Re: [PATCH 05/23] x86, kaiser: unmap kernel from userspace page tables (core patch)

Dave Hansen
2017-11-26T16:24:41Z

On 11/26/2017 08:10 AM, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>> As a side benefit, this shouldn't have magical interactions with the
>> vsyscall page any more.
>>
>> Are there cases that this would get wrong?
>>
> Quick ping: did this get lost?

It does drop a warning that the other version of the code has, but
that's pretty minor.

Basically, we need two checks:

pgd_userspace_access() (aka _PAGE_USER) and
pgdp_maps_userspace()

The original code does pgd_userspace_access() in a top-level if and then
the pgdp_maps_userspace() checks at the second level. I think you are
basically suggesting that we flip that.

Logically, I'm sure we can make it work. It's just a matter of needing
to look at other things first.

BTW, this comment is, I think incorrect:

> if (pgdp_maps_userspace(pgdp)) {
...
> } else {
> /*
> * We can get here due to vmalloc, a vmalloc fault, memory
> hot-add, or initial setup
> * of kernelmode page tables. Regardless of which particular code
> path we're in,
> * these mappings should not be automatically propagated to the
> usermode tables.
> */

Since we pre-populated the entire kernel area's PGDs, I don't think
we'll ever have a valid reason to be doing a set_pgd() again on the
kernel area.