• Andy Lutomirski's avatar
    x86/sched/64: Don't save flags on context switch (reinstated) · 3f2c5085
    Andy Lutomirski authored
    This reinstates the following commit:
    
      2c7577a7 ("sched/x86_64: Don't save flags on context switch")
    
    which was reverted in:
    
      512255a2 ("Revert 'sched/x86_64: Don't save flags on context switch'")
    
    Historically, Linux has always saved and restored EFLAGS across
    context switches.  As far as I know, the only reason to do this
    is because of the NT flag.  In particular, if something calls
    switch_to() with the NT flag set, then we don't want to leak the
    NT flag into a different task that might try to IRET and fail
    because NT is set.
    
    Before this commit:
    
      8c7aa698 ("x86_64, entry: Filter RFLAGS.NT on entry from userspace")
    
    we could run system call bodies with NT set.  This would be a DoS or possibly
    privilege escalation hole if scheduling in such a system call would leak
    NT into a different task.
    
    Importantly, we don't need to worry about NT being set while
    preemptible or across page faults.  The only way we can schedule
    due to preemption or a page fault is in an interrupt entry that
    nests inside the SYSENTER prologue.  The CPU will clear NT when
    entering through an interrupt gate, so we won't schedule with NT
    set.
    
    The only other interesting flags are IOPL and AC.  Allowing
    switch_to() to change IOPL has no effect, as the value loaded
    during kernel execution doesn't matter at all except between a
    SYSENTER entry and the subsequent PUSHF, and anythign that
    interrupts in that window will restore IOPL on return.
    
    If we call __switch_to() with AC set, we have bigger problems.
    Signed-off-by: default avatarAndy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
    Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net>
    Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
    Cc: Brian Gerst <brgerst@gmail.com>
    Cc: Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@redhat.com>
    Cc: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
    Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
    Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
    Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
    Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/d4440fdc2a89247bffb7c003d2a9a2952bd46827.1441146105.git.luto@kernel.orgSigned-off-by: default avatarIngo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
    3f2c5085
switch_to.h 4.73 KB