Re: [PATCH] x86_64, asm: Work around AMD SYSRET SS descriptor attribute issue

[Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@redhat.com>]

On 04/27/2015 10:53 AM, Borislav Petkov wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 26, 2015 at 04:39:38PM -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>>> +#define X86_BUG_CANONICAL_RCX  X86_BUG(8) /* SYSRET #GPs when %RCX non-canonical */
>>
>> I think that "sysret" should appear in the name.
> 
> Yeah, I thought about it too, will fix.
> 
>> Oh no!  My laptop is currently bug-free, and you're breaking it! :)
> 
> Muahahahhahaha...
> 
>>> +
>>> +       /*
>>> +        * On Intel CPUs, SYSRET with non-canonical RCX/RIP will #GP
>>> +        * in kernel space.  This essentially lets the user take over
>>> +        * the kernel, since userspace controls RSP.
>>> +        */
>>> +       ALTERNATIVE "jmp 1f", "", X86_BUG_CANONICAL_RCX
>>> +
>>
>> I know it would be ugly, but would it be worth saving two bytes by
>> using ALTERNATIVE "jmp 1f", "shl ...", ...?
>>
>>>         /* Change top 16 bits to be the sign-extension of 47th bit */
>>>         shl     $(64 - (__VIRTUAL_MASK_SHIFT+1)), %rcx
>>>         sar     $(64 - (__VIRTUAL_MASK_SHIFT+1)), %rcx
>>> @@ -432,6 +436,7 @@ syscall_return:
>>>         cmpq    %rcx, %r11
>>>         jne     opportunistic_sysret_failed
> 
> You want to stick all 4 insns in the alternative? Yeah, it should work
> but it might even more unreadable than it is now.
> 
> Btw, we can do this too:
> 
> 	ALTERNATIVE "",
> 		    "shl     $(64 - (__VIRTUAL_MASK_SHIFT+1)), %rcx \
> 		     sar     $(64 - (__VIRTUAL_MASK_SHIFT+1)), %rcx \
> 		     cmpq    %rcx, %r11 \
> 		     jne     opportunistic_sysret_failed"
> 		     X86_BUG_SYSRET_CANONICAL_RCX
> 
> which will replace the 2-byte JMP with a lot of NOPs on AMD.

The instructions you want to NOP out are translated to these bytes:

     2c2:       48 c1 e1 10             shl    $0x10,%rcx
     2c6:       48 c1 f9 10             sar    $0x10,%rcx
     2ca:       49 39 cb                cmp    %rcx,%r11
     2cd:       75 5f                   jne    32e <opportunistic_sysret_failed>

According to http://instlatx64.atw.hu/
CPUs from both AMD and Intel are happy to eat "66,66,66,90" NOPs
with maximum throughput; more than three 66 prefixes slow decode down,
sometimes horrifically (from 3 insns per cycle to one insn per ~10 cycles).

Probably doing something like this

	/* Only three 0x66 prefixes for NOP for fast decode on all CPUs */
	ALTERNATIVE	".byte 0x66,0x66,0x66,0x90 \
			.byte 0x66,0x66,0x66,0x90 \
			.byte 0x66,0x66,0x66,0x90",
			"shl	$(64 - (__VIRTUAL_MASK_SHIFT+1)), %rcx \
			sar	$(64 - (__VIRTUAL_MASK_SHIFT+1)), %rcx \
			cmpq	%rcx, %r11 \
			jne	opportunistic_sysret_failed"
			X86_BUG_SYSRET_CANONICAL_RCX

would be better than letting ALTERNATIVE to generate 13 one-byte NOPs.

-- 
vda