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From: Bill Roberts <bill.roberts@arm.com>
To: rick.p.edgecombe@intel.com, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>, Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>,
	Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>,
	x86@kernel.org, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
Cc: Bill Roberts <bill.roberts@arm.com>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH v2] x86/shstk: shadow stack enabling write return code change
Date: Tue,  7 Jul 2026 13:45:42 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260707184542.1721085-1-bill.roberts@arm.com> (raw)

The WRSS instruction (the special instruction that writes to shadow stacks)
cannot be used in userspace unless IA32_U_CET.SH_STK_EN=1 (user shadow
stack is enabled). So the kernel *should* return -EINVAL to userspace if
it tries to enable it when shadow stack is disabled. However, currently,
it will return -EPERM. But, that error code doesn't fit the condition as
the failure is due to an invalid state change request not a permission
issue.

Investigating userspace call sites, like glibc and criu (checkpoint code),
they do not rely on this specific error message, nor could a userspace
effectively utilize this specific return error code to indicate a
difference in "I cannot enable write because of invalid permissions"
versus "I cannot enable write because the shadow stack is disabled".

Signed-off-by: Bill Roberts <bill.roberts@arm.com>
---
 arch/x86/kernel/shstk.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/shstk.c b/arch/x86/kernel/shstk.c
index 0ca64900192f..eb690ba90180 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/shstk.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/shstk.c
@@ -490,7 +490,7 @@ static int wrss_control(bool enable)
 	 * when disabling.
 	 */
 	if (!features_enabled(ARCH_SHSTK_SHSTK))
-		return -EPERM;
+		return -EINVAL;
 
 	/* Already enabled/disabled? */
 	if (features_enabled(ARCH_SHSTK_WRSS) == enable)
-- 
2.54.0


             reply	other threads:[~2026-07-07 18:45 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-07-07 18:45 Bill Roberts [this message]
2026-07-07 18:56 ` Edgecombe, Rick P
2026-07-08 16:46 ` Dave Hansen
2026-07-08 20:56   ` Bill Roberts
2026-07-08 21:00     ` Dave Hansen
2026-07-14 20:22       ` Bill Roberts
2026-07-14 20:27         ` Dave Hansen
2026-09-02 21:11 ` [tip: x86/cpu] x86/shstk: Shadow " tip-bot2 for Bill Roberts

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