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From: Andrei Vagin <avagin@google.com>
To: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>,
	Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>,
	 "Chang S. Bae" <chang.seok.bae@intel.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, criu@lists.linux.dev,
	 Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>,
	x86@kernel.org,  Andrei Vagin <avagin@google.com>,
	Alexander Mikhalitsyn <alexander@mihalicyn.com>,
	 "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
Subject: [PATCH 4/7] x86/fpu: Document reasoning of FX-only fallback
Date: Tue,  8 Sep 2026 04:34:24 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260908043427.1842515-5-avagin@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260908043427.1842515-1-avagin@google.com>

Add a comment to check_xstate_in_sigframe() to explain the reasoning behind
falling back to the FX-only state when signal frame metadata is
inconsistent.

The fallback is intended to preserve backward compatibility with legacy
user-space processes that are not aware of XSAVE states and might only
fill or copy the legacy FP state.

However, this fallback should be avoided whenever possible. If a process
was actively using extended features, falling back to the FX-only state
silently resets those extended registers to their initial state, which
can lead to silent user-space state corruption.

Reviewed-by: Alexander Mikhalitsyn <alexander@mihalicyn.com>
Reviewed-by: Chang S. Bae <chang.seok.bae@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrei Vagin <avagin@google.com>
---
 arch/x86/kernel/fpu/signal.c | 8 ++++++++
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/fpu/signal.c b/arch/x86/kernel/fpu/signal.c
index 60063a7a44f8..d686d5f7f3d0 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/fpu/signal.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/fpu/signal.c
@@ -54,6 +54,14 @@ static inline bool check_xstate_in_sigframe(struct fxregs_state __user *buf_fx,
 	if (likely(magic2 == FP_XSTATE_MAGIC2))
 		return true;
 err_setfx:
+	/*
+	 * The fallback to FX-only state is used to preserve backward
+	 * compatibility with user-space processes that are not aware of xsave
+	 * states.
+	 *
+	 * In all other cases, returning false (to trigger SIGSEGV) is
+	 * preferred to avoid silent user-space state corruption.
+	 */
 	trace_x86_fpu_xstate_check_failed(x86_task_fpu(current));
 
 	/* Set the parameters for fx only state */
-- 
2.55.0.979.g7e5102b832-goog


  parent reply	other threads:[~2026-09-08  4:34 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 12+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-09-08  4:34 [PATCH v5 0/7] x86/fpu: Restore and reinforce signal frame portability Andrei Vagin
2026-09-08  4:34 ` [PATCH 1/7] x86/fpu: Document signal frame layout and portability Andrei Vagin
2026-09-16  4:53   ` Borislav Petkov
2026-09-08  4:34 ` [PATCH 2/7] x86/fpu: Clean up and rename variables in signal frame handling Andrei Vagin
2026-09-08  4:34 ` [PATCH 3/7] x86/fpu: Extract restore_from_ia32_fxstate() and clean up fpu__restore_sig() Andrei Vagin
2026-09-14 17:00   ` Chang S. Bae
2026-09-08  4:34 ` Andrei Vagin [this message]
2026-09-08  4:34 ` [PATCH 5/7] x86/fpu: Fix potential underflow in xstate_calculate_size() Andrei Vagin
2026-09-08  4:34 ` [PATCH 6/7] x86/fpu: Pre-fault only required size of xstate buffer Andrei Vagin
2026-09-08  4:34 ` [PATCH 7/7] selftests/x86: Add tests for signal frame FPU portability Andrei Vagin
2026-09-14 17:03   ` Chang S. Bae
2026-09-14 17:05 ` [PATCH v5 0/7] x86/fpu: Restore and reinforce signal frame portability Chang S. Bae

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