24 May, 2018
1 commit
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Semantic changes are possible since the commit d83a7cb375eec21f04
("livepatch: change to a per-task consistency model").Also data structures can be patched since the commit 439e7271dc2b63de37
("livepatch: introduce shadow variable API").It is a high time we removed these limitations from the documentation.
Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek
Acked-by: Miroslav Benes
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
17 Apr, 2018
2 commits
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We might need to do some actions before the shadow variable is freed.
For example, we might need to remove it from a list or free some data
that it points to.This is already possible now. The user can get the shadow variable
by klp_shadow_get(), do the necessary actions, and then call
klp_shadow_free().This patch allows to do it a more elegant way. The user could implement
the needed actions in a callback that is passed to klp_shadow_free()
as a parameter. The callback usually does reverse operations to
the constructor callback that can be called by klp_shadow_*alloc().It is especially useful for klp_shadow_free_all(). There we need to do
these extra actions for each found shadow variable with the given ID.Note that the memory used by the shadow variable itself is still released
later by rcu callback. It is needed to protect internal structures that
keep all shadow variables. But the destructor is called immediately.
The shadow variable must not be access anyway after klp_shadow_free()
is called. The user is responsible to protect this any suitable way.Be aware that the destructor is called under klp_shadow_lock. It is
the same as for the contructor in klp_shadow_alloc().Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf
Acked-by: Miroslav Benes
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina -
The existing API allows to pass a sample data to initialize the shadow
data. It works well when the data are position independent. But it fails
miserably when we need to set a pointer to the shadow structure itself.Unfortunately, we might need to initialize the pointer surprisingly
often because of struct list_head. It is even worse because the list
might be hidden in other common structures, for example, struct mutex,
struct wait_queue_head.For example, this was needed to fix races in ALSA sequencer. It required
to add mutex into struct snd_seq_client. See commit b3defb791b26ea06
("ALSA: seq: Make ioctls race-free") and commit d15d662e89fc667b9
("ALSA: seq: Fix racy pool initializations")This patch makes the API more safe. A custom constructor function and data
are passed to klp_shadow_*alloc() functions instead of the sample data.Note that ctor_data are no longer a template for shadow->data. It might
point to any data that might be necessary when the constructor is called.Also note that the constructor is called under klp_shadow_lock. It is
an internal spin_lock that synchronizes alloc() vs. get() operations,
see klp_shadow_get_or_alloc(). On one hand, this adds a risk of ABBA
deadlocks. On the other hand, it allows to do some operations safely.
For example, we could add the new structure into an existing list.
This must be done only once when the structure is allocated.Reported-by: Nicolai Stange
Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf
Acked-by: Miroslav Benes
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
11 Jan, 2018
1 commit
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Immediate flag has been used to disable per-task consistency and patch
all tasks immediately. It could be useful if the patch doesn't change any
function or data semantics.However, it causes problems on its own. The consistency problem is
currently broken with respect to immediate patches.func a
patches 1i
2i
3When the patch 3 is applied, only 2i function is checked (by stack
checking facility). There might be a task sleeping in 1i though. Such
task is migrated to 3, because we do not check 1i in
klp_check_stack_func() at all.Coming atomic replace feature would be easier to implement and more
reliable without immediate.Thus, remove immediate feature completely and save us from the problems.
Note that force feature has the similar problem. However it is
considered as a last resort. If used, administrator should not apply any
new live patches and should plan for reboot into an updated kernel.The architectures would now need to provide HAVE_RELIABLE_STACKTRACE to
fully support livepatch.Signed-off-by: Miroslav Benes
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
07 Dec, 2017
1 commit
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If a task sleeps in a set of patched functions uninterruptedly, it could
block the whole transition indefinitely. Thus it may be useful to clear
its TIF_PATCH_PENDING to allow the process to finish.Admin can do that now by writing to force sysfs attribute in livepatch
sysfs directory. TIF_PATCH_PENDING is then cleared for all tasks and the
transition can finish successfully.Important note! Administrator should not use this feature without a
clearance from a patch distributor. It must be checked that by doing so
the consistency model guarantees are not violated. Removal (rmmod) of
patch modules is permanently disabled when the feature is used. It
cannot be guaranteed there is no task sleeping in such module.Signed-off-by: Miroslav Benes
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf
Reviewed-by: Petr Mladek
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
05 Dec, 2017
1 commit
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Live patching consistency model is of LEAVE_PATCHED_SET and
SWITCH_THREAD. This means that all tasks in the system have to be marked
one by one as safe to call a new patched function. Safe means when a
task is not (sleeping) in a set of patched functions. That is, no
patched function is on the task's stack. Another clearly safe place is
the boundary between kernel and userspace. The patching waits for all
tasks to get outside of the patched set or to cross the boundary. The
transition is completed afterwards.The problem is that a task can block the transition for quite a long
time, if not forever. It could sleep in a set of patched functions, for
example. Luckily we can force the task to leave the set by sending it a
fake signal, that is a signal with no data in signal pending structures
(no handler, no sign of proper signal delivered). Suspend/freezer use
this to freeze the tasks as well. The task gets TIF_SIGPENDING set and
is woken up (if it has been sleeping in the kernel before) or kicked by
rescheduling IPI (if it was running on other CPU). This causes the task
to go to kernel/userspace boundary where the signal would be handled and
the task would be marked as safe in terms of live patching.There are tasks which are not affected by this technique though. The
fake signal is not sent to kthreads. They should be handled differently.
They can be woken up so they leave the patched set and their
TIF_PATCH_PENDING can be cleared thanks to stack checking.For the sake of completeness, if the task is in TASK_RUNNING state but
not currently running on some CPU it doesn't get the IPI, but it would
eventually handle the signal anyway. Second, if the task runs in the
kernel (in TASK_RUNNING state) it gets the IPI, but the signal is not
handled on return from the interrupt. It would be handled on return to
the userspace in the future when the fake signal is sent again. Stack
checking deals with these cases in a better way.If the task was sleeping in a syscall it would be woken by our fake
signal, it would check if TIF_SIGPENDING is set (by calling
signal_pending() predicate) and return ERESTART* or EINTR. Syscalls with
ERESTART* return values are restarted in case of the fake signal (see
do_signal()). EINTR is propagated back to the userspace program. This
could disturb the program, but...* each process dealing with signals should react accordingly to EINTR
return values.
* syscalls returning EINTR happen to be quite common situation in the
system even if no fake signal is sent.
* freezer sends the fake signal and does not deal with EINTR anyhow.
Thus EINTR values are returned when the system is resumed.The very safe marking is done in architectures' "entry" on syscall and
interrupt/exception exit paths, and in a stack checking functions of
livepatch. TIF_PATCH_PENDING is cleared and the next
recalc_sigpending() drops TIF_SIGPENDING. In connection with this, also
call klp_update_patch_state() before do_signal(), so that
recalc_sigpending() in dequeue_signal() can clear TIF_PATCH_PENDING
immediately and thus prevent a double call of do_signal().Note that the fake signal is not sent to stopped/traced tasks. Such task
prevents the patching to finish till it continues again (is not traced
anymore).Last, sending the fake signal is not automatic. It is done only when
admin requests it by writing 1 to signal sysfs attribute in livepatch
sysfs directory.Signed-off-by: Miroslav Benes
Cc: Oleg Nesterov
Cc: Michael Ellerman
Cc: Thomas Gleixner
Cc: Ingo Molnar
Cc: "H. Peter Anvin"
Cc: Andy Lutomirski
Cc: linuxppc-dev@lists.ozlabs.org
Cc: x86@kernel.org
Acked-by: Michael Ellerman (powerpc)
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
19 Oct, 2017
1 commit
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Provide livepatch modules a klp_object (un)patching notification
mechanism. Pre and post-(un)patch callbacks allow livepatch modules to
setup or synchronize changes that would be difficult to support in only
patched-or-unpatched code contexts.Callbacks can be registered for target module or vmlinux klp_objects,
but each implementation is klp_object specific.- Pre-(un)patch callbacks run before any (un)patching transition
starts.- Post-(un)patch callbacks run once an object has been (un)patched and
the klp_patch fully transitioned to its target state.Example use cases include modification of global data and registration
of newly available services/handlers.See Documentation/livepatch/callbacks.txt for details and
samples/livepatch/ for examples.Signed-off-by: Joe Lawrence
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf
Acked-by: Miroslav Benes
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
02 Oct, 2017
1 commit
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The description of the basic operations was a bit inconsistent
and based on older version of the patchset.Also the size of the spinlock structure should be allocated
instead of the pointer.Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek
Acked-by: Joe Lawrence
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
15 Sep, 2017
1 commit
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Add exported API for livepatch modules:
klp_shadow_get()
klp_shadow_alloc()
klp_shadow_get_or_alloc()
klp_shadow_free()
klp_shadow_free_all()that implement "shadow" variables, which allow callers to associate new
shadow fields to existing data structures. This is intended to be used
by livepatch modules seeking to emulate additions to data structure
definitions.See Documentation/livepatch/shadow-vars.txt for a summary of the new
shadow variable API, including a few common use cases.See samples/livepatch/livepatch-shadow-* for example modules that
demonstrate shadow variables.[jkosina@suse.cz: fix __klp_shadow_get_or_alloc() comment as spotted by
Josh]
Signed-off-by: Joe Lawrence
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf
Acked-by: Miroslav Benes
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
08 Mar, 2017
2 commits
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Currently we do not allow patch module to unload since there is no
method to determine if a task is still running in the patched code.The consistency model gives us the way because when the unpatching
finishes we know that all tasks were marked as safe to call an original
function. Thus every new call to the function calls the original code
and at the same time no task can be somewhere in the patched code,
because it had to leave that code to be marked as safe.We can safely let the patch module go after that.
Completion is used for synchronization between module removal and sysfs
infrastructure in a similar way to commit 942e443127e9 ("module: Fix
mod->mkobj.kobj potentially freed too early").Note that we still do not allow the removal for immediate model, that is
no consistency model. The module refcount may increase in this case if
somebody disables and enables the patch several times. This should not
cause any harm.With this change a call to try_module_get() is moved to
__klp_enable_patch from klp_register_patch to make module reference
counting symmetric (module_put() is in a patch disable path) and to
allow to take a new reference to a disabled module when being enabled.Finally, we need to be very careful about possible races between
klp_unregister_patch(), kobject_put() functions and operations
on the related sysfs files.kobject_put(&patch->kobj) must be called without klp_mutex. Otherwise,
it might be blocked by enabled_store() that needs the mutex as well.
In addition, enabled_store() must check if the patch was not
unregisted in the meantime.There is no need to do the same for other kobject_put() callsites
at the moment. Their sysfs operations neither take the lock nor
they access any data that might be freed in the meantime.There was an attempt to use kobjects the right way and prevent these
races by design. But it made the patch definition more complicated
and opened another can of worms. See
https://lkml.kernel.org/r/1464018848-4303-1-git-send-email-pmladek@suse.com[Thanks to Petr Mladek for improving the commit message.]
Signed-off-by: Miroslav Benes
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf
Reviewed-by: Petr Mladek
Acked-by: Miroslav Benes
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina -
Change livepatch to use a basic per-task consistency model. This is the
foundation which will eventually enable us to patch those ~10% of
security patches which change function or data semantics. This is the
biggest remaining piece needed to make livepatch more generally useful.This code stems from the design proposal made by Vojtech [1] in November
2014. It's a hybrid of kGraft and kpatch: it uses kGraft's per-task
consistency and syscall barrier switching combined with kpatch's stack
trace switching. There are also a number of fallback options which make
it quite flexible.Patches are applied on a per-task basis, when the task is deemed safe to
switch over. When a patch is enabled, livepatch enters into a
transition state where tasks are converging to the patched state.
Usually this transition state can complete in a few seconds. The same
sequence occurs when a patch is disabled, except the tasks converge from
the patched state to the unpatched state.An interrupt handler inherits the patched state of the task it
interrupts. The same is true for forked tasks: the child inherits the
patched state of the parent.Livepatch uses several complementary approaches to determine when it's
safe to patch tasks:1. The first and most effective approach is stack checking of sleeping
tasks. If no affected functions are on the stack of a given task,
the task is patched. In most cases this will patch most or all of
the tasks on the first try. Otherwise it'll keep trying
periodically. This option is only available if the architecture has
reliable stacks (HAVE_RELIABLE_STACKTRACE).2. The second approach, if needed, is kernel exit switching. A
task is switched when it returns to user space from a system call, a
user space IRQ, or a signal. It's useful in the following cases:a) Patching I/O-bound user tasks which are sleeping on an affected
function. In this case you have to send SIGSTOP and SIGCONT to
force it to exit the kernel and be patched.
b) Patching CPU-bound user tasks. If the task is highly CPU-bound
then it will get patched the next time it gets interrupted by an
IRQ.
c) In the future it could be useful for applying patches for
architectures which don't yet have HAVE_RELIABLE_STACKTRACE. In
this case you would have to signal most of the tasks on the
system. However this isn't supported yet because there's
currently no way to patch kthreads without
HAVE_RELIABLE_STACKTRACE.3. For idle "swapper" tasks, since they don't ever exit the kernel, they
instead have a klp_update_patch_state() call in the idle loop which
allows them to be patched before the CPU enters the idle state.(Note there's not yet such an approach for kthreads.)
All the above approaches may be skipped by setting the 'immediate' flag
in the 'klp_patch' struct, which will disable per-task consistency and
patch all tasks immediately. This can be useful if the patch doesn't
change any function or data semantics. Note that, even with this flag
set, it's possible that some tasks may still be running with an old
version of the function, until that function returns.There's also an 'immediate' flag in the 'klp_func' struct which allows
you to specify that certain functions in the patch can be applied
without per-task consistency. This might be useful if you want to patch
a common function like schedule(), and the function change doesn't need
consistency but the rest of the patch does.For architectures which don't have HAVE_RELIABLE_STACKTRACE, the user
must set patch->immediate which causes all tasks to be patched
immediately. This option should be used with care, only when the patch
doesn't change any function or data semantics.In the future, architectures which don't have HAVE_RELIABLE_STACKTRACE
may be allowed to use per-task consistency if we can come up with
another way to patch kthreads.The /sys/kernel/livepatch//transition file shows whether a patch
is in transition. Only a single patch (the topmost patch on the stack)
can be in transition at a given time. A patch can remain in transition
indefinitely, if any of the tasks are stuck in the initial patch state.A transition can be reversed and effectively canceled by writing the
opposite value to the /sys/kernel/livepatch//enabled file while
the transition is in progress. Then all the tasks will attempt to
converge back to the original patch state.[1] https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20141107140458.GA21774@suse.cz
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf
Acked-by: Miroslav Benes
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar # for the scheduler changes
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
23 Feb, 2017
1 commit
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Pull documentation updates from Jonathan Corbet:
"A slightly quieter cycle for documentation this time around.Three more DocBook template files have been converted to RST; only 21
to go. There are various build improvements and the usual array of
documentation improvements and fixes"* tag 'docs-4.11' of git://git.lwn.net/linux: (44 commits)
docs / driver-api: Fix structure references in device_link.rst
PM / docs: Fix structure references in device.rst
Add a target to check broken external links in the Documentation
Documentation: Fix linux-api list typo
Documentation: DocBook/Makefile comment typo
Improve sparse documentation
Documentation: make Makefile.sphinx no-ops quieter
Documentation: DMA-ISA-LPC.txt
Documentation: input: fix path to input code definitions
docs: Remove the copyright year from conf.py
docs: Fix a warning in the Korean HOWTO.rst translation
PM / sleep / docs: Convert PM notifiers document to reST
PM / core / docs: Convert sleep states API document to reST
PM / core: Update kerneldoc comments in pm.h
doc-rst: Fix recursive make invocation from macros
doc-rst: Delete output of failed dot-SVG conversion
doc-rst: Break shell command sequences on failure
Documentation/sphinx: make targets independent of Sphinx work for HAVE_SPHINX=0
doc-rst: fixed cleandoc target when used with O=dir
Documentation/sphinx: prevent generation of .pyc files in the source tree
...
27 Jan, 2017
1 commit
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This patch fix some double words found in Documentation.
Signed-off-by: Masanari Iida
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet
11 Jan, 2017
1 commit
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The Limitations section of the documentation describes the impossibility
to livepatch anything that is inlined to __schedule() function. This had
been true till 4.9 kernel came. Thanks to commit 0100301bfdf5
("sched/x86: Rewrite the switch_to() code") from Brian Gerst there is
__switch_to_asm function now (implemented in assembly) called properly
from context_switch(). RIP is thus saved on the stack and a task would
return to proper version of __schedule() et al. functions.Of course __switch_to_asm() is not patchable for the reason described in
the section. But there is no __fentry__ call and I cannot imagine a
reason to do it anyway.Therefore, remove the paragraphs from the section.
Signed-off-by: Miroslav Benes
Reviewed-by: Petr Mladek
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
09 Dec, 2016
1 commit
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gmame archive does not longer exist. Use the message id and
generic redirector instead.Reported-by: John Donnelly
Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
19 Aug, 2016
1 commit
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Document usage of arch-specific elf sections in livepatch as well
as implementation of arch-specific code.[jkosina@suse.cz: fix wording as suggested by Petr Mladek]
Signed-off-by: Jessica Yu
Reviewed-by: Petr Mladek
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
17 May, 2016
1 commit
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…ing-ppc64' into for-linus
28 Apr, 2016
1 commit
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livepatch framework deserves some documentation, definitely.
This is an attempt to provide some basic info. I hope that
it will be useful for both LivePatch producers and also
potential developers of the framework itself.[jkosina@suse.cz:
- incorporated feedback (grammar fixes) from
Chris J Arges
- s/LivePatch/livepatch in changelog as pointed out by
Josh Poimboeuf
- incorporated part of feedback (grammar fixes / reformulations) from
Balbir Singh
]Acked-by: Jessica Yu
Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina
01 Apr, 2016
1 commit
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Document livepatch module requirements and the special Elf constants patch
modules use.Signed-off-by: Jessica Yu
Acked-by: Miroslav Benes
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina