From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Florian Weimer Subject: Re: Detecting the availability of VSYSCALL Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2019 22:47:14 +0200 Message-ID: <87a7e5v1d9.fsf@oldenburg2.str.redhat.com> References: <87v9wty9v4.fsf@oldenburg2.str.redhat.com> <87lfxpy614.fsf@oldenburg2.str.redhat.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: In-Reply-To: (Andy Lutomirski's message of "Tue, 25 Jun 2019 13:11:25 -0700") To: Andy Lutomirski Cc: Thomas Gleixner , Linux API , Kernel Hardening , linux-x86_64@vger.kernel.org, linux-arch , Kees Cook , Carlos O'Donell , X86 ML List-Id: linux-arch.vger.kernel.org * Andy Lutomirski: >> We want binaries that run fast on VSYSCALL kernels, but can fall back to >> full system calls on kernels that do not have them (instead of >> crashing). > > Define "VSYSCALL kernels." On any remotely recent kernel (*all* new > kernels and all kernels for the last several years that haven't > specifically requested vsyscall=native), using vsyscalls is much, much > slower than just doing syscalls. I know a way you can tell whether > vsyscalls are fast, but it's unreliable, and I'm disinclined to > suggest it. There are also at least two pending patch series that > will interfere. The fast path is for the benefit of the 2.6.32-based kernel in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. It doesn't have the vsyscall emulation code yet, I think. My hope is to produce (statically linked) binaries that run as fast on that kernel as they run today, but can gracefully fall back to something else on kernels without vsyscall support. >> We could parse the vDSO and prefer the functions found there, but this >> is for the statically linked case. We currently do not have a (minimal) >> dynamic loader there in that version of the code base, so that doesn't >> really work for us. > > Is anything preventing you from adding a vDSO parser? I wrote one > just for this type of use: > > $ wc -l tools/testing/selftests/vDSO/parse_vdso.c > 269 tools/testing/selftests/vDSO/parse_vdso.c > > (289 lines includes quite a bit of comment.) I'm worried that if I use a custom parser and the binaries start crashing again because something changed in the kernel (within the scope permitted by the ELF specification), the kernel won't be fixed. That is, we'd be in exactly the same situation as today. Thanks, Florian From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([209.132.183.28]:49732 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1726053AbfFYUrY (ORCPT ); Tue, 25 Jun 2019 16:47:24 -0400 From: Florian Weimer Subject: Re: Detecting the availability of VSYSCALL References: <87v9wty9v4.fsf@oldenburg2.str.redhat.com> <87lfxpy614.fsf@oldenburg2.str.redhat.com> Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2019 22:47:14 +0200 In-Reply-To: (Andy Lutomirski's message of "Tue, 25 Jun 2019 13:11:25 -0700") Message-ID: <87a7e5v1d9.fsf@oldenburg2.str.redhat.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Sender: linux-arch-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: To: Andy Lutomirski Cc: Thomas Gleixner , Linux API , Kernel Hardening , linux-x86_64@vger.kernel.org, linux-arch , Kees Cook , Carlos O'Donell , X86 ML Message-ID: <20190625204714.3gchAW6krn2rvl4GW09g_ROs9VJkflOIMGGLNibAI38@z> * Andy Lutomirski: >> We want binaries that run fast on VSYSCALL kernels, but can fall back to >> full system calls on kernels that do not have them (instead of >> crashing). > > Define "VSYSCALL kernels." On any remotely recent kernel (*all* new > kernels and all kernels for the last several years that haven't > specifically requested vsyscall=native), using vsyscalls is much, much > slower than just doing syscalls. I know a way you can tell whether > vsyscalls are fast, but it's unreliable, and I'm disinclined to > suggest it. There are also at least two pending patch series that > will interfere. The fast path is for the benefit of the 2.6.32-based kernel in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. It doesn't have the vsyscall emulation code yet, I think. My hope is to produce (statically linked) binaries that run as fast on that kernel as they run today, but can gracefully fall back to something else on kernels without vsyscall support. >> We could parse the vDSO and prefer the functions found there, but this >> is for the statically linked case. We currently do not have a (minimal) >> dynamic loader there in that version of the code base, so that doesn't >> really work for us. > > Is anything preventing you from adding a vDSO parser? I wrote one > just for this type of use: > > $ wc -l tools/testing/selftests/vDSO/parse_vdso.c > 269 tools/testing/selftests/vDSO/parse_vdso.c > > (289 lines includes quite a bit of comment.) I'm worried that if I use a custom parser and the binaries start crashing again because something changed in the kernel (within the scope permitted by the ELF specification), the kernel won't be fixed. That is, we'd be in exactly the same situation as today. Thanks, Florian