Re: [PATCH] Documentation: dt: chosen property for kaslr-seed

[Kees Cook <keescook-F7+t8E8rja9g9hUCZPvPmw@public.gmane.org>]

On Mon, Jul 17, 2017 at 12:32 PM, Rob Herring <robh-DgEjT+Ai2ygdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 05:38:36PM -0700, Kees Cook wrote:
>> Document then /chosen/kaslr-seed property (and its interaction with the
>
> s/then/the/
>
>> EFI_RNG_PROTOCOL API).
>
> "dt-bindings: chosen: ..." for the subject.

I'll send a v2 with these fixed and the Acks added.

>> Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <keescook-F7+t8E8rja9g9hUCZPvPmw@public.gmane.org>
>> ---
>>  Documentation/devicetree/bindings/chosen.txt | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++--
>>  1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/chosen.txt b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/chosen.txt
>> index dee3f5d9df26..0cdb43b268e5 100644
>> --- a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/chosen.txt
>> +++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/chosen.txt
>> @@ -5,9 +5,27 @@ The chosen node does not represent a real device, but serves as a place
>>  for passing data between firmware and the operating system, like boot
>>  arguments. Data in the chosen node does not represent the hardware.
>>
>> +The following properties are recognized:
>>
>> -stdout-path property
>> ---------------------
>> +
>> +kaslr-seed
>> +-----------
>
> Is there some reason we would not feed this to other things needing
> entropy and therefore should have a more generic name?

I'll let Ard answer this better than me, but IIRC, he wanted a narrow use.

>> +
>> +This property is used when booting with CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE to seed
>> +the entropy used to randomize the kernel image base address location. It
>> +is parsed as a u64 value, e.g.
>
> Why limit the size to 64-bit and why does it matter how the data is
> interpretted?

IIRC, u64 is sufficient. (And note I'm just documenting what exists...)

>> +
>> +/ {
>> +     chosen {
>> +             kaslr-seed = <0xfeedbeef 0xc0def00d>;
>> +     };
>> +};
>> +
>> +Note that when booting through EFI when EFI_RNG_PROTOCOL is supported,
>> +this value will be overwritten by the EFI stub.
>
> Isn't this always true? The bootloader will overwrite. Just in the EFI
> case, the EFI stub is part of the bootloader from a functional (and not
> packaging) standpoint.

I thought it best to call this out so that no one could get confused
if they wanted to understand how to use kaslr-seed with an EFI system.
(i.e. just implement EFI_RNG_PROTOCOL instead.)

-Kees

-- 
Kees Cook
Pixel Security
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