Re: [PATCH] module: use hidden visibility for weak symbol references

Will Deacon
2020-10-28T10:03:15Z

Hi Ard,

On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 04:11:32PM +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> Geert reports that commit be2881824ae9eb92 ("arm64/build: Assert for
> unwanted sections") results in build errors on arm64 for configurations
> that have CONFIG_MODULES disabled.
>
> The commit in question added ASSERT()s to the arm64 linker script to
> ensure that linker generated sections such as .got, .plt etc are empty,
> but as it turns out, there are corner cases where the linker does emit
> content into those sections. More specifically, weak references to
> function symbols (which can remain unsatisfied, and can therefore not
> be emitted as relative references) will be emitted as GOT and PLT
> entries when linking the kernel in PIE mode (which is the case when
> CONFIG_RELOCATABLE is enabled, which is on by default).
>
> What happens is that code such as
>
> struct device *(*fn)(struct device *dev);
> struct device *iommu_device;
>
> fn = symbol_get(mdev_get_iommu_device);
> if (fn) {
> iommu_device = fn(dev);
>
> essentially gets converted into the following when CONFIG_MODULES is off:
>
> struct device *iommu_device;
>
> if (&mdev_get_iommu_device) {
> iommu_device = mdev_get_iommu_device(dev);
>
> where mdev_get_iommu_device is emitted as a weak symbol reference into
> the object file. The first reference is decorated with an ordinary
> ABS64 data relocation (which yields 0x0 if the reference remains
> unsatisfied). However, the indirect call is turned into a direct call
> covered by a R_AARCH64_CALL26 relocation, which is converted into a
> call via a PLT entry taking the target address from the associated
> GOT entry.
>
> Given that such GOT and PLT entries are unnecessary for fully linked
> binaries such as the kernel, let's give these weak symbol references
> hidden visibility, so that the linker knows that the weak reference
> via R_AARCH64_CALL26 can simply remain unsatisfied.
>
> Cc: Jessica Yu <jeyu@kernel.org>
> Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
> Cc: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>
> Cc: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@google.com>
> Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>
> ---
> include/linux/module.h | 2 +-
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

Cheers. I gave this a spin, but I unfortunately still see the following
linker warning with allnoconfig:

aarch64-linux-gnu-ld: warning: orphan section `.igot.plt' from `arch/arm64/kernel/head.o' being placed in section `.igot.plt'

which looks unrelated to symbol_get(), but maybe it's worth knocking these
things on the head (no pun intended) at the same time?

Cheers,

Will