Re: [RFC PATCH -next v2 3/4] arm64/ftrace: support dynamically allocated trampolines

Mark Rutland
2022-05-04T10:25:59Z

On Tue, Apr 26, 2022 at 05:47:49PM +0900, Masami Hiramatsu wrote:
> Hi Mark,
>
> On Fri, 22 Apr 2022 18:27:53 +0100
> Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> wrote:
>
> > On Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 11:45:41AM -0400, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> > > On Fri, 22 Apr 2022 11:12:39 +0100
> > > Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > As an aside, I'd also love to remove the REGS/!REGs distinction, and always
> > > > save a minimum amount of state (like ARGS, but never saving a full pt_regs),
> > > > since on arm64 the extra state stored for the REGS case isn't useful (and we
> > > > can't reliably capture all of the pt_regs state anyway, so bits of it are made
> > > > up or not filled in).
> > >
> > > Note, the reason for the addition of REGS was a requirement of kprobes.
> > > Because before ftrace, kprobes would be triggered at the start of a
> > > function by a breakpoint that would load in all the regs. And for backward
> > > compatibility, Masami wanted to make sure that kprobes coming from ftrace
> > > had all the regs just like it had when coming from a breakpoint.
>
> Yes. Since this kprobes->ftrace conversion is done by kprobes transparently,
> user doesn't know their kprobe handler is called from sw break or ftrace.

The big problem is that on arm64 kprobes and ftrace are *very* different, and
we can't do that transparently (unless both had a mode which just provided the
ARGS).

> > > IIUC, kprobes is the only reason we have the "regs" variant (all other use
> > > cases could get by with the ARGS version).
> >
> > I see. FWIW, we don't have KPROBES_ON_FTRACE on arm64.
>
> Right. Since x86 fentry puts the entry on function address, I need such
> compatibility.
>
> But on arm64, ftrace leads some preparation instructions, kprobes can put
> the sw break on the function address there. And may not need to put the
> kprobes on it. So it depends on arch. I would like to keep the kprobes
> available at the function address so that it can trace any registers.
> (like debugger usage)
>
> > Also, the same problems apply to KRETPROBES: the synthetic `pstate`
> > value is bogus and we don't fill in other bits of the regs (e.g. the PMR
> > value), so it's not a "real" pt_regs, and things like
> > interrupts_enabled(regs) won't work correctly.
>
> Would you mean the process which kprobes_save/restore_local_irqflag() does?
> Is the regs->pstate saved correctly in sw break or ftrace? (sorry, I missed
> the context)

For `BRK` (SW break) instructions we take an exception, PSTATE (and all of the
struct pt_regs) is saved correctly.

For ftrace, PSTATE (and other bits of pt_regs) are not saved correctly.
Practically speaking it's not feasible to do so reliably without taking an
exception, which is why I'd like to reduce ftrace down to just the ARGs.

> > In addition, as
> > KRETPROBES only hooks function entry/exit and x9-x17 + x19-x28 are
> > meaningless at those times, no-one's going to care what they contain
> > anyway.
>
> It depends on what bug they are trying to trace. C source level bug
> will not need such information, but assembly level bug (or compiler
> level bug) may need such registers. Anyway, this also depends on user.
> I just won't like limit the usage.

If that's how kretprobes are intended to be used, then I think they must
*always* use a BRK as that's the only way to reliably get a complete struct
pt_regs.

I've implemented that:

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mark/linux.git/commit/?h=arm64/kprobes/kretprobe-brk-trampoline&id=80be4ccbf47b0294a02b05b797cbff36364bc435

... and can send that out as a patch shortly.

> > The state we can correctly snapshot (and that would be useful)
> > is the same as ARGS.
> >
> > It'd be nice if KRETPROBES could just use ARGS, but a standard KPROBE
> > that traps could provide regs (since it actually gets "real" regs, and
> > within a function the other GPRs could be important).
>
> Here, the KRETPROBES means the exit handler, or including entry handler?
> Since kretprobes uses a standard kprobe to trap the function entry.

I'm suggesting that (if there are cases where kretprobes are only used to
acquire arguments and return vaalues, and not other state), we change things so
that kretprobes can use a different entry handler from a regular kprobe, and
that new handler only has to acquire the arguments and return values, matching
the ftrace ARGS.

That way we can have:

a) A regular kprobe, which uses BRK as today, and gets a full pt_regs

b) A regular kretprobe, which uses BRK for both entry/exit, and gets a full
pt_regs in both cases.

c) An args-only kretprobe, where the entry/exit handlers only present the ARGS
to the registered handlers.

If kretprobes always needs the full pt_regs, then (c) isn't necessary, and we
don't need to change anything more than the kretprobes trampoline, as above.

What I really want to get away from it kretprobes and ftrace having an
incomplete pt_regs, and the two ways of doing that are:

1) Save/restore the full pt_regs by taking an exception.

2) Save/restore a minimal ARGS structure, and ensure the interfaces don't have
to pass a struct pt_regs pointer.

For kretprobes I can implement either, but for ftrace (2) is the only real
option.

Thanks,
Mark.

> If you talk about fprobes (ftrace probe interface), it will only use the
> ftrace. Thus your idea is acceptable for it (because fprobe is different
> from kprobes *).
>
> * Of course we have to talk with BPF people so that they will only access
> ARGS from BPF program on fprobes.
>
> Thank you,
>
> --
> Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>