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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-07 18:49:45 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-07 18:49:45 +0000
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Adding upstream version 6.1.76.upstream/6.1.76
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
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+KASAN is supported on powerpc on 32-bit and Radix 64-bit only.
+
+32 bit support
+==============
+
+KASAN is supported on both hash and nohash MMUs on 32-bit.
+
+The shadow area sits at the top of the kernel virtual memory space above the
+fixmap area and occupies one eighth of the total kernel virtual memory space.
+
+Instrumentation of the vmalloc area is optional, unless built with modules,
+in which case it is required.
+
+64 bit support
+==============
+
+Currently, only the radix MMU is supported. There have been versions for hash
+and Book3E processors floating around on the mailing list, but nothing has been
+merged.
+
+KASAN support on Book3S is a bit tricky to get right:
+
+ - It would be good to support inline instrumentation so as to be able to catch
+ stack issues that cannot be caught with outline mode.
+
+ - Inline instrumentation requires a fixed offset.
+
+ - Book3S runs code with translations off ("real mode") during boot, including a
+ lot of generic device-tree parsing code which is used to determine MMU
+ features.
+
+ - Some code - most notably a lot of KVM code - also runs with translations off
+ after boot.
+
+ - Therefore any offset has to point to memory that is valid with
+ translations on or off.
+
+One approach is just to give up on inline instrumentation. This way boot-time
+checks can be delayed until after the MMU is set is up, and we can just not
+instrument any code that runs with translations off after booting. This is the
+current approach.
+
+To avoid this limitiation, the KASAN shadow would have to be placed inside the
+linear mapping, using the same high-bits trick we use for the rest of the linear
+mapping. This is tricky:
+
+ - We'd like to place it near the start of physical memory. In theory we can do
+ this at run-time based on how much physical memory we have, but this requires
+ being able to arbitrarily relocate the kernel, which is basically the tricky
+ part of KASLR. Not being game to implement both tricky things at once, this
+ is hopefully something we can revisit once we get KASLR for Book3S.
+
+ - Alternatively, we can place the shadow at the _end_ of memory, but this
+ requires knowing how much contiguous physical memory a system has _at compile
+ time_. This is a big hammer, and has some unfortunate consequences: inablity
+ to handle discontiguous physical memory, total failure to boot on machines
+ with less memory than specified, and that machines with more memory than
+ specified can't use it. This was deemed unacceptable.