Re: [PATCH v12 10/28] riscv/mm: Implement map_shadow_stack() syscall

Deepak Gupta
2025-04-24T03:17:16Z

On Thu, Apr 10, 2025 at 11:56:44AM +0200, Radim Krčmář wrote:
>2025-03-14T14:39:29-07:00, Deepak Gupta <debug@rivosinc.com>:
>> As discussed extensively in the changelog for the addition of this
>> syscall on x86 ("x86/shstk: Introduce map_shadow_stack syscall") the
>> existing mmap() and madvise() syscalls do not map entirely well onto the
>> security requirements for shadow stack memory since they lead to windows
>> where memory is allocated but not yet protected or stacks which are not
>> properly and safely initialised. Instead a new syscall map_shadow_stack()
>> has been defined which allocates and initialises a shadow stack page.
>>
>> This patch implements this syscall for riscv. riscv doesn't require token
>> to be setup by kernel because user mode can do that by itself. However to
>> provide compatibility and portability with other architectues, user mode
>> can specify token set flag.
>
>RISC-V shadow stack could use mmap() and madvise() perfectly well.

Deviating from what other arches are doing will create more thrash. I expect
there will be merging of common logic between x86, arm64 and riscv. Infact I
did post one such RFC patch set last year (didn't follow up on it). Using
`mmap/madvise` defeats that purpose of creating common logic between arches.

There are pitfalls as mentioned with respect to mmap/madivse because of
unique nature of shadow stack. And thus it was accepted to create a new syscall
to create such mappings. RISC-V will stick to that.

>Userspace can always initialize the shadow stack properly and the shadow
>stack memory is never protected from other malicious threads.

Shadow stack memory is protected from inadvertent stores (be it same thread
or a different thread in same address space). Malicious code which can do
`sspush/ssamoswap` already assumes that code integrity policies are broken.

>
>I think that the compatibility argument is reasonable. We'd need to
>modify the other syscalls to allow a write-only mapping anyway.

>
>> diff --git a/arch/riscv/kernel/usercfi.c b/arch/riscv/kernel/usercfi.c
>> +static noinline unsigned long amo_user_shstk(unsigned long *addr, unsigned long val)
>> +{
>> + /*
>> + * Never expect -1 on shadow stack. Expect return addresses and zero
>> + */
>> + unsigned long swap = -1;
>> + __enable_user_access();
>> + asm goto(
>> + ".option push\n"
>> + ".option arch, +zicfiss\n"
>
>Shouldn't compiler accept ssamoswap.d opcode even without zicfiss arch?

Its illegal instruction if shadow stack aren't available. Current toolchain
emits it only if zicfiss is specified in march.

>
>> + "1: ssamoswap.d %[swap], %[val], %[addr]\n"
>> + _ASM_EXTABLE(1b, %l[fault])
>> + RISCV_ACQUIRE_BARRIER
>
>Why is the barrier here?

IIRC, I was following `arch_cmpxchg_acquire`.
But I think that's not needed.
What we are doing is `arch_xchg_relaxed` and barrier is not needed.

I did consider adding it to arch/riscv/include/asm/cmpxchg.h but there is
limited usage of this primitive and thus kept it limited to usercfi.c

Anyways I'll re-spin removing the barrier.

>
>> + ".option pop\n"
>> + : [swap] "=r" (swap), [addr] "+A" (*addr)
>> + : [val] "r" (val)
>> + : "memory"
>> + : fault
>> + );
>> + __disable_user_access();
>> + return swap;
>> +fault:
>> + __disable_user_access();
>> + return -1;
>
>I think we should return 0 and -EFAULT.
>We can ignore the swapped value, or return it through a pointer.

Consumer of this detects -1 and then return -EFAULT.
We would eventually need this when creating shadow stack tokens for
kernel shadow stack. I believe `-1` is safe return value which can't
be construed as negative kernel address (-EFAULT will be)

>
>> +}
>> +
>> +static unsigned long allocate_shadow_stack(unsigned long addr, unsigned long size,
>> + unsigned long token_offset, bool set_tok)
>> +{
>> + int flags = MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_PRIVATE;
>
>Is MAP_GROWSDOWN pointless?

Not sure. Didn't see that in x86 or arm64 shadow stack creation.
Let me know if its useful.

>
>> + struct mm_struct *mm = current->mm;
>> + unsigned long populate, tok_loc = 0;
>> +
>> + if (addr)
>> + flags |= MAP_FIXED_NOREPLACE;
>> +
>> + mmap_write_lock(mm);
>> + addr = do_mmap(NULL, addr, size, PROT_READ, flags,
>
>PROT_READ implies VM_READ, so won't this select PAGE_COPY in the
>protection_map instead of PAGE_SHADOWSTACK?

PROT_READ is pointless here and redundant. I haven't checked if I remove it
what happens.

`VM_SHADOW_STACK` takes precedence (take a look at pte_mkwrite and pmd_mkwrite.
Only way `VM_SHADOW_STACK` is possible in vmflags is via `map_shadow_stack` or
`fork/clone` on existing task with shadow stack enabled.

In a nutshell user can't specify `VM_SHADOW_STACK` directly (indirectly via
map_shadow_stack syscall or fork/clone) . But if set in vmaflags then it'll
take precedence.

>
>Wouldn't avoiding VM_READ also allow us to get rid of the ugly hack in
>pte_mkwrite? (VM_WRITE would naturally select the right XWR flags.)

>
>> + VM_SHADOW_STACK | VM_WRITE, 0, &populate, NULL);
>> + mmap_write_unlock(mm);
>> +
>> +SYSCALL_DEFINE3(map_shadow_stack, unsigned long, addr, unsigned long, size, unsigned int, flags)
>> +{
>> [...]
>> + if (addr && (addr & (PAGE_SIZE - 1)))
>
>if (!PAGE_ALIGNED(addr))