Re: [PATCH] arm64: uprobes: Simulate STP for pushing fp/lr into user stack

[Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>]

On Fri, 25 Oct 2024 13:51:14 -0700
Andrii Nakryiko <andrii.nakryiko@gmail.com> wrote:

> All good ideas for sure, we should do them, IMO. But we'll still be
> paying an extra kernel->user->kernel switch, which almost certainly is
> slower than doing a simple stack push emulation just like we do in
> x86-64 case, no?
> 
> 
> BTW, I did a quick local profiling run. I don't think XOL management
> is the main source of overhead. I see 5% of CPU cycles spent in
> arch_uprobe_copy_ixol, but other than that XOL doesn't figure in stack
> traces. There are at least 22% CPU cycles spent in some
> local_daif_restore function, though, not sure what that is, but might
> be related to interrupt handling, right?
> 
> 
> The take away I'd like to communicate here is avoiding the
> single-stepping need is *the best way* to go, IMO. So if we can
> emulate those STP instructions for uprobe *cheaply*, that would be
> awesome.

+1.
Unlike the kprobe, uprobe singlestep needs to go userspace (for
sacurity), which can introduce much bigger overhead. If we can just
emulate the instruction safely in the kernel, it should be done.

Thank you,

-- 
Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>