RE: [PATCH] coresight: etm4x: Add config to exclude kernel mode tracing

Al Grant
2021-01-19T12:07:21Z

> From: Suzuki K Poulose <suzuki.poulose@arm.com>
> On 1/19/21 9:51 AM, Sai Prakash Ranjan wrote:
> > Hi Al,
> >
> > On 2021-01-19 14:06, Al Grant wrote:
> >> Hi Sai,
> >>
> >>> From: saiprakash.ranjan=codeaurora.org@mg.codeaurora.org
> >>> Hi Mathieu,
> >>>
> >>> On 2021-01-19 01:53, Mathieu Poirier wrote:
> >>> > On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 11:16:24AM +0530, Sai Prakash Ranjan wrote:
> >>> >> Hello Mathieu, Suzuki
> >>> >>
> >>> >> On 2020-10-15 21:32, Mathieu Poirier wrote:
> >>> >> > On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 06:15:22PM +0530, Sai Prakash Ranjan wrote:
> >>> >> > > On production systems with ETMs enabled, it is preferred to
> >>> >> > > exclude kernel mode(NS EL1) tracing for security concerns and
> >>> >> > > support only userspace(NS EL0) tracing. So provide an option
> >>> >> > > via kconfig to exclude kernel mode tracing if it is required.
> >>> >> > > This config is disabled by default and would not affect the
> >>> >> > > current configuration which has both kernel and userspace
> >>> >> > > tracing enabled by default.
> >>> >> > >
> >>> >> >
> >>> >> > One requires root access (or be part of a special trace group)
> >>> >> > to be able to use the cs_etm PMU.  With this kind of elevated
> >>> >> > access restricting tracing at EL1 provides little in terms of security.
> >>> >> >
> >>> >>
> >>> >> Apart from the VM usecase discussed, I am told there are other
> >>> >> security concerns here regarding need to exclude kernel mode
> >>> >> tracing even for the privileged users/root. One such case being
> >>> >> the ability to analyze cryptographic code execution since ETMs
> >>> >> can record all branch instructions including timestamps in the
> >>> >> kernel and there may be other cases as well which I may not be
> >>> >> aware of and hence have added Denis and Mattias. Please let us
> >>> >> know if you have any questions further regarding this not being a security
> concern.
> >>> >
> >>> > Even if we were to apply this patch there are many ways to
> >>> > compromise a system or get the kernel to reveal important
> >>> > information using the perf subsystem.  I would perfer to tackle
> >>> > the problem at that level rather than concentrating on coresight.
> >>> >
> >>>
> >>> Sorry but I did not understand your point. We are talking about the
> >>> capabilities of coresight etm tracing which has the instruction level tracing
> and a lot more.
> >>> Perf subsystem is just the framework used for it.
> >>> In other words, its not the perf subsystem which does instruction
> >>> level tracing, its the coresight etm. Why the perf subsystem should
> >>> be modified to lockdown kernel mode? If we were to let perf handle
> >>> all the trace filtering for different exception levels, then why do
> >>> we need the register settings in coresight etm driver to filter out
> >>> NS EL* tracing? And more importantly, how do you suppose we handle sysfs
> mode of coresight tracing with perf subsystem?
> >>
> >> You both have good points. Mathieu is right that this is not a
> >> CoreSight issue specifically, it is a matter of kernel security
> >> policy, and other hardware tracing mechanisms ought to be within its
> >> scope. There should be a general "anti kernel exfiltration" config
> >> that applies to all mechanisms within its scope, and we'd definitely expect
> that to include Intel PT as well as ETM.
> >>
> >
> > I agree with this part where there should be a generic config for all
> > hardware tracing families(atleast for Intel PT and ARM Coresight),
> > Suzuki suggested that as well. I am under the impression that Mathieu
> > didn't like adding such a config and wanted perf subsystem to handle
> > it since initial discussion was around whether root compromise meant
> > everything is lost already and such a kconfig would not help, but
> > Mattias already gave some good examples where that is not true.
> >
> >> A kernel config that forced exclude_kernel on all perf events would
> >> deal with ETM and PT in one place, but miss the sysfs interface to ETM.
> >>
> >> On the other hand, doing it in the ETM drivers would cover the perf
> >> and sysfs interfaces to ETM, but would miss Intel PT.
> >>
> >> So I think what is needed is a general config option that is both
> >> implemented in perf (excluding all kernel tracing events) and by any
> >> drivers that provide an alternative interface to hardware tracing events.
> >>
> >
> > I am good with this approach, once Mathieu confirms, I can add a
> > kernel wide kconfig as Suzuki suggested earlier and make ETM{3,4}x as
> > the initial users. Someone more familiar with Intel PTs can then make
> > use of this kconfig.
>
> Instead of adding the support for individual drivers, you could handle this in the
> generic perf layer. e.g, Fail perf_event create with an attribute which allows
> kernel tracing ?
>
> if (!attr.exclude_kernel)
> return -EINVAL;
>
> Or even exclude the kernel silently always.
>
> This could also be limited to PMUs with PERF_PMU_CAP_ITRACE, if you want to
> limit this to PMUs that instruction level tracing.

The sysfs interface to ETM also needs to deny access to kernel trace, so it's
safest to enforce it in the drivers in addition to any enforcement done in perf.

Also, forcing exclude_kernel on all perf events may be too strong. Including
the kernel in counted events e.g. cache misses can help understand the effect
of system calls on performance, and isn't a big side channel compared to
userspace event counts. It doesn't reveal detailed timings in the way trace does.

So there's an argument for locking out kernel trace specifically (ETM or PT
on the kernel); or even, for locking out timed trace with timestamps and
cycle counts, and allowing untimed trace. So, that could be done in perf, with
a more specific test on the type of event, before it forced exclude_kernel.

Al

>
> Suzuki