Re: [PATCH] x86/kaslr: P2PDMA is one of a class of ZONE_DEVICE-KASLR collisions

Balbir Singh
2025-11-11T01:22:25Z

On 11/9/25 17:51, Mike Rapoport wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 07, 2025 at 06:32:15PM -0800, Dan Williams wrote:
>> Commit 7ffb791423c7 ("x86/kaslr: Reduce KASLR entropy on most x86 systems")
>> is too narrow. ZONE_DEVICE, in general, lets any physical address be added
>> to the direct-map. I.e. not only ACPI hotplug ranges, CXL Memory Windows,
>> or EFI Specific Purpose Memory, but also any PCI MMIO range for the
>> CONFIG_DEVICE_PRIVATE and CONFIG_PCI_P2PDMA cases.
>>
>> A potential path to recover entropy would be to walk ACPI and determine the
>> limits for hotplug and PCI MMIO before kernel_randomize_memory(). On
>> smaller systems that could yield some KASLR address bits. This needs
>> additional investigation to determine if some limited ACPI table scanning
>> can happen this early without an open coded solution like
>> arch/x86/boot/compressed/acpi.c needs to deploy.
>>
>> Cc: Balbir Singh <balbirs@nvidia.com>
>> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
>> Cc: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
>> Cc: Bjorn Helgaas <bhelgaas@google.com>
>> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
>> Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
>> Cc: Logan Gunthorpe <logang@deltatee.com>
>> Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
>> Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
>> Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
>> Cc: "Liam R. Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@oracle.com>
>> Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
>> Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
>> Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
>> Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
>> Cc: "Yasunori Gotou (Fujitsu)" <y-goto@fujitsu.com>
>> Fixes: 7ffb791423c7 ("x86/kaslr: Reduce KASLR entropy on most x86 systems")
>> Signed-off-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
>> ---
>> drivers/pci/Kconfig | 6 ------
>> mm/Kconfig | 12 ++++++++----
>> arch/x86/mm/kaslr.c | 10 +++++-----
>> 3 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/drivers/pci/Kconfig b/drivers/pci/Kconfig
>> index f94f5d384362..47e466946bed 100644
>> --- a/drivers/pci/Kconfig
>> +++ b/drivers/pci/Kconfig
>> @@ -207,12 +207,6 @@ config PCI_P2PDMA
>> P2P DMA transactions must be between devices behind the same root
>> port.
>>
>> - Enabling this option will reduce the entropy of x86 KASLR memory
>> - regions. For example - on a 46 bit system, the entropy goes down
>> - from 16 bits to 15 bits. The actual reduction in entropy depends
>> - on the physical address bits, on processor features, kernel config
>> - (5 level page table) and physical memory present on the system.
>> -
>> If unsure, say N.
>>
>> config PCI_LABEL
>> diff --git a/mm/Kconfig b/mm/Kconfig
>> index 0e26f4fc8717..d17ebcc1a029 100644
>> --- a/mm/Kconfig
>> +++ b/mm/Kconfig
>> @@ -1128,10 +1128,14 @@ config ZONE_DEVICE
>> Device memory hotplug support allows for establishing pmem,
>> or other device driver discovered memory regions, in the
>> memmap. This allows pfn_to_page() lookups of otherwise
>> - "device-physical" addresses which is needed for using a DAX
>> - mapping in an O_DIRECT operation, among other things.
>> -
>> - If FS_DAX is enabled, then say Y.
>> + "device-physical" addresses which is needed for DAX, PCI_P2PDMA, and
>> + DEVICE_PRIVATE features among others.
>> +
>> + Enabling this option will reduce the entropy of x86 KASLR memory
>> + regions. For example - on a 46 bit system, the entropy goes down
>> + from 16 bits to 15 bits. The actual reduction in entropy depends
>> + on the physical address bits, on processor features, kernel config
>> + (5 level page table) and physical memory present on the system.
>>
>> #
>> # Helpers to mirror range of the CPU page tables of a process into device page
>> diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/kaslr.c b/arch/x86/mm/kaslr.c
>> index 3c306de52fd4..834641c6049a 100644
>> --- a/arch/x86/mm/kaslr.c
>> +++ b/arch/x86/mm/kaslr.c
>> @@ -115,12 +115,12 @@ void __init kernel_randomize_memory(void)
>>
>> /*
>> * Adapt physical memory region size based on available memory,
>> - * except when CONFIG_PCI_P2PDMA is enabled. P2PDMA exposes the
>> - * device BAR space assuming the direct map space is large enough
>> - * for creating a ZONE_DEVICE mapping in the direct map corresponding
>> - * to the physical BAR address.
>> + * except when CONFIG_ZONE_DEVICE is enabled. ZONE_DEVICE wants to map
>> + * any physical address into the direct-map. KASLR wants to reliably
>> + * steal some physical address bits. Those design choices are in direct
>> + * conflict.
>> */
>> - if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_PCI_P2PDMA) && (memory_tb < kaslr_regions[0].size_tb))
>> + if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_ZONE_DEVICE) && (memory_tb < kaslr_regions[0].size_tb))
>> kaslr_regions[0].size_tb = memory_tb;
>
> A stupid question, why we adjust virtual kaslr to actual physical memory
> size at all rather than always use maximal addressable size?

The original changelog that introduced the changes has a detailed explanation, IIRC.

Balbir