[PATCH v2 0/2] Last minute rseq fixes for 7.0

[PATCH v2 0/2] Last minute rseq fixes for 7.0

[Mathieu Desnoyers]

Hi,

Here are two last minute rseq fixes aiming at 7.0.

The first is a clarification of a rseq registration comment to match the
rseq_size range checks.

The second ensures that the new scheduler slice extension field don't
end up exposing a rseq feature size equal to the original rseq size,
which would make life harder than it needs to be for userspace.

Updates since v1:

- Don't change the alignment of struct rseq, because the kernel needs to
  keep backward compatibility and access 32-byte aligned rseq
  structures. Instead, change the value returned by getauxval(AT_RSEQ_ALIGN)
  to return the value of the active rseq area size rounded up to next
  power of 2, which guarantees that the rseq structure will always be
  aligned on the nearest power of two large enough to contain it, even
  as it grows. Change the alignment check in the rseq registration
  accordingly.

Thanks,

Mathieu

CC: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
CC: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
CC: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>
CC: Carlos O'Donell <carlos@redhat.com>
CC: Florian Weimer <fweimer@redhat.com>
CC: Michael Jeanson <mjeanson@efficios.com>


Mathieu Desnoyers (2):
  rseq: Clarify rseq registration rseq_size bound check comment
  rseq: slice ext: Ensure rseq feature size differs from original rseq
    size

 fs/binfmt_elf.c           |  3 ++-
 include/linux/rseq.h      | 12 ++++++++++++
 include/uapi/linux/rseq.h | 19 ++++++++++++++++---
 kernel/rseq.c             |  8 +++++---
 4 files changed, 35 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

-- 
2.39.5

[PATCH v2 1/2] rseq: Clarify rseq registration rseq_size bound check comment

[Mathieu Desnoyers]

The rseq registration validates that the rseq_size argument is greater
or equal to 32 (the original rseq size), but the comment associated with
this check does not clearly state this.

Clarify the comment to that effect.

Fixes: ee3e3ac05c26 ("rseq: Introduce extensible rseq ABI")
Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>
CC: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
CC: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
CC: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>
---
 kernel/rseq.c | 5 +++--
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/rseq.c b/kernel/rseq.c
index b0973d19f366..e349f86cc945 100644
--- a/kernel/rseq.c
+++ b/kernel/rseq.c
@@ -449,8 +449,9 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE4(rseq, struct rseq __user *, rseq, u32, rseq_len, int, flags, u32
 	 * auxiliary vector AT_RSEQ_ALIGN. If rseq_len is the original rseq
 	 * size, the required alignment is the original struct rseq alignment.
 	 *
-	 * In order to be valid, rseq_len is either the original rseq size, or
-	 * large enough to contain all supported fields, as communicated to
+	 * The rseq_len is required to be greater or equal to the original rseq
+	 * size. In order to be valid, rseq_len is either the original rseq size,
+	 * or large enough to contain all supported fields, as communicated to
 	 * user-space through the ELF auxiliary vector AT_RSEQ_FEATURE_SIZE.
 	 */
 	if (rseq_len < ORIG_RSEQ_SIZE ||
-- 
2.39.5

[PATCH v2 2/2] rseq: slice ext: Ensure rseq feature size differs from original rseq size

[Mathieu Desnoyers]

Before rseq became extensible, its original size was 32 bytes even
though the active rseq area was only 20 bytes. This had the following
impact in terms of userspace ecosystem evolution:

* The GNU libc between 2.35 and 2.39 expose a __rseq_size symbol set
  to 32, even though the size of the active rseq area is really 20.
* The GNU libc 2.40 changes this __rseq_size to 20, thus making it
  express the active rseq area.
* Starting from glibc 2.41, __rseq_size corresponds to the
  AT_RSEQ_FEATURE_SIZE from getauxval(3).

This means that users of __rseq_size can always expect it to
correspond to the active rseq area, except for the value 32, for
which the active rseq area is 20 bytes.

Exposing a 32 bytes feature size would make life needlessly painful
for userspace. Therefore, add a reserved field at the end of the
rseq area to bump the feature size to 33 bytes. This reserved field
is expected to be replaced with whatever field will come next,
expecting that this field will be larger than 1 byte.

The effect of this change is to increase the size from 32 to 64 bytes
before we actually have fields using that memory.

We cannot change the alignment of struct rseq (originally 32 bytes)
because the kernel should be able to interact with a userspace which
aligns its struct rseq only on 32 bytes. Clarify this in the rseq
uapi with a comment.

Change the value returned by getauxval(AT_RSEQ_ALIGN) to return the
value of the active rseq area size rounded up to next power of 2, which
guarantees that the rseq structure will always be aligned on the nearest
power of two large enough to contain it, even as it grows. Change the
alignment check in the rseq registration accordingly.

This will minimize the amount of ABI corner-cases we need to document
and require userspace to play games with. The rule stays simple when
__rseq_size != 32:

  #define rseq_field_available(field)	(__rseq_size >= offsetofend(struct rseq_abi, field))

Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>
CC: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
CC: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
CC: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>
CC: Carlos O'Donell <carlos@redhat.com>
CC: Florian Weimer <fweimer@redhat.com>
CC: Michael Jeanson <mjeanson@efficios.com>
---
 fs/binfmt_elf.c           |  3 ++-
 include/linux/rseq.h      | 12 ++++++++++++
 include/uapi/linux/rseq.h | 19 ++++++++++++++++---
 kernel/rseq.c             |  3 ++-
 4 files changed, 32 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/binfmt_elf.c b/fs/binfmt_elf.c
index 3eb734c192e9..84c74b731b8c 100644
--- a/fs/binfmt_elf.c
+++ b/fs/binfmt_elf.c
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@
 #include <linux/dax.h>
 #include <linux/uaccess.h>
 #include <uapi/linux/rseq.h>
+#include <linux/rseq.h>
 #include <asm/param.h>
 #include <asm/page.h>
 
@@ -286,7 +287,7 @@ create_elf_tables(struct linux_binprm *bprm, const struct elfhdr *exec,
 	}
 #ifdef CONFIG_RSEQ
 	NEW_AUX_ENT(AT_RSEQ_FEATURE_SIZE, offsetof(struct rseq, end));
-	NEW_AUX_ENT(AT_RSEQ_ALIGN, __alignof__(struct rseq));
+	NEW_AUX_ENT(AT_RSEQ_ALIGN, rseq_alloc_align());
 #endif
 #undef NEW_AUX_ENT
 	/* AT_NULL is zero; clear the rest too */
diff --git a/include/linux/rseq.h b/include/linux/rseq.h
index 7a01a0760405..b9d62fc2140d 100644
--- a/include/linux/rseq.h
+++ b/include/linux/rseq.h
@@ -146,6 +146,18 @@ static inline void rseq_fork(struct task_struct *t, u64 clone_flags)
 		t->rseq = current->rseq;
 }
 
+/*
+ * Value returned by getauxval(AT_RSEQ_ALIGN) and expected by rseq
+ * registration. This is the active rseq area size rounded up to next
+ * power of 2, which guarantees that the rseq structure will always be
+ * aligned on the nearest power of two large enough to contain it, even
+ * as it grows.
+ */
+static inline unsigned int rseq_alloc_align(void)
+{
+	return 1U << get_count_order(offsetof(struct rseq, end));
+}
+
 #else /* CONFIG_RSEQ */
 static inline void rseq_handle_slowpath(struct pt_regs *regs) { }
 static inline void rseq_signal_deliver(struct ksignal *ksig, struct pt_regs *regs) { }
diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/rseq.h b/include/uapi/linux/rseq.h
index 863c4a00a66b..d5b3c489901e 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/rseq.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/rseq.h
@@ -87,8 +87,10 @@ struct rseq_slice_ctrl {
 };
 
 /*
- * struct rseq is aligned on 4 * 8 bytes to ensure it is always
- * contained within a single cache-line.
+ * The alignment of struct rseq used by the kernel needs to be 32 bytes
+ * so the kernel can interact with legacy userspace which allocate
+ * struct rseq with its original alignment.
+ * Userspace aligns struct rseq allocation on 32 bytes or more.
  *
  * A single struct rseq per thread is allowed.
  */
@@ -180,10 +182,21 @@ struct rseq {
 	 */
 	struct rseq_slice_ctrl slice_ctrl;
 
+	/*
+	 * Before rseq became extensible, its original size was 32 bytes even
+	 * though the active rseq area was only 20 bytes.
+	 * Exposing a 32 bytes feature size would make life needlessly painful
+	 * for userspace. Therefore, add a reserved byte after byte 32
+	 * to bump the rseq feature size from 32 to 33.
+	 * The next field to be added to the rseq area will be larger
+	 * than one byte, and will replace this reserved byte.
+	 */
+	__u8 __reserved;
+
 	/*
 	 * Flexible array member at end of structure, after last feature field.
 	 */
 	char end[];
-} __attribute__((aligned(4 * sizeof(__u64))));
+} __attribute__((aligned(32)));
 
 #endif /* _UAPI_LINUX_RSEQ_H */
diff --git a/kernel/rseq.c b/kernel/rseq.c
index e349f86cc945..38d3ef540760 100644
--- a/kernel/rseq.c
+++ b/kernel/rseq.c
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@
 #include <linux/syscalls.h>
 #include <linux/uaccess.h>
 #include <linux/types.h>
+#include <linux/rseq.h>
 #include <asm/ptrace.h>
 
 #define CREATE_TRACE_POINTS
@@ -456,7 +457,7 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE4(rseq, struct rseq __user *, rseq, u32, rseq_len, int, flags, u32
 	 */
 	if (rseq_len < ORIG_RSEQ_SIZE ||
 	    (rseq_len == ORIG_RSEQ_SIZE && !IS_ALIGNED((unsigned long)rseq, ORIG_RSEQ_SIZE)) ||
-	    (rseq_len != ORIG_RSEQ_SIZE && (!IS_ALIGNED((unsigned long)rseq, __alignof__(*rseq)) ||
+	    (rseq_len != ORIG_RSEQ_SIZE && (!IS_ALIGNED((unsigned long)rseq, rseq_alloc_align()) ||
 					    rseq_len < offsetof(struct rseq, end))))
 		return -EINVAL;
 	if (!access_ok(rseq, rseq_len))
-- 
2.39.5

Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] rseq: slice ext: Ensure rseq feature size differs from original rseq size

[Mathieu Desnoyers]

On 2026-02-18 15:14, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
[...]
> diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/rseq.h b/include/uapi/linux/rseq.h
> index 863c4a00a66b..d5b3c489901e 100644
> --- a/include/uapi/linux/rseq.h
> +++ b/include/uapi/linux/rseq.h
> @@ -87,8 +87,10 @@ struct rseq_slice_ctrl {
>   };
>   
>   /*
> - * struct rseq is aligned on 4 * 8 bytes to ensure it is always
> - * contained within a single cache-line.
> + * The alignment of struct rseq used by the kernel needs to be 32 bytes
> + * so the kernel can interact with legacy userspace which allocate
> + * struct rseq with its original alignment.
> + * Userspace aligns struct rseq allocation on 32 bytes or more.

I plan to send a v3 of this series to clarify this uapi comment with:

/*
  * The original size and alignment of the allocation for struct rseq is
  * 32 bytes.
  *
  * The allocation size needs to be greater or equal to
  * max(getauxval(AT_RSEQ_FEATURE_SIZE), 32), and the allocation needs to
  * be aligned on max(getauxval(AT_RSEQ_ALIGN), 32).
  *
  * As an alternative, userspace is allowed to use both the original size
  * and alignment of 32 bytes for backward compatibility.
  *
  * A single active struct rseq registration per thread is allowed.
  */

Thanks,

Mathieu


-- 
Mathieu Desnoyers
EfficiOS Inc.
https://www.efficios.com