From: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>
To: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>,
Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>,
Deepak Gupta <debug@rivosinc.com>,
"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>,
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>,
Mark Brown <broonie@kernel.org>,
Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
Rick Edgecombe <rick.p.edgecombe@intel.com>,
Sohil Mehta <sohil.mehta@intel.com>,
Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, x86@kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH v3 1/1] x86/shstk: don't create the shadow stack for PF_USER_WORKERs
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2025 15:42:03 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20250903134203.GA27651@redhat.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20250903134126.GA27641@redhat.com>
If a features_enabled(ARCH_SHSTK_SHSTK) userspace thread creates a
PF_USER_WORKER thread, shstk_alloc_thread_stack() allocates a shadow
stack for no reason, the new (kernel) thread will never return to usermode.
Another problem is that the current logic looks simply wrong. In this case
fpu_clone() won't call update_fpu_shstk(), so xstate->user_ssp won't be
initialized.
But since the copy_thread() paths do not clear the ARCH_SHSTK_SHSTK flag
copied by arch_dup_task_struct(), ssp_active(PF_USER_WORKER) will return
true in ssp_get(), so ssp_get() will try to report cetregs->user_ssp which
can't be correct.
Add the new "bool minimal = !!args->fn" argument (which matches that of
fpu_clone()) to shstk_alloc_thread_stack() and change it to not allocate
shstk and to clear ARCH_SHSTK_SHSTK if minimal == true.
With this patch ssp_get() and ssp_set() will return -ENODEV right after
the ssp_active() check if target->flags & PF_USER_WORKER.
Signed-off-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>
---
arch/x86/include/asm/shstk.h | 4 ++--
arch/x86/kernel/process.c | 2 +-
arch/x86/kernel/shstk.c | 9 +++++++--
3 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/shstk.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/shstk.h
index ba6f2fe43848..a4ee2baab51c 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/shstk.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/shstk.h
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ struct thread_shstk {
long shstk_prctl(struct task_struct *task, int option, unsigned long arg2);
void reset_thread_features(void);
unsigned long shstk_alloc_thread_stack(struct task_struct *p, unsigned long clone_flags,
- unsigned long stack_size);
+ bool minimal, unsigned long stack_size);
void shstk_free(struct task_struct *p);
int setup_signal_shadow_stack(struct ksignal *ksig);
int restore_signal_shadow_stack(void);
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ static inline long shstk_prctl(struct task_struct *task, int option,
unsigned long arg2) { return -EINVAL; }
static inline void reset_thread_features(void) {}
static inline unsigned long shstk_alloc_thread_stack(struct task_struct *p,
- unsigned long clone_flags,
+ unsigned long clone_flags, bool minimal,
unsigned long stack_size) { return 0; }
static inline void shstk_free(struct task_struct *p) {}
static inline int setup_signal_shadow_stack(struct ksignal *ksig) { return 0; }
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/process.c b/arch/x86/kernel/process.c
index 1b7960cf6eb0..e932e0e53972 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/process.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/process.c
@@ -209,7 +209,7 @@ int copy_thread(struct task_struct *p, const struct kernel_clone_args *args)
* is disabled, new_ssp will remain 0, and fpu_clone() will know not to
* update it.
*/
- new_ssp = shstk_alloc_thread_stack(p, clone_flags, args->stack_size);
+ new_ssp = shstk_alloc_thread_stack(p, clone_flags, args->fn, args->stack_size);
if (IS_ERR_VALUE(new_ssp))
return PTR_ERR((void *)new_ssp);
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/shstk.c b/arch/x86/kernel/shstk.c
index 2ddf23387c7e..6c8c4593e202 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/shstk.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/shstk.c
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ void reset_thread_features(void)
}
unsigned long shstk_alloc_thread_stack(struct task_struct *tsk, unsigned long clone_flags,
- unsigned long stack_size)
+ bool minimal, unsigned long stack_size)
{
struct thread_shstk *shstk = &tsk->thread.shstk;
unsigned long addr, size;
@@ -208,8 +208,13 @@ unsigned long shstk_alloc_thread_stack(struct task_struct *tsk, unsigned long cl
* For CLONE_VFORK the child will share the parents shadow stack.
* Make sure to clear the internal tracking of the thread shadow
* stack so the freeing logic run for child knows to leave it alone.
+ *
+ * If minimal == true, the new kernel thread cloned from userspace
+ * thread will never return to usermode.
*/
- if (clone_flags & CLONE_VFORK) {
+ if ((clone_flags & CLONE_VFORK) || minimal) {
+ if (minimal)
+ tsk->thread.features &= ~ARCH_SHSTK_SHSTK;
shstk->base = 0;
shstk->size = 0;
return 0;
--
2.25.1.362.g51ebf55
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2025-09-03 13:43 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-09-03 13:41 [PATCH v3 0/1] " Oleg Nesterov
2025-09-03 13:42 ` Oleg Nesterov [this message]
2025-09-03 16:14 ` [PATCH v3 1/1] " Dave Hansen
2025-09-03 16:39 ` Mark Brown
2025-09-04 9:10 ` Oleg Nesterov
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