode tracing via perf_event_paranoid
> sysctl but it has following limitations,
>
>  * No option to restrict kernel mode instruction tracing by the
>    root user.
>  * Not possible to restrict kernel mode instruction tracing when the
>    hardware assisted tracing IPs like ARM Coresight ETMs use an
>    additional interface via sysfs for tracing in addition to perf
>    interface.
>
> So introduce a new config CONFIG_EXCLUDE_KERNEL_PMU_TRACE to exclude
> kernel mode pmu tracing which will be generic and applicable to all
> hardware tracing families and which can also be used with other
> interfaces like sysfs in case of ETMs.
>
> [1] https://lwn.net/Articles/796866/
>
> Suggested-by: Suzuki K Poulose <suzuki.poulose@xxxxxxx>
> Suggested-by: Al Grant <al.grant@xxxxxxx>
> Tested-by: Denis Nikitin <denik@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20201015124522.1876-1-saiprakash.ranjan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
> Signed-off-by: Sai Prakash Ranjan <saiprakash.ranjan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  init/Kconfig         | 11 +++++++++++
>  kernel/events/core.c |  3 +++
>  2 files changed, 14 insertions(+)

I'm not really knowledgeable at all about the perf subsystem so my
review doesn't hold a lot of weight.  However, Sai's patch seems sane
to me.

Reviewed-by: Douglas Anderson <dianders@xxxxxxxxxxxx>