Re: [PATCHv4 2/3] kernel: add support for live patching

Miroslav Benes
2014-12-02T12:23:55Z

On Mon, 1 Dec 2014, Josh Poimboeuf wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 01, 2014 at 02:31:35PM +0100, Miroslav Benes wrote:
> > On Wed, 26 Nov 2014, Josh Poimboeuf wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Miroslav,
> > >
> > > Just addressing one of your comments below. I'll let Seth respond to
> > > the others :-)
> > >
> > > On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 03:19:17PM +0100, Miroslav Benes wrote:
> > > > > +/**
> > > > > + * struct klp_func - function structure for live patching
> > > > > + * @old_name: name of the function to be patched
> > > > > + * @new_func: pointer to the patched function code
> > > > > + * @old_addr: a hint conveying at what address the old function
> > > > > + * can be found (optional, vmlinux patches only)
> > > > > + */
> > > > > +struct klp_func {
> > > > > + /* external */
> > > > > + const char *old_name;
> > > > > + void *new_func;
> > > > > + /*
> > > > > + * The old_addr field is optional and can be used to resolve
> > > > > + * duplicate symbol names in the vmlinux object. If this
> > > > > + * information is not present, the symbol is located by name
> > > > > + * with kallsyms. If the name is not unique and old_addr is
> > > > > + * not provided, the patch application fails as there is no
> > > > > + * way to resolve the ambiguity.
> > > > > + */
> > > > > + unsigned long old_addr;
> > > >
> > > > I wonder if we really need old_addr as an external field. I assume that
> > > > userspace tool in kpatch use it as a "hint" for kernel part and thus
> > > > kallsyms is not needed there (and it solves ambiguity problem as well).
> > > > But I am not sure if it is gonna be the same in upstream. When kernel is
> > > > randomized (CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE is set to 'y', though default is 'n')
> > > > old_addr is not usable (and we throw it away in the code). Without
> > > > old_addr being set by the user we could spare some of code (calls to
> > > > klp_verify_vmlinux_symbol and such).
> > >
> > > Even with CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE, the function offsets will be the same
> > > regardless of the base address. So we could still use old_addr to
> > > determine the offset.
> > >
> > > > So the question is whether future userspace tool in upstream would need it
> > > > and would use it. Please note that I do not mean it as a kpatch or kgraft
> > > > way to do things, I'm just not sure about old_addr being "public" and want
> > > > do discuss the options.
> > > >
> > > > The ambiguity of symbols was discussed in some other thread in lkml in
> > > > october (I guess) with no conclusion IIRC...
> > >
> > > We need to resolve ambiguity somehow, and old_addr is a way to do that.
> > > Do you have any other ideas?
> >
> > Unfortunately I don't.
> >
> > But similarly we don't deal with ambiguity in modules either. And it is
> > (at least theoretically) possible. Two static functions of the same name
> > in two different .c files which the final module is linked from. You have
> > to use kallsyms and it would get confused. Maybe this sounds odd but it
> > could happen.
>
> True, this is a remote possibility, but we haven't run into this issue
> yet. If it becomes a problem, we can try to come up with another way to
> resolve duplicates.
>
> Here's one idea: since the symbols are always listed in the same order
> in kallsyms (per-object), instead of old_addr we could have sym_idx. A
> sym_idx of 2 could mean "I want the 2nd occurence of foo in the object's
> kallsyms list".

This sounds crazy and I hope we won't be forced to implement it after all
:)

> However I'd rather keep our current old_addr scheme for now, since it's
> what we have implemented already. And there are plenty of more
> important things we need to do first.

Agreed

> > Thus the old_addr value is not general protection (as modules are still
> > affected) and it is questionable whether the user should use it.
>
> It's not really protection, since even if you don't specify old_addr and
> you rely on kallsyms, klp_find_symbol will return an error if there are
> any duplicates.
>
> It's really just a way to increase the size of the set of functions
> which can be patched (duplicately named functions).
>
> We also rely on something similar for relocations: klp_reloc.src. It's
> even more important there, since duplicately named static objects are
> more common than duplicately named functions.

I understand. So let's settle for leaving it as it is.

Thanks
Mira

> > I do not have strong opinion on this and if no one else shares my
> > thoughts, I am not against.
> >
> > Mira
>
> --
> Josh
>

--
Miroslav Benes
SUSE Labs