[PATCH v3 0/7] arm64: Privileged Access Never using TTBR0_EL1 switching

[mark.rutland@arm.com (Mark Rutland)]

On Wed, Sep 14, 2016 at 11:36:46AM +0100, Mark Rutland wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 14, 2016 at 11:30:05AM +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> > On 14 September 2016 at 11:27, Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> wrote:
> > > On Wed, Sep 14, 2016 at 11:13:33AM +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> > >> On 13 September 2016 at 18:46, Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com> wrote:
> > >> > This is the third version of the arm64 PAN emulation using TTBR0_EL1
> > >> > switching.
> > >
> > >> Given that every __get_user() call now incurs the PAN switch overhead,
> > >> I wonder if it would be worth it to stash the real TTBR0_EL1 value in,
> > >> e.g., TPIDRRO_EL0 rather than load it from memory each time. We'd have
> > >> to reload the real value of TPIDRRO_EL0 at kernel exit every time, but
> > >> only for compat tasks, and not nearly as often, obviously.
> > >
> > > FWIW, my plan for vmap'd stacks involves clobbering TPIDRRO_EL0 early
> > > upon kernel entry to reliably detect/handle stack overflow (as we need
> > > to free up GPR to detect overflow, and we need to detect that before we
> > > try to store to the stack).
> > >
> > > For non-compat tasks we must restore zero, so either way we'll end up
> > > with a load (to determine compat-ness or to load the precise value).
> > 
> > Are you saying that with vmapped stacks, we'll end up clobbering it
> > (and thus restoring it) anyway when entering the kernel, and so we
> > could use it for free afterwards while running in the kernel,
> > potentially for the real value of TTBR0_EL1?
> 
> Yes, assuming that we end up following my current plan for how to
> implement that.

Actually, after thinknig for more than a picosecond, no we can't.

We need to be able to clbober it on EL1 -> EL1 exceptions, to catch
kernel stack overflow.

So if anything, the two approaches are mutually exclusive, unless we
restore the stashed TTBR0 value back into TPIDRRO_EL0 before returning
from EL1 -> EL1.

/me fetches some more coffee.

Thanks,
Mark.