Re: [RFC 03/20] mm/mprotect: do not flush on permission promotion

Andy Lutomirski
2021-01-31T03:01:12Z

On Sat, Jan 30, 2021 at 5:17 PM Nadav Amit <nadav.amit@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Jan 30, 2021, at 5:07 PM, Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org> wrote:
> >
> > Adding Andrew Cooper, who has a distressingly extensive understanding
> > of the x86 PTE magic.
> >
> > On Sat, Jan 30, 2021 at 4:16 PM Nadav Amit <nadav.amit@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> From: Nadav Amit <namit@vmware.com>
> >>
> >> Currently, using mprotect() to unprotect a memory region or uffd to
> >> unprotect a memory region causes a TLB flush. At least on x86, as
> >> protection is promoted, no TLB flush is needed.
> >>
> >> Add an arch-specific pte_may_need_flush() which tells whether a TLB
> >> flush is needed based on the old PTE and the new one. Implement an x86
> >> pte_may_need_flush().
> >>
> >> For x86, besides the simple logic that PTE protection promotion or
> >> changes of software bits does require a flush, also add logic that
> >> considers the dirty-bit. If the dirty-bit is clear and write-protect is
> >> set, no TLB flush is needed, as x86 updates the dirty-bit atomically
> >> on write, and if the bit is clear, the PTE is reread.
> >>
> >> Signed-off-by: Nadav Amit <namit@vmware.com>
> >> Cc: Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@redhat.com>
> >> Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
> >> Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
> >> Cc: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>
> >> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
> >> Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
> >> Cc: Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
> >> Cc: Yu Zhao <yuzhao@google.com>
> >> Cc: Nick Piggin <npiggin@gmail.com>
> >> Cc: x86@kernel.org
> >> ---
> >> arch/x86/include/asm/tlbflush.h | 44 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >> include/asm-generic/tlb.h | 4 +++
> >> mm/mprotect.c | 3 ++-
> >> 3 files changed, 50 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> >>
> >> diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/tlbflush.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/tlbflush.h
> >> index 8c87a2e0b660..a617dc0a9b06 100644
> >> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/tlbflush.h
> >> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/tlbflush.h
> >> @@ -255,6 +255,50 @@ static inline void arch_tlbbatch_add_mm(struct arch_tlbflush_unmap_batch *batch,
> >>
> >> extern void arch_tlbbatch_flush(struct arch_tlbflush_unmap_batch *batch);
> >>
> >> +static inline bool pte_may_need_flush(pte_t oldpte, pte_t newpte)
> >> +{
> >> + const pteval_t ignore_mask = _PAGE_SOFTW1 | _PAGE_SOFTW2 |
> >> + _PAGE_SOFTW3 | _PAGE_ACCESSED;
> >
> > Why is accessed ignored? Surely clearing the accessed bit needs a
> > flush if the old PTE is present.
>
> I am just following the current scheme in the kernel (x86):
>
> int ptep_clear_flush_young(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
> unsigned long address, pte_t *ptep)
> {
> /*
> * On x86 CPUs, clearing the accessed bit without a TLB flush
> * doesn't cause data corruption. [ It could cause incorrect
> * page aging and the (mistaken) reclaim of hot pages, but the
> * chance of that should be relatively low. ]
> *

If anyone ever implements the optimization of skipping the flush when
unmapping a !accessed page, then this will cause data corruption.

If nothing else, this deserves a nice comment in the new code.

> * So as a performance optimization don't flush the TLB when
> * clearing the accessed bit, it will eventually be flushed by
> * a context switch or a VM operation anyway. [ In the rare
> * event of it not getting flushed for a long time the delay
> * shouldn't really matter because there's no real memory
> * pressure for swapout to react to. ]
> */
> return ptep_test_and_clear_young(vma, address, ptep);
> }
>
>
> >
> >> + const pteval_t enable_mask = _PAGE_RW | _PAGE_DIRTY | _PAGE_GLOBAL;
> >> + pteval_t oldval = pte_val(oldpte);
> >> + pteval_t newval = pte_val(newpte);
> >> + pteval_t diff = oldval ^ newval;
> >> + pteval_t disable_mask = 0;
> >> +
> >> + if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_64) || IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_PAE))
> >> + disable_mask = _PAGE_NX;
> >> +
> >> + /* new is non-present: need only if old is present */
> >> + if (pte_none(newpte))
> >> + return !pte_none(oldpte);
> >> +
> >> + /*
> >> + * If, excluding the ignored bits, only RW and dirty are cleared and the
> >> + * old PTE does not have the dirty-bit set, we can avoid a flush. This
> >> + * is possible since x86 architecture set the dirty bit atomically while
> >
> > s/set/sets/
> >
> >> + * it caches the PTE in the TLB.
> >> + *
> >> + * The condition considers any change to RW and dirty as not requiring
> >> + * flush if the old PTE is not dirty or not writable for simplification
> >> + * of the code and to consider (unlikely) cases of changing dirty-bit of
> >> + * write-protected PTE.
> >> + */
> >> + if (!(diff & ~(_PAGE_RW | _PAGE_DIRTY | ignore_mask)) &&
> >> + (!(pte_dirty(oldpte) || !pte_write(oldpte))))
> >> + return false;
> >
> > This logic seems confusing to me. Is your goal to say that, if the
> > old PTE was clean and writable and the new PTE is write-protected,
> > then no flush is needed?
>
> Yes.
>
> > If so, I would believe you're right, but I'm
> > not convinced you've actually implemented this. Also, there may be
> > other things going on that need flushing, e.g. a change of the address
> > or an accessed bit or NX change.
>
> The first part (diff & ~(_PAGE_RW | _PAGE_DIRTY | ignore_mask) is supposed
> to capture changes of address, NX-bit, etc.
>
> The second part is indeed wrong. It should have been:
> (!pte_dirty(oldpte) || !pte_write(oldpte))
>
> >
> > Also, CET makes this extra bizarre.
>
> I saw something about the not-writeable-and-dirty considered differently. I
> need to have a look, but I am not sure it affects anything.
>

It affects everyone's sanity. I don't yet have an opinion as to
whether it affects correctness :)