Re: [PATCH V11 4/5] vsprintf: add printk specifier %px

Kees Cook
2017-11-29T22:28:31Z

On Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 2:07 AM, David Laight <David.Laight@aculab.com> wrote:
> From: Linus Torvalds
>> Sent: 29 November 2017 02:29
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 28, 2017 at 6:05 PM, Tobin C. Harding <me@tobin.cc> wrote:
>> >
>> > Let's add specifier %px as a
>> > clear, opt-in, way to print a pointer and maintain some level of
>> > isolation from all the other hex integer output within the Kernel.
>>
>> Yes, I like this model. It's easy and it's obvious ("'x' for hex"),
>> and it gives people a good way to say "yes, I really want the actual
>> address as hex" for if/when the hashed pointer doesn't work for some
>> reason.
>
> Remind me to change every %p to %px on kernels that support it.
>
> Although the absolute values of pointers may not be useful, knowing
> that two pointer differ by a small amount is useful.
> It is also useful to know whether pointers are to stack, code, static
> data or heap.
>
> This change to %p is going to make debugging a nightmare.

In the future, maybe we could have a knob: unhashed, hashed (default),
or zeroed.

-Kees

--
Kees Cook
Pixel Security