From: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
To: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Cc: kvm@vger.kernel.org, Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>,
Mathias Krause <minipli@grsecurity.net>,
Andrew Jones <andrew.jones@linux.dev>
Subject: [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 20/20] x86: Prevent realmode test code instrumentation with nop-mcount
Date: Thu, 14 May 2026 14:05:00 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260514210500.1626871-21-seanjc@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260514210500.1626871-1-seanjc@google.com>
From: Mathias Krause <minipli@grsecurity.net>
Commit f01ea38a385a ("x86: Better backtraces for leaf functions") made
use of '-pg -mnop-mcount' to provide a lightweight way to force leaf
functions to emit a proper prologue for the backtracing code. However,
-mnop-mcount doesn't play well with 16-bit code generation for C code.
gcc happily emits a 5-byte NOP that transmutes to a 4-byte NOP followed
by a zero byte when executed in real mode, wrecking all code that
follows.
Fix that by selectively disabling '-mnop-mcount' for realmode.c, making
it call mcount(), which is provided as a stub function.
Note, a fix for the bad gcc behavior has been queued for gcc-16, i.e.
this workaround can be dropped when gcc-16 is the minimal supported
version for KUT (so in about 30 years).
Link: https://gcc.gnu.org/git/?p=gcc.git;a=commitdiff;h=114a19fae9bd [1]
Reported-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
Fixes: f01ea38a385a ("x86: Better backtraces for leaf functions")
Signed-off-by: Mathias Krause <minipli@grsecurity.net>
[sean: add note regarding gcc bug]
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
---
x86/Makefile.common | 5 ++++-
x86/realmode.c | 3 +++
2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/x86/Makefile.common b/x86/Makefile.common
index f7e3ba78..f5cbd9cf 100644
--- a/x86/Makefile.common
+++ b/x86/Makefile.common
@@ -51,7 +51,9 @@ ifneq ($(KEEP_FRAME_POINTER),)
# We need to defer the cc-option test until -fno-pic or -no-pie have been
# added to CFLAGS as -mnop-mcount needs it. The lazy evaluation of CFLAGS
# during compilation makes this do "The Right Thing."
-LATE_CFLAGS += $(call cc-option, -pg -mnop-mcount, "")
+NOP_PGFLAGS := -pg -mnop-mcount
+LATE_CFLAGS += $(call cc-option, $(NOP_PGFLAGS), "")
+NO_NOP_MCOUNT = $(if $(filter $(NOP_PGFLAGS),$(LATE_CFLAGS)),-mno-nop-mcount)
endif
FLATLIBS = lib/libcflat.a
@@ -123,6 +125,7 @@ $(TEST_DIR)/realmode.elf: $(TEST_DIR)/realmode.o $(SRCDIR)/$(TEST_DIR)/realmode.
-T $(SRCDIR)/$(TEST_DIR)/realmode.lds $(filter %.o, $^)
$(TEST_DIR)/realmode.o: bits = $(realmode_bits)
+$(TEST_DIR)/realmode.o: CFLAGS += $(NO_NOP_MCOUNT)
$(TEST_DIR)/access_test.$(bin): $(TEST_DIR)/access.o
diff --git a/x86/realmode.c b/x86/realmode.c
index 7a4423ec..0a7104d4 100644
--- a/x86/realmode.c
+++ b/x86/realmode.c
@@ -23,6 +23,9 @@ void test_function(void);
asm(
"test_function: \n\t"
"mov $0x1234, %eax \n\t"
+ "ret\n\t"
+ /* mcount() stub */
+ "mcount:\n\t"
"ret"
);
--
2.54.0.563.g4f69b47b94-goog
prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-05-14 21:05 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 21+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-05-14 21:04 [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 00/20] x86: Better backtraces for leaf functions Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 01/20] x86/vmx: Drop unused SYSENTER "support" in nested VMX infrastructure Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 02/20] x86/vmx: Drop unused guest_regs " Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 03/20] x86/svm: Sort (and swap) GPRs by their index, not alphabetically Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 04/20] x86: Dedup guest/host context switch of registers across SVM and VMX Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 05/20] x86/virt: Use macro shenanigans to get reg offsets when swapping guest/host regs Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 06/20] x86/virt: Track "guest regs" using per-CPU variable Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 07/20] x86/svm: Don't VMLOAD/VMSAVE "guest" state around VMRUN Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 08/20] x86/vmx: Use separate VMCSes for BSP vs. AP in INIT test Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 09/20] x86/vmx: Swap GPRs after checking "launched" status Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 10/20] x86/vmx: Track VMCS "launched" state per-CPU Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 11/20] x86/vmx: Track "is this CPU in guest mode" per-CPU Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 12/20] x86/vmx: Communicate hypercalls via RAX, not a global field Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 13/20] x86/vmx: Initialize test stage in SIPI test *before* launching AP thread Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 14/20] x86/kvmclock: Replace spaces with tabs Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 15/20] x86/kvmclock: Skip kvmclock test when not running on KVM with CLOCKSOURCE2 Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 16/20] x86/vmx: Tag "struct vmx_msr_entry" as needing to be 16-byte aligned Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 17/20] x86/smp: Align the stack to a 16-byte boundary when invoking SMP function calls Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 18/20] x86/vmx: Write to KVM's WALL_CLOCK MSR via VM-Entry load list sync in SIPI test Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:04 ` [kvm-unit-tests PATCH v3 19/20] x86: Better backtraces for leaf functions Sean Christopherson
2026-05-14 21:05 ` Sean Christopherson [this message]
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