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[v9,RESEND,0/4] KASLR feature to randomize each loadable module

Message ID 20181120232312.30037-1-rick.p.edgecombe@intel.com (mailing list archive)
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Series KASLR feature to randomize each loadable module | expand

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Rick Edgecombe Nov. 20, 2018, 11:23 p.m. UTC
Resending this because I missed Jessica in the "to" list. Also removing the part
of this coverletter that talked about KPTI helping with some local kernel text
de-randomizing methods, because I'm not sure I fully understand this.

------------------------------------------------------------

This is V9 of the "KASLR feature to randomize each loadable module" patchset.
The purpose is to increase the randomization for the module space from 10 to 17
bits, and also to make the modules randomized in relation to each other instead
of just the address where the allocations begin, so that if one module leaks the
location of the others can't be inferred.

Why its useful
==============
Randomizing the location of executable code is a defense against control flow
attacks, where the kernel is tricked into jumping, or speculatively executing
code other than what is intended. By randomizing the location of the code, the
attacker doesn't know where to redirect the control flow.

Today the RANDOMIZE_BASE feature randomizes the base address where the module
allocations begin with 10 bits of entropy for this purpose. From here, a highly
deterministic algorithm allocates space for the modules as they are loaded and
unloaded. If an attacker can predict the order and identities for modules that
will be loaded (either by the system, or controlled by the user with
request_module or BPF), then a single text address leak can give the attacker
access to the locations of other modules. So in this case this new algorithm can
take the entropy of the other modules from ~0 to 17, making it much more robust.

Another problem today is that the low 10 bits of entropy makes brute force
attacks feasible, especially in the case of speculative execution where a wrong
guess won't necessarily cause a crash. In this case, increasing the
randomization will force attacks to take longer, and so increase the time an
attacker may be detected on a system.

There are multiple efforts to apply more randomization to the core kernel text
as well, and so this module space piece can be a first step to increasing
randomization for all kernel space executable code.

Userspace ASLR can get 28 bits of entropy or more, so at least increasing this
to 17 for now improves what is currently a pretty low amount of randomization
for the higher privileged kernel space.

How it works
============
The algorithm is pretty simple. It just breaks the module space in two, a random
area (2/3 of module space) and a backup area (1/3 of module space). It first
tries to allocate up to 10000 randomly located starting pages inside the random
section. If this fails, it will allocate in the backup area. The backup area
base will be offset in the same way as current algorithm does for the base area,
which has 10 bits of entropy.

The vmalloc allocator can be used to try an allocation at a specific address,
however it is usually used to try an allocation over a large address range, and
so some behaviors which are non-issues in normal usage can be be sub-optimal
when trying the an allocation at 10000 small ranges. So this patch also includes
a new vmalloc function __vmalloc_node_try_addr and some other vmalloc tweaks
that allow for more efficient trying of addresses.

This algorithm targets maintaining high entropy for many 1000's of module
allocations. This is because there are other users of the module space besides
kernel modules, like eBPF JIT, classic BPF socket filter JIT and kprobes.

Performance
===========
Simulations were run using module sizes derived from the x86_64 modules to
measure the allocation performance at various levels of fragmentation and
whether the backup area was used.

Capacity
--------
There is a slight reduction in the capacity of modules as simulated by the
x86_64 module sizes of <1000. Note this is a worst case, since in practice
module allocations in the 1000's will consist of smaller BPF JIT allocations or
kprobes which would fit better in the random area.

Allocation time
---------------
Below are three sets of measurements in ns of the allocation time as measured by
the included kselftests. The first two columns are this new algorithm with and
with out the vmalloc optimizations for trying random addresses quickly. They are
included for consideration of whether the changes are worth it. The last column
is the performance of the original algorithm.

Modules Vmalloc optimization    No Vmalloc Optimization Existing Module KASLR
1000    1433                    1993                    3821
2000    2295                    3681                    7830
3000    4424                    7450                    13012
4000    7746                    13824                   18106
5000    12721                   21852                   22572
6000    19724                   33926                   26443
7000    27638                   47427                   30473
8000    37745                   64443                   34200

These allocations are not taking very long, but it may show up on systems with
very high usage of the module space (BPF JITs). If the trade-off of touching
vmalloc doesn't seem worth it to people, I can remove the optimizations.

Randomness
----------
Unlike the existing algorithm, the amount of randomness provided has a
dependency on the number of modules allocated and the sizes of the modules text
sections. The entropy provided for the Nth allocation will come from three
sources of randomness, the range of addresses for the random area, the
probability the section will be allocated in the backup area and randomness from
the number of modules already allocated in the backup area. For computing a
lower bound entropy in the following calculations, the randomness of the modules
already in the backup area, or overlapping from the random area, is ignored
since it is usually small and will only increase the entropy. Below is an
attempt to compute a worst case value for entropy to compare to the existing
algorithm.

For probability of the Nth allocation being in the backup area, p, a lower bound
entropy estimate is calculated here as:

Random Area Slots = ((2/3)*1073741824)/4096 = 174762

Entropy = -( (1-p)*log2((1-p)/174762) + p*log2(p/1024) )

For >8000 modules the entropy remains above 17.3. For non-speculative control
flow attacks, an attack might crash the system. So the probability of the
first guess being right can be more important than the Nth guess. KASLR schemes
usually have equal probability for each possible position, but in this scheme
that is not the case. So a more conservative comparison to existing schemes is
the amount of information that would have to be guessed correctly for the
position that has the highest probability for having the Nth module allocated
(as that would be the attackers best guess):

Min Info = MIN(-log2(p/1024), -log2((1-p)/174762))

Allocations     Entropy
1000            17.4
2000            17.4
3000            17.4
4000            16.8
5000            15.8
6000            14.9
7000            14.8
8000            14.2

If anyone is keeping track, these numbers are different than as reported in V2,
because they are generated using the more compact allocation size heuristic that
is included in the kselftest rather than the real much larger dataset. The
heuristic generates randomization benchmarks that are slightly slower than the
real dataset. The real dataset also isn't representative of the case of mostly
smaller BPF filters, so it represents a worst case lower bound for entropy and
in practice 17+ bits should be maintained to much higher number of modules.

PTE usage
---------
Since the allocations are spread out over a wider address space, there is
increased PTE usage which should not exceed 1.3MB more than the old algorithm.


Changes for V9:
 - Better explanations in commit messages, instructions in kselftests (Andrew
   Morton)

Changes for V8:
 - Simplify code by removing logic for optimum handling of lazy free areas

Changes for V7:
 - More 0-day build fixes, readability improvements (Kees Cook)

Changes for V6:
 - 0-day build fixes by removing un-needed functional testing, more error
   handling

Changes for V5:
 - Add module_alloc test module

Changes for V4:
 - Fix issue caused by KASAN, kmemleak being provided different allocation
   lengths (padding).
 - Avoid kmalloc until sure its needed in __vmalloc_node_try_addr.
 - Fixed issues reported by 0-day.

Changes for V3:
 - Code cleanup based on internal feedback. (thanks to Dave Hansen and Andriy
   Shevchenko)
 - Slight refactor of existing algorithm to more cleanly live along side new
   one.
 - BPF synthetic benchmark

Changes for V2:
 - New implementation of __vmalloc_node_try_addr based on the
   __vmalloc_node_range implementation, that only flushes TLB when needed.
 - Modified module loading algorithm to try to reduce the TLB flushes further.
 - Increase "random area" tries in order to increase the number of modules that
   can get high randomness.
 - Increase "random area" size to 2/3 of module area in order to increase the
   number of modules that can get high randomness.
 - Fix for 0day failures on other architectures.
 - Fix for wrong debugfs permissions. (thanks to Jann Horn)
 - Spelling fix. (thanks to Jann Horn)
 - Data on module_alloc performance and TLB flushes. (brought up by Kees Cook
   and Jann Horn)
 - Data on memory usage. (suggested by Jann)


Rick Edgecombe (4):
  vmalloc: Add __vmalloc_node_try_addr function
  x86/modules: Increase randomization for modules
  vmalloc: Add debugfs modfraginfo
  Kselftest for module text allocation benchmarking

 arch/x86/Kconfig                              |   3 +
 arch/x86/include/asm/kaslr_modules.h          |  38 ++
 arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable_64_types.h       |   7 +
 arch/x86/kernel/module.c                      | 111 ++++--
 include/linux/vmalloc.h                       |   3 +
 lib/Kconfig.debug                             |   9 +
 lib/Makefile                                  |   1 +
 lib/test_mod_alloc.c                          | 375 ++++++++++++++++++
 mm/vmalloc.c                                  | 228 +++++++++--
 tools/testing/selftests/bpf/test_mod_alloc.sh |  29 ++
 10 files changed, 743 insertions(+), 61 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 arch/x86/include/asm/kaslr_modules.h
 create mode 100644 lib/test_mod_alloc.c
 create mode 100755 tools/testing/selftests/bpf/test_mod_alloc.sh

Comments

Jessica Yu Nov. 26, 2018, 3:36 p.m. UTC | #1
+++ Rick Edgecombe [20/11/18 15:23 -0800]:
>Resending this because I missed Jessica in the "to" list. Also removing the part
>of this coverletter that talked about KPTI helping with some local kernel text
>de-randomizing methods, because I'm not sure I fully understand this.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>
>This is V9 of the "KASLR feature to randomize each loadable module" patchset.
>The purpose is to increase the randomization for the module space from 10 to 17
>bits, and also to make the modules randomized in relation to each other instead
>of just the address where the allocations begin, so that if one module leaks the
>location of the others can't be inferred.
>
>Why its useful
>==============
>Randomizing the location of executable code is a defense against control flow
>attacks, where the kernel is tricked into jumping, or speculatively executing
>code other than what is intended. By randomizing the location of the code, the
>attacker doesn't know where to redirect the control flow.
>
>Today the RANDOMIZE_BASE feature randomizes the base address where the module
>allocations begin with 10 bits of entropy for this purpose. From here, a highly
>deterministic algorithm allocates space for the modules as they are loaded and
>unloaded. If an attacker can predict the order and identities for modules that
>will be loaded (either by the system, or controlled by the user with
>request_module or BPF), then a single text address leak can give the attacker
>access to the locations of other modules. So in this case this new algorithm can
>take the entropy of the other modules from ~0 to 17, making it much more robust.
>
>Another problem today is that the low 10 bits of entropy makes brute force
>attacks feasible, especially in the case of speculative execution where a wrong
>guess won't necessarily cause a crash. In this case, increasing the
>randomization will force attacks to take longer, and so increase the time an
>attacker may be detected on a system.
>
>There are multiple efforts to apply more randomization to the core kernel text
>as well, and so this module space piece can be a first step to increasing
>randomization for all kernel space executable code.
>
>Userspace ASLR can get 28 bits of entropy or more, so at least increasing this
>to 17 for now improves what is currently a pretty low amount of randomization
>for the higher privileged kernel space.
>
>How it works
>============
>The algorithm is pretty simple. It just breaks the module space in two, a random
>area (2/3 of module space) and a backup area (1/3 of module space). It first
>tries to allocate up to 10000 randomly located starting pages inside the random
>section. If this fails, it will allocate in the backup area. The backup area
>base will be offset in the same way as current algorithm does for the base area,
>which has 10 bits of entropy.
>
>The vmalloc allocator can be used to try an allocation at a specific address,
>however it is usually used to try an allocation over a large address range, and
>so some behaviors which are non-issues in normal usage can be be sub-optimal
>when trying the an allocation at 10000 small ranges. So this patch also includes
>a new vmalloc function __vmalloc_node_try_addr and some other vmalloc tweaks
>that allow for more efficient trying of addresses.
>
>This algorithm targets maintaining high entropy for many 1000's of module
>allocations. This is because there are other users of the module space besides
>kernel modules, like eBPF JIT, classic BPF socket filter JIT and kprobes.

Hi Rick!

Sorry for the delay. I'd like to take a step back and ask some broader questions -

- Is the end goal of this patchset to randomize loading kernel modules, or most/all
   executable kernel memory allocations, including bpf, kprobes, etc?

- It seems that a lot of complexity and heuristics are introduced just to
   accommodate the potential fragmentation that can happen when the module vmalloc
   space starts to get fragmented with bpf filters. I'm partial to the idea of
   splitting or having bpf own its own vmalloc space, similar to what Ard is already
   implementing for arm64.

   So a question for the bpf and x86 folks, is having a dedicated vmalloc region
   (as well as a seperate bpf_alloc api) for bpf feasible or desirable on x86_64?

   If bpf filters need to be within 2 GB of the core kernel, would it make sense
   to carve out a portion of the current module region for bpf filters?  According
   to Documentation/x86/x86_64/mm.txt, the module region is ~1.5 GB. I am doubtful
   that any real system will actually have 1.5 GB worth of kernel modules loaded.
   Is there a specific reason why that much space is dedicated to kernel modules,
   and would it be feasible to split that region cleanly with bpf?

- If bpf gets its own dedicated vmalloc space, and we stick to the single task
   of randomizing *just* kernel modules, could the vmalloc optimizations and the
   "backup" area be dropped? The benefits of the vmalloc optimizations seem to
   only be noticeable when we get to thousands of module_alloc allocations -
   again, a concern caused by bpf filters sharing the same space with kernel
   modules.

   So tldr, it seems to me that the concern of fragmentation, the vmalloc
   optimizations, and the main purpose of the backup area - basically, the more
   complex parts of this patchset - stems squarely from the fact that bpf filters
   share the same space as modules on x86. If we were to focus on randomizing
   *just* kernel modules, and if bpf and modules had their own dedicated regions,
   then I *think* the concrete use cases for the backup area and the vmalloc
   optimizations (if we're strictly considering just kernel modules) would
   mostly disappear (please correct me if I'm in the wrong here). Then tackling the
   randomization of bpf allocations could potentially be a separate task on its own.

Thanks!

Jessica

>Performance
>===========
>Simulations were run using module sizes derived from the x86_64 modules to
>measure the allocation performance at various levels of fragmentation and
>whether the backup area was used.
>
>Capacity
>--------
>There is a slight reduction in the capacity of modules as simulated by the
>x86_64 module sizes of <1000. Note this is a worst case, since in practice
>module allocations in the 1000's will consist of smaller BPF JIT allocations or
>kprobes which would fit better in the random area.
>
>Allocation time
>---------------
>Below are three sets of measurements in ns of the allocation time as measured by
>the included kselftests. The first two columns are this new algorithm with and
>with out the vmalloc optimizations for trying random addresses quickly. They are
>included for consideration of whether the changes are worth it. The last column
>is the performance of the original algorithm.
>
>Modules Vmalloc optimization    No Vmalloc Optimization Existing Module KASLR
>1000    1433                    1993                    3821
>2000    2295                    3681                    7830
>3000    4424                    7450                    13012
>4000    7746                    13824                   18106
>5000    12721                   21852                   22572
>6000    19724                   33926                   26443
>7000    27638                   47427                   30473
>8000    37745                   64443                   34200
>
>These allocations are not taking very long, but it may show up on systems with
>very high usage of the module space (BPF JITs). If the trade-off of touching
>vmalloc doesn't seem worth it to people, I can remove the optimizations.
>
>Randomness
>----------
>Unlike the existing algorithm, the amount of randomness provided has a
>dependency on the number of modules allocated and the sizes of the modules text
>sections. The entropy provided for the Nth allocation will come from three
>sources of randomness, the range of addresses for the random area, the
>probability the section will be allocated in the backup area and randomness from
>the number of modules already allocated in the backup area. For computing a
>lower bound entropy in the following calculations, the randomness of the modules
>already in the backup area, or overlapping from the random area, is ignored
>since it is usually small and will only increase the entropy. Below is an
>attempt to compute a worst case value for entropy to compare to the existing
>algorithm.
>
>For probability of the Nth allocation being in the backup area, p, a lower bound
>entropy estimate is calculated here as:
>
>Random Area Slots = ((2/3)*1073741824)/4096 = 174762
>
>Entropy = -( (1-p)*log2((1-p)/174762) + p*log2(p/1024) )
>
>For >8000 modules the entropy remains above 17.3. For non-speculative control
>flow attacks, an attack might crash the system. So the probability of the
>first guess being right can be more important than the Nth guess. KASLR schemes
>usually have equal probability for each possible position, but in this scheme
>that is not the case. So a more conservative comparison to existing schemes is
>the amount of information that would have to be guessed correctly for the
>position that has the highest probability for having the Nth module allocated
>(as that would be the attackers best guess):
>
>Min Info = MIN(-log2(p/1024), -log2((1-p)/174762))
>
>Allocations     Entropy
>1000            17.4
>2000            17.4
>3000            17.4
>4000            16.8
>5000            15.8
>6000            14.9
>7000            14.8
>8000            14.2
>
>If anyone is keeping track, these numbers are different than as reported in V2,
>because they are generated using the more compact allocation size heuristic that
>is included in the kselftest rather than the real much larger dataset. The
>heuristic generates randomization benchmarks that are slightly slower than the
>real dataset. The real dataset also isn't representative of the case of mostly
>smaller BPF filters, so it represents a worst case lower bound for entropy and
>in practice 17+ bits should be maintained to much higher number of modules.
>
>PTE usage
>---------
>Since the allocations are spread out over a wider address space, there is
>increased PTE usage which should not exceed 1.3MB more than the old algorithm.
>
>
>Changes for V9:
> - Better explanations in commit messages, instructions in kselftests (Andrew
>   Morton)
>
>Changes for V8:
> - Simplify code by removing logic for optimum handling of lazy free areas
>
>Changes for V7:
> - More 0-day build fixes, readability improvements (Kees Cook)
>
>Changes for V6:
> - 0-day build fixes by removing un-needed functional testing, more error
>   handling
>
>Changes for V5:
> - Add module_alloc test module
>
>Changes for V4:
> - Fix issue caused by KASAN, kmemleak being provided different allocation
>   lengths (padding).
> - Avoid kmalloc until sure its needed in __vmalloc_node_try_addr.
> - Fixed issues reported by 0-day.
>
>Changes for V3:
> - Code cleanup based on internal feedback. (thanks to Dave Hansen and Andriy
>   Shevchenko)
> - Slight refactor of existing algorithm to more cleanly live along side new
>   one.
> - BPF synthetic benchmark
>
>Changes for V2:
> - New implementation of __vmalloc_node_try_addr based on the
>   __vmalloc_node_range implementation, that only flushes TLB when needed.
> - Modified module loading algorithm to try to reduce the TLB flushes further.
> - Increase "random area" tries in order to increase the number of modules that
>   can get high randomness.
> - Increase "random area" size to 2/3 of module area in order to increase the
>   number of modules that can get high randomness.
> - Fix for 0day failures on other architectures.
> - Fix for wrong debugfs permissions. (thanks to Jann Horn)
> - Spelling fix. (thanks to Jann Horn)
> - Data on module_alloc performance and TLB flushes. (brought up by Kees Cook
>   and Jann Horn)
> - Data on memory usage. (suggested by Jann)
>
>
>Rick Edgecombe (4):
>  vmalloc: Add __vmalloc_node_try_addr function
>  x86/modules: Increase randomization for modules
>  vmalloc: Add debugfs modfraginfo
>  Kselftest for module text allocation benchmarking
>
> arch/x86/Kconfig                              |   3 +
> arch/x86/include/asm/kaslr_modules.h          |  38 ++
> arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable_64_types.h       |   7 +
> arch/x86/kernel/module.c                      | 111 ++++--
> include/linux/vmalloc.h                       |   3 +
> lib/Kconfig.debug                             |   9 +
> lib/Makefile                                  |   1 +
> lib/test_mod_alloc.c                          | 375 ++++++++++++++++++
> mm/vmalloc.c                                  | 228 +++++++++--
> tools/testing/selftests/bpf/test_mod_alloc.sh |  29 ++
> 10 files changed, 743 insertions(+), 61 deletions(-)
> create mode 100644 arch/x86/include/asm/kaslr_modules.h
> create mode 100644 lib/test_mod_alloc.c
> create mode 100755 tools/testing/selftests/bpf/test_mod_alloc.sh
>
>-- 
>2.17.1
>
Rick Edgecombe Nov. 27, 2018, 12:19 a.m. UTC | #2
On Mon, 2018-11-26 at 16:36 +0100, Jessica Yu wrote:
> +++ Rick Edgecombe [20/11/18 15:23 -0800]:
[snip]
> Hi Rick!
> 
> Sorry for the delay. I'd like to take a step back and ask some broader
> questions -
> 
> - Is the end goal of this patchset to randomize loading kernel modules, or
> most/all
>    executable kernel memory allocations, including bpf, kprobes, etc?
Thanks for taking a look!

It started with the goal of just randomizing modules (hence the name), but I
think there is maybe value in randomizing the placement of all runtime added
executable code. Beyond just trying to make executable code placement less
deterministic in general, today all of the usages have the property of starting
with RW permissions and then becoming RO executable, so there is the benefit of
narrowing the chances a bug could successfully write to it during the RW window.

> - It seems that a lot of complexity and heuristics are introduced just to
>    accommodate the potential fragmentation that can happen when the module
> vmalloc
>    space starts to get fragmented with bpf filters. I'm partial to the idea of
>    splitting or having bpf own its own vmalloc space, similar to what Ard is
> already
>    implementing for arm64.
> 
>    So a question for the bpf and x86 folks, is having a dedicated vmalloc
> region
>    (as well as a seperate bpf_alloc api) for bpf feasible or desirable on
> x86_64?
I actually did some prototyping and testing on this. It seems there would be
some slowdown from the required changes to the JITed code to support calling
back from the vmalloc region into the kernel, and so module space would still be
the preferred region.

>    If bpf filters need to be within 2 GB of the core kernel, would it make
> sense
>    to carve out a portion of the current module region for bpf
> filters?  According
>    to Documentation/x86/x86_64/mm.txt, the module region is ~1.5 GB. I am
> doubtful
>    that any real system will actually have 1.5 GB worth of kernel modules
> loaded.
>    Is there a specific reason why that much space is dedicated to kernel
> modules,
>    and would it be feasible to split that region cleanly with bpf?
Hopefully someone from BPF side of things will chime in, but my understanding
was that they would like even more space than today if possible and so they may
not like the reduced space.

Also with KASLR on x86 its actually only 1GB, so it would only be 500MB per
section (assuming kprobes, etc would share the non-module region, so just two
sections).

> - If bpf gets its own dedicated vmalloc space, and we stick to the single task
>    of randomizing *just* kernel modules, could the vmalloc optimizations and
> the
>    "backup" area be dropped? The benefits of the vmalloc optimizations seem to
>    only be noticeable when we get to thousands of module_alloc allocations -
>    again, a concern caused by bpf filters sharing the same space with kernel
>    modules.
I think the backup area may still be needed, for example if you have 200 modules
evenly spaced inside 500MB there is only average ~2.5MB gap between them. So a
late added large module could still get blocked.

>    So tldr, it seems to me that the concern of fragmentation, the vmalloc
>    optimizations, and the main purpose of the backup area - basically, the
> more
>    complex parts of this patchset - stems squarely from the fact that bpf
> filters
>    share the same space as modules on x86. If we were to focus on randomizing
>    *just* kernel modules, and if bpf and modules had their own dedicated
> regions,
>    then I *think* the concrete use cases for the backup area and the vmalloc
>    optimizations (if we're strictly considering just kernel modules) would
>    mostly disappear (please correct me if I'm in the wrong here). Then
> tackling the
>    randomization of bpf allocations could potentially be a separate task on
> its own.
Yes it seems then the vmalloc optimizations could be dropped then, but I don't
think the backup area could be. Also the entropy would go down since there would
be less possible positions and we would reduce the space available to BPF. So
there are some downsides just to remove the vmalloc piece.

Is your concern that vmalloc optimizations might regress something else? There
is a middle ground vmalloc optimization where only the try_purge flag is plumbed
through. The flag was most of the performance gained and with just that piece it
should not change any behavior for the non-modules flows. Would that be more
acceptable?

> Thanks!
> 
> Jessica
> 
[snip]
Daniel Borkmann Nov. 27, 2018, 10:21 a.m. UTC | #3
On 11/27/2018 01:19 AM, Edgecombe, Rick P wrote:
> On Mon, 2018-11-26 at 16:36 +0100, Jessica Yu wrote:
>> +++ Rick Edgecombe [20/11/18 15:23 -0800]:
> [snip]
>> Hi Rick!
>>
>> Sorry for the delay. I'd like to take a step back and ask some broader
>> questions -
>>
>> - Is the end goal of this patchset to randomize loading kernel modules, or
>> most/all
>>    executable kernel memory allocations, including bpf, kprobes, etc?
> Thanks for taking a look!
> 
> It started with the goal of just randomizing modules (hence the name), but I
> think there is maybe value in randomizing the placement of all runtime added
> executable code. Beyond just trying to make executable code placement less
> deterministic in general, today all of the usages have the property of starting
> with RW permissions and then becoming RO executable, so there is the benefit of
> narrowing the chances a bug could successfully write to it during the RW window.
> 
>> - It seems that a lot of complexity and heuristics are introduced just to
>>    accommodate the potential fragmentation that can happen when the module
>> vmalloc
>>    space starts to get fragmented with bpf filters. I'm partial to the idea of
>>    splitting or having bpf own its own vmalloc space, similar to what Ard is
>> already
>>    implementing for arm64.
>>
>>    So a question for the bpf and x86 folks, is having a dedicated vmalloc
>> region
>>    (as well as a seperate bpf_alloc api) for bpf feasible or desirable on
>> x86_64?
> I actually did some prototyping and testing on this. It seems there would be
> some slowdown from the required changes to the JITed code to support calling
> back from the vmalloc region into the kernel, and so module space would still be
> the preferred region.

Yes, any runtime slow-down would be no-go as BPF sits in the middle of critical
networking fast-path and e.g. on XDP or tc layer and is used in load-balancing,
firewalling, DDoS protection scenarios, some recent examples in [0-3].

  [0] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-networking2018.html#session-10
  [1] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-networking2018.html#session-15
  [2] https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-to-drop-10-million-packets/
  [3] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-bpf2018.html#session-1

>>    If bpf filters need to be within 2 GB of the core kernel, would it make
>> sense
>>    to carve out a portion of the current module region for bpf
>> filters?  According
>>    to Documentation/x86/x86_64/mm.txt, the module region is ~1.5 GB. I am
>> doubtful
>>    that any real system will actually have 1.5 GB worth of kernel modules
>> loaded.
>>    Is there a specific reason why that much space is dedicated to kernel
>> modules,
>>    and would it be feasible to split that region cleanly with bpf?
> Hopefully someone from BPF side of things will chime in, but my understanding
> was that they would like even more space than today if possible and so they may
> not like the reduced space.

I wouldn't mind of the region is split as Jessica suggests but in a way where
there would be _no_ runtime regressions for BPF. This might also allow to have
more flexibility in sizing the area dedicated for BPF in future, and could
potentially be done in similar way as Ard was proposing recently [4].

  [4] https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/netdev/list/?series=77779

> Also with KASLR on x86 its actually only 1GB, so it would only be 500MB per
> section (assuming kprobes, etc would share the non-module region, so just two
> sections).
> 
>> - If bpf gets its own dedicated vmalloc space, and we stick to the single task
>>    of randomizing *just* kernel modules, could the vmalloc optimizations and
>> the
>>    "backup" area be dropped? The benefits of the vmalloc optimizations seem to
>>    only be noticeable when we get to thousands of module_alloc allocations -
>>    again, a concern caused by bpf filters sharing the same space with kernel
>>    modules.
> I think the backup area may still be needed, for example if you have 200 modules
> evenly spaced inside 500MB there is only average ~2.5MB gap between them. So a
> late added large module could still get blocked.
> 
>>    So tldr, it seems to me that the concern of fragmentation, the vmalloc
>>    optimizations, and the main purpose of the backup area - basically, the
>> more
>>    complex parts of this patchset - stems squarely from the fact that bpf
>> filters
>>    share the same space as modules on x86. If we were to focus on randomizing
>>    *just* kernel modules, and if bpf and modules had their own dedicated
>> regions,
>>    then I *think* the concrete use cases for the backup area and the vmalloc
>>    optimizations (if we're strictly considering just kernel modules) would
>>    mostly disappear (please correct me if I'm in the wrong here). Then
>> tackling the
>>    randomization of bpf allocations could potentially be a separate task on
>> its own.
> Yes it seems then the vmalloc optimizations could be dropped then, but I don't
> think the backup area could be. Also the entropy would go down since there would
> be less possible positions and we would reduce the space available to BPF. So
> there are some downsides just to remove the vmalloc piece.
> 
> Is your concern that vmalloc optimizations might regress something else? There
> is a middle ground vmalloc optimization where only the try_purge flag is plumbed
> through. The flag was most of the performance gained and with just that piece it
> should not change any behavior for the non-modules flows. Would that be more
> acceptable?
> 
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Jessica
>>
> [snip]
>
Rick Edgecombe Nov. 28, 2018, 1:40 a.m. UTC | #4
On Tue, 2018-11-27 at 11:21 +0100, Daniel Borkmann wrote:
> On 11/27/2018 01:19 AM, Edgecombe, Rick P wrote:
> > On Mon, 2018-11-26 at 16:36 +0100, Jessica Yu wrote:
> > > +++ Rick Edgecombe [20/11/18 15:23 -0800]:
> > 
> > [snip]
> > > Hi Rick!
> > > 
> > > Sorry for the delay. I'd like to take a step back and ask some broader
> > > questions -
> > > 
> > > - Is the end goal of this patchset to randomize loading kernel modules, or
> > > most/all
> > >    executable kernel memory allocations, including bpf, kprobes, etc?
> > 
> > Thanks for taking a look!
> > 
> > It started with the goal of just randomizing modules (hence the name), but I
> > think there is maybe value in randomizing the placement of all runtime added
> > executable code. Beyond just trying to make executable code placement less
> > deterministic in general, today all of the usages have the property of
> > starting
> > with RW permissions and then becoming RO executable, so there is the benefit
> > of
> > narrowing the chances a bug could successfully write to it during the RW
> > window.
> > 
> > > - It seems that a lot of complexity and heuristics are introduced just to
> > >    accommodate the potential fragmentation that can happen when the module
> > > vmalloc
> > >    space starts to get fragmented with bpf filters. I'm partial to the
> > > idea of
> > >    splitting or having bpf own its own vmalloc space, similar to what Ard
> > > is
> > > already
> > >    implementing for arm64.
> > > 
> > >    So a question for the bpf and x86 folks, is having a dedicated vmalloc
> > > region
> > >    (as well as a seperate bpf_alloc api) for bpf feasible or desirable on
> > > x86_64?
> > 
> > I actually did some prototyping and testing on this. It seems there would be
> > some slowdown from the required changes to the JITed code to support calling
> > back from the vmalloc region into the kernel, and so module space would
> > still be
> > the preferred region.
> 
> Yes, any runtime slow-down would be no-go as BPF sits in the middle of
> critical
> networking fast-path and e.g. on XDP or tc layer and is used in load-
> balancing,
> firewalling, DDoS protection scenarios, some recent examples in [0-3].
> 
>   [0] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-networking2018.html#session-10
>   [1] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-networking2018.html#session-15
>   [2] https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-to-drop-10-million-packets/
>   [3] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-bpf2018.html#session-1
> 
> > >    If bpf filters need to be within 2 GB of the core kernel, would it make
> > > sense
> > >    to carve out a portion of the current module region for bpf
> > > filters?  According
> > >    to Documentation/x86/x86_64/mm.txt, the module region is ~1.5 GB. I am
> > > doubtful
> > >    that any real system will actually have 1.5 GB worth of kernel modules
> > > loaded.
> > >    Is there a specific reason why that much space is dedicated to kernel
> > > modules,
> > >    and would it be feasible to split that region cleanly with bpf?
> > 
> > Hopefully someone from BPF side of things will chime in, but my
> > understanding
> > was that they would like even more space than today if possible and so they
> > may
> > not like the reduced space.
> 
> I wouldn't mind of the region is split as Jessica suggests but in a way where
> there would be _no_ runtime regressions for BPF. This might also allow to have
> more flexibility in sizing the area dedicated for BPF in future, and could
> potentially be done in similar way as Ard was proposing recently [4].
> 
>   [4] https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/netdev/list/?series=77779

CCing Ard.

The benefit of sharing the space, for randomization at least, is that you can
spread the allocations over a larger area.

I think there are also other benefits to unifying how this memory is managed
though, rather than spreading it further. Today there are various patterns and
techniques used like calling different combinations of set_memory_* before
freeing, zeroing in modules or setting invalid instructions like BPF does, etc.
There is also special care to be taken on vfree-ing executable memory. So this
way things only have to be done right once and there is less duplication.

Not saying there shouldn't be __weak alloc and free method in BPF for arch
specific behavior, just that there is quite a few other concerns that could be
good to centralize even more than today.

What if there was a unified executable alloc API with support for things like:
 - Concepts of two regions for Ard's usage, near(modules) and far(vmalloc) from
   kernel text. Won't apply for every arch, but maybe enough that some logic
   could be unified
 - Limits for each of the usages (modules, bpf, kprobes, ftrace)
 - Centralized logic for moving between RW and RO+X
 - Options for exclusive regions or all shared
 - Randomizing base, randomizing independently or none
 - Some cgroups hooks?

Would there be any interest in that for the future?

As a next step, if BPF doesn't want to use this by default, could BPF just call
vmalloc_node_range directly from Ard's new __weak functions on x86? Then modules
can randomize across the whole space and BPF can fill the gaps linearly from the
beginning. Is that acceptable? Then the vmalloc optimizations could be dropped
for the time being since the BPFs would not be fragmented, but the separate
regions could come as part of future work.

Thanks,

Rick

> > Also with KASLR on x86 its actually only 1GB, so it would only be 500MB per
> > section (assuming kprobes, etc would share the non-module region, so just
> > two
> > sections).
> > 
> > > - If bpf gets its own dedicated vmalloc space, and we stick to the single
> > > task
> > >    of randomizing *just* kernel modules, could the vmalloc optimizations
> > > and
> > > the
> > >    "backup" area be dropped? The benefits of the vmalloc optimizations
> > > seem to
> > >    only be noticeable when we get to thousands of module_alloc allocations
> > > -
> > >    again, a concern caused by bpf filters sharing the same space with
> > > kernel
> > >    modules.
> > 
> > I think the backup area may still be needed, for example if you have 200
> > modules
> > evenly spaced inside 500MB there is only average ~2.5MB gap between them. So
> > a
> > late added large module could still get blocked.
> > 
> > >    So tldr, it seems to me that the concern of fragmentation, the vmalloc
> > >    optimizations, and the main purpose of the backup area - basically, the
> > > more
> > >    complex parts of this patchset - stems squarely from the fact that bpf
> > > filters
> > >    share the same space as modules on x86. If we were to focus on
> > > randomizing
> > >    *just* kernel modules, and if bpf and modules had their own dedicated
> > > regions,
> > >    then I *think* the concrete use cases for the backup area and the
> > > vmalloc
> > >    optimizations (if we're strictly considering just kernel modules) would
> > >    mostly disappear (please correct me if I'm in the wrong here). Then
> > > tackling the
> > >    randomization of bpf allocations could potentially be a separate task
> > > on
> > > its own.
> > 
> > Yes it seems then the vmalloc optimizations could be dropped then, but I
> > don't
> > think the backup area could be. Also the entropy would go down since there
> > would
> > be less possible positions and we would reduce the space available to BPF.
> > So
> > there are some downsides just to remove the vmalloc piece.
> > 
> > Is your concern that vmalloc optimizations might regress something else?
> > There
> > is a middle ground vmalloc optimization where only the try_purge flag is
> > plumbed
> > through. The flag was most of the performance gained and with just that
> > piece it
> > should not change any behavior for the non-modules flows. Would that be more
> > acceptable?
> > 
> > > Thanks!
> > > 
> > > Jessica
> > > 
> > 
> > [snip]
> > 
> 
>
Rick Edgecombe Dec. 12, 2018, 11:05 p.m. UTC | #5
On Wed, 2018-11-28 at 01:40 +0000, Edgecombe, Rick P wrote:
> On Tue, 2018-11-27 at 11:21 +0100, Daniel Borkmann wrote:
> > On 11/27/2018 01:19 AM, Edgecombe, Rick P wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2018-11-26 at 16:36 +0100, Jessica Yu wrote:
> > > > +++ Rick Edgecombe [20/11/18 15:23 -0800]:
> > > 
> > > [snip]
> > > > Hi Rick!
> > > > 
> > > > Sorry for the delay. I'd like to take a step back and ask some broader
> > > > questions -
> > > > 
> > > > - Is the end goal of this patchset to randomize loading kernel modules,
> > > > or
> > > > most/all
> > > >    executable kernel memory allocations, including bpf, kprobes, etc?
> > > 
> > > Thanks for taking a look!
> > > 
> > > It started with the goal of just randomizing modules (hence the name), but
> > > I
> > > think there is maybe value in randomizing the placement of all runtime
> > > added
> > > executable code. Beyond just trying to make executable code placement less
> > > deterministic in general, today all of the usages have the property of
> > > starting
> > > with RW permissions and then becoming RO executable, so there is the
> > > benefit
> > > of
> > > narrowing the chances a bug could successfully write to it during the RW
> > > window.
> > > 
> > > > - It seems that a lot of complexity and heuristics are introduced just
> > > > to
> > > >    accommodate the potential fragmentation that can happen when the
> > > > module
> > > > vmalloc
> > > >    space starts to get fragmented with bpf filters. I'm partial to the
> > > > idea of
> > > >    splitting or having bpf own its own vmalloc space, similar to what
> > > > Ard
> > > > is
> > > > already
> > > >    implementing for arm64.
> > > > 
> > > >    So a question for the bpf and x86 folks, is having a dedicated
> > > > vmalloc
> > > > region
> > > >    (as well as a seperate bpf_alloc api) for bpf feasible or desirable
> > > > on
> > > > x86_64?
> > > 
> > > I actually did some prototyping and testing on this. It seems there would
> > > be
> > > some slowdown from the required changes to the JITed code to support
> > > calling
> > > back from the vmalloc region into the kernel, and so module space would
> > > still be
> > > the preferred region.
> > 
> > Yes, any runtime slow-down would be no-go as BPF sits in the middle of
> > critical
> > networking fast-path and e.g. on XDP or tc layer and is used in load-
> > balancing,
> > firewalling, DDoS protection scenarios, some recent examples in [0-3].
> > 
> >   [0] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-networking2018.html#session-10
> >   [1] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-networking2018.html#session-15
> >   [2] https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-to-drop-10-million-packets/
> >   [3] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-bpf2018.html#session-1
> > 
> > > >    If bpf filters need to be within 2 GB of the core kernel, would it
> > > > make
> > > > sense
> > > >    to carve out a portion of the current module region for bpf
> > > > filters?  According
> > > >    to Documentation/x86/x86_64/mm.txt, the module region is ~1.5 GB. I
> > > > am
> > > > doubtful
> > > >    that any real system will actually have 1.5 GB worth of kernel
> > > > modules
> > > > loaded.
> > > >    Is there a specific reason why that much space is dedicated to kernel
> > > > modules,
> > > >    and would it be feasible to split that region cleanly with bpf?
> > > 
> > > Hopefully someone from BPF side of things will chime in, but my
> > > understanding
> > > was that they would like even more space than today if possible and so
> > > they
> > > may
> > > not like the reduced space.
> > 
> > I wouldn't mind of the region is split as Jessica suggests but in a way
> > where
> > there would be _no_ runtime regressions for BPF. This might also allow to
> > have
> > more flexibility in sizing the area dedicated for BPF in future, and could
> > potentially be done in similar way as Ard was proposing recently [4].
> > 
> >   [4] https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/netdev/list/?series=77779
> 
> CCing Ard.
> 
> The benefit of sharing the space, for randomization at least, is that you can
> spread the allocations over a larger area.
> 
> I think there are also other benefits to unifying how this memory is managed
> though, rather than spreading it further. Today there are various patterns and
> techniques used like calling different combinations of set_memory_* before
> freeing, zeroing in modules or setting invalid instructions like BPF does,
> etc.
> There is also special care to be taken on vfree-ing executable memory. So this
> way things only have to be done right once and there is less duplication.
> 
> Not saying there shouldn't be __weak alloc and free method in BPF for arch
> specific behavior, just that there is quite a few other concerns that could be
> good to centralize even more than today.
> 
> What if there was a unified executable alloc API with support for things like:
>  - Concepts of two regions for Ard's usage, near(modules) and far(vmalloc)
> from
>    kernel text. Won't apply for every arch, but maybe enough that some logic
>    could be unified
>  - Limits for each of the usages (modules, bpf, kprobes, ftrace)
>  - Centralized logic for moving between RW and RO+X
>  - Options for exclusive regions or all shared
>  - Randomizing base, randomizing independently or none
>  - Some cgroups hooks?
> 
> Would there be any interest in that for the future?
> 
> As a next step, if BPF doesn't want to use this by default, could BPF just
> call
> vmalloc_node_range directly from Ard's new __weak functions on x86? Then
> modules
> can randomize across the whole space and BPF can fill the gaps linearly from
> the
> beginning. Is that acceptable? Then the vmalloc optimizations could be dropped
> for the time being since the BPFs would not be fragmented, but the separate
> regions could come as part of future work.
Jessica, Daniel,

Any advice for me on how we could move this forward?

Thanks,
Rick



> Thanks,
> 
> Rick
> 
> > > Also with KASLR on x86 its actually only 1GB, so it would only be 500MB
> > > per
> > > section (assuming kprobes, etc would share the non-module region, so just
> > > two
> > > sections).
> > > 
> > > > - If bpf gets its own dedicated vmalloc space, and we stick to the
> > > > single
> > > > task
> > > >    of randomizing *just* kernel modules, could the vmalloc optimizations
> > > > and
> > > > the
> > > >    "backup" area be dropped? The benefits of the vmalloc optimizations
> > > > seem to
> > > >    only be noticeable when we get to thousands of module_alloc
> > > > allocations
> > > > -
> > > >    again, a concern caused by bpf filters sharing the same space with
> > > > kernel
> > > >    modules.
> > > 
> > > I think the backup area may still be needed, for example if you have 200
> > > modules
> > > evenly spaced inside 500MB there is only average ~2.5MB gap between them.
> > > So
> > > a
> > > late added large module could still get blocked.
> > > 
> > > >    So tldr, it seems to me that the concern of fragmentation, the
> > > > vmalloc
> > > >    optimizations, and the main purpose of the backup area - basically,
> > > > the
> > > > more
> > > >    complex parts of this patchset - stems squarely from the fact that
> > > > bpf
> > > > filters
> > > >    share the same space as modules on x86. If we were to focus on
> > > > randomizing
> > > >    *just* kernel modules, and if bpf and modules had their own dedicated
> > > > regions,
> > > >    then I *think* the concrete use cases for the backup area and the
> > > > vmalloc
> > > >    optimizations (if we're strictly considering just kernel modules)
> > > > would
> > > >    mostly disappear (please correct me if I'm in the wrong here). Then
> > > > tackling the
> > > >    randomization of bpf allocations could potentially be a separate task
> > > > on
> > > > its own.
> > > 
> > > Yes it seems then the vmalloc optimizations could be dropped then, but I
> > > don't
> > > think the backup area could be. Also the entropy would go down since there
> > > would
> > > be less possible positions and we would reduce the space available to BPF.
> > > So
> > > there are some downsides just to remove the vmalloc piece.
> > > 
> > > Is your concern that vmalloc optimizations might regress something else?
> > > There
> > > is a middle ground vmalloc optimization where only the try_purge flag is
> > > plumbed
> > > through. The flag was most of the performance gained and with just that
> > > piece it
> > > should not change any behavior for the non-modules flows. Would that be
> > > more
> > > acceptable?
> > > 
> > > > Thanks!
> > > > 
> > > > Jessica
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > [snip]
> > > 
> > 
> >
Jessica Yu Dec. 17, 2018, 4:41 a.m. UTC | #6
+++ Edgecombe, Rick P [12/12/18 23:05 +0000]:
>On Wed, 2018-11-28 at 01:40 +0000, Edgecombe, Rick P wrote:
>> On Tue, 2018-11-27 at 11:21 +0100, Daniel Borkmann wrote:
>> > On 11/27/2018 01:19 AM, Edgecombe, Rick P wrote:
>> > > On Mon, 2018-11-26 at 16:36 +0100, Jessica Yu wrote:
>> > > > +++ Rick Edgecombe [20/11/18 15:23 -0800]:
>> > >
>> > > [snip]
>> > > > Hi Rick!
>> > > >
>> > > > Sorry for the delay. I'd like to take a step back and ask some broader
>> > > > questions -
>> > > >
>> > > > - Is the end goal of this patchset to randomize loading kernel modules,
>> > > > or
>> > > > most/all
>> > > >    executable kernel memory allocations, including bpf, kprobes, etc?
>> > >
>> > > Thanks for taking a look!
>> > >
>> > > It started with the goal of just randomizing modules (hence the name), but
>> > > I
>> > > think there is maybe value in randomizing the placement of all runtime
>> > > added
>> > > executable code. Beyond just trying to make executable code placement less
>> > > deterministic in general, today all of the usages have the property of
>> > > starting
>> > > with RW permissions and then becoming RO executable, so there is the
>> > > benefit
>> > > of
>> > > narrowing the chances a bug could successfully write to it during the RW
>> > > window.
>> > >
>> > > > - It seems that a lot of complexity and heuristics are introduced just
>> > > > to
>> > > >    accommodate the potential fragmentation that can happen when the
>> > > > module
>> > > > vmalloc
>> > > >    space starts to get fragmented with bpf filters. I'm partial to the
>> > > > idea of
>> > > >    splitting or having bpf own its own vmalloc space, similar to what
>> > > > Ard
>> > > > is
>> > > > already
>> > > >    implementing for arm64.
>> > > >
>> > > >    So a question for the bpf and x86 folks, is having a dedicated
>> > > > vmalloc
>> > > > region
>> > > >    (as well as a seperate bpf_alloc api) for bpf feasible or desirable
>> > > > on
>> > > > x86_64?
>> > >
>> > > I actually did some prototyping and testing on this. It seems there would
>> > > be
>> > > some slowdown from the required changes to the JITed code to support
>> > > calling
>> > > back from the vmalloc region into the kernel, and so module space would
>> > > still be
>> > > the preferred region.
>> >
>> > Yes, any runtime slow-down would be no-go as BPF sits in the middle of
>> > critical
>> > networking fast-path and e.g. on XDP or tc layer and is used in load-
>> > balancing,
>> > firewalling, DDoS protection scenarios, some recent examples in [0-3].
>> >
>> >   [0] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-networking2018.html#session-10
>> >   [1] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-networking2018.html#session-15
>> >   [2] https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-to-drop-10-million-packets/
>> >   [3] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-bpf2018.html#session-1
>> >
>> > > >    If bpf filters need to be within 2 GB of the core kernel, would it
>> > > > make
>> > > > sense
>> > > >    to carve out a portion of the current module region for bpf
>> > > > filters?  According
>> > > >    to Documentation/x86/x86_64/mm.txt, the module region is ~1.5 GB. I
>> > > > am
>> > > > doubtful
>> > > >    that any real system will actually have 1.5 GB worth of kernel
>> > > > modules
>> > > > loaded.
>> > > >    Is there a specific reason why that much space is dedicated to kernel
>> > > > modules,
>> > > >    and would it be feasible to split that region cleanly with bpf?
>> > >
>> > > Hopefully someone from BPF side of things will chime in, but my
>> > > understanding
>> > > was that they would like even more space than today if possible and so
>> > > they
>> > > may
>> > > not like the reduced space.
>> >
>> > I wouldn't mind of the region is split as Jessica suggests but in a way
>> > where
>> > there would be _no_ runtime regressions for BPF. This might also allow to
>> > have
>> > more flexibility in sizing the area dedicated for BPF in future, and could
>> > potentially be done in similar way as Ard was proposing recently [4].
>> >
>> >   [4] https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/netdev/list/?series=77779
>>
>> CCing Ard.
>>
>> The benefit of sharing the space, for randomization at least, is that you can
>> spread the allocations over a larger area.
>>
>> I think there are also other benefits to unifying how this memory is managed
>> though, rather than spreading it further. Today there are various patterns and
>> techniques used like calling different combinations of set_memory_* before
>> freeing, zeroing in modules or setting invalid instructions like BPF does,
>> etc.
>> There is also special care to be taken on vfree-ing executable memory. So this
>> way things only have to be done right once and there is less duplication.
>>
>> Not saying there shouldn't be __weak alloc and free method in BPF for arch
>> specific behavior, just that there is quite a few other concerns that could be
>> good to centralize even more than today.
>>
>> What if there was a unified executable alloc API with support for things like:
>>  - Concepts of two regions for Ard's usage, near(modules) and far(vmalloc)
>> from
>>    kernel text. Won't apply for every arch, but maybe enough that some logic
>>    could be unified
>>  - Limits for each of the usages (modules, bpf, kprobes, ftrace)
>>  - Centralized logic for moving between RW and RO+X
>>  - Options for exclusive regions or all shared
>>  - Randomizing base, randomizing independently or none
>>  - Some cgroups hooks?
>>
>> Would there be any interest in that for the future?
>>
>> As a next step, if BPF doesn't want to use this by default, could BPF just
>> call
>> vmalloc_node_range directly from Ard's new __weak functions on x86? Then
>> modules
>> can randomize across the whole space and BPF can fill the gaps linearly from
>> the
>> beginning. Is that acceptable? Then the vmalloc optimizations could be dropped
>> for the time being since the BPFs would not be fragmented, but the separate
>> regions could come as part of future work.
>Jessica, Daniel,
>
>Any advice for me on how we could move this forward?

Hi Rick,

It would be good for the x86 folks to chime in if they find the
x86-related module changes agreeable (in particular, the partitioning
and sizing of the module space in separate randomization and backup
areas). Has that happened already or did I just miss that in the
previous versions?

I'm impartial towards the vmalloc optimizations, as I wouldn't
consider module loading performance-critical (For instance, you'd most
likely just load a driver once and be done with it, and it's not like
you'd very frequently be loading/unloading modules. And note I mean
loading a kernel module, not module_alloc() allocations. These two
concepts are starting to get conflated :-/ ). So, I'd leave the
optimizations up to the BPF folks if they consider that beneficial for
their module_alloc() allocations.

And it looks like there isn't really a strong push or interest on
having a separate vmalloc area for bpf, so I suppose we can drop that
idea for now (that would be a separate patchset on its own anyway).
I just suggested the idea because I was curious if that would have
helped with the potential fragmentation issues. In any case it sounded
like the potentially reduced space (should the module space be split
between bpf and modules) isn't desirable.

Thanks,

Jessica

>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Rick
>>
>> > > Also with KASLR on x86 its actually only 1GB, so it would only be 500MB
>> > > per
>> > > section (assuming kprobes, etc would share the non-module region, so just
>> > > two
>> > > sections).
>> > >
>> > > > - If bpf gets its own dedicated vmalloc space, and we stick to the
>> > > > single
>> > > > task
>> > > >    of randomizing *just* kernel modules, could the vmalloc optimizations
>> > > > and
>> > > > the
>> > > >    "backup" area be dropped? The benefits of the vmalloc optimizations
>> > > > seem to
>> > > >    only be noticeable when we get to thousands of module_alloc
>> > > > allocations
>> > > > -
>> > > >    again, a concern caused by bpf filters sharing the same space with
>> > > > kernel
>> > > >    modules.
>> > >
>> > > I think the backup area may still be needed, for example if you have 200
>> > > modules
>> > > evenly spaced inside 500MB there is only average ~2.5MB gap between them.
>> > > So
>> > > a
>> > > late added large module could still get blocked.
>> > >
>> > > >    So tldr, it seems to me that the concern of fragmentation, the
>> > > > vmalloc
>> > > >    optimizations, and the main purpose of the backup area - basically,
>> > > > the
>> > > > more
>> > > >    complex parts of this patchset - stems squarely from the fact that
>> > > > bpf
>> > > > filters
>> > > >    share the same space as modules on x86. If we were to focus on
>> > > > randomizing
>> > > >    *just* kernel modules, and if bpf and modules had their own dedicated
>> > > > regions,
>> > > >    then I *think* the concrete use cases for the backup area and the
>> > > > vmalloc
>> > > >    optimizations (if we're strictly considering just kernel modules)
>> > > > would
>> > > >    mostly disappear (please correct me if I'm in the wrong here). Then
>> > > > tackling the
>> > > >    randomization of bpf allocations could potentially be a separate task
>> > > > on
>> > > > its own.
>> > >
>> > > Yes it seems then the vmalloc optimizations could be dropped then, but I
>> > > don't
>> > > think the backup area could be. Also the entropy would go down since there
>> > > would
>> > > be less possible positions and we would reduce the space available to BPF.
>> > > So
>> > > there are some downsides just to remove the vmalloc piece.
>> > >
>> > > Is your concern that vmalloc optimizations might regress something else?
>> > > There
>> > > is a middle ground vmalloc optimization where only the try_purge flag is
>> > > plumbed
>> > > through. The flag was most of the performance gained and with just that
>> > > piece it
>> > > should not change any behavior for the non-modules flows. Would that be
>> > > more
>> > > acceptable?
>> > >
>> > > > Thanks!
>> > > >
>> > > > Jessica
>> > > >
>> > >
>> > > [snip]
>> > >
>> >
>> >
Rick Edgecombe Dec. 18, 2018, 1:27 a.m. UTC | #7
On Mon, 2018-12-17 at 05:41 +0100, Jessica Yu wrote:
> +++ Edgecombe, Rick P [12/12/18 23:05 +0000]:
> > On Wed, 2018-11-28 at 01:40 +0000, Edgecombe, Rick P wrote:
> > > On Tue, 2018-11-27 at 11:21 +0100, Daniel Borkmann wrote:
> > > > On 11/27/2018 01:19 AM, Edgecombe, Rick P wrote:
> > > > > On Mon, 2018-11-26 at 16:36 +0100, Jessica Yu wrote:
> > > > > > +++ Rick Edgecombe [20/11/18 15:23 -0800]:
> > > > > 
> > > > > [snip]
> > > > > > Hi Rick!
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Sorry for the delay. I'd like to take a step back and ask some
> > > > > > broader
> > > > > > questions -
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > - Is the end goal of this patchset to randomize loading kernel
> > > > > > modules,
> > > > > > or
> > > > > > most/all
> > > > > >    executable kernel memory allocations, including bpf, kprobes,
> > > > > > etc?
> > > > > 
> > > > > Thanks for taking a look!
> > > > > 
> > > > > It started with the goal of just randomizing modules (hence the name),
> > > > > but
> > > > > I
> > > > > think there is maybe value in randomizing the placement of all runtime
> > > > > added
> > > > > executable code. Beyond just trying to make executable code placement
> > > > > less
> > > > > deterministic in general, today all of the usages have the property of
> > > > > starting
> > > > > with RW permissions and then becoming RO executable, so there is the
> > > > > benefit
> > > > > of
> > > > > narrowing the chances a bug could successfully write to it during the
> > > > > RW
> > > > > window.
> > > > > 
> > > > > > - It seems that a lot of complexity and heuristics are introduced
> > > > > > just
> > > > > > to
> > > > > >    accommodate the potential fragmentation that can happen when the
> > > > > > module
> > > > > > vmalloc
> > > > > >    space starts to get fragmented with bpf filters. I'm partial to
> > > > > > the
> > > > > > idea of
> > > > > >    splitting or having bpf own its own vmalloc space, similar to
> > > > > > what
> > > > > > Ard
> > > > > > is
> > > > > > already
> > > > > >    implementing for arm64.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > >    So a question for the bpf and x86 folks, is having a dedicated
> > > > > > vmalloc
> > > > > > region
> > > > > >    (as well as a seperate bpf_alloc api) for bpf feasible or
> > > > > > desirable
> > > > > > on
> > > > > > x86_64?
> > > > > 
> > > > > I actually did some prototyping and testing on this. It seems there
> > > > > would
> > > > > be
> > > > > some slowdown from the required changes to the JITed code to support
> > > > > calling
> > > > > back from the vmalloc region into the kernel, and so module space
> > > > > would
> > > > > still be
> > > > > the preferred region.
> > > > 
> > > > Yes, any runtime slow-down would be no-go as BPF sits in the middle of
> > > > critical
> > > > networking fast-path and e.g. on XDP or tc layer and is used in load-
> > > > balancing,
> > > > firewalling, DDoS protection scenarios, some recent examples in [0-3].
> > > > 
> > > >   [0] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-networking2018.html#session-10
> > > >   [1] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-networking2018.html#session-15
> > > >   [2] https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-to-drop-10-million-packets/
> > > >   [3] http://vger.kernel.org/lpc-bpf2018.html#session-1
> > > > 
> > > > > >    If bpf filters need to be within 2 GB of the core kernel, would
> > > > > > it
> > > > > > make
> > > > > > sense
> > > > > >    to carve out a portion of the current module region for bpf
> > > > > > filters?  According
> > > > > >    to Documentation/x86/x86_64/mm.txt, the module region is ~1.5 GB.
> > > > > > I
> > > > > > am
> > > > > > doubtful
> > > > > >    that any real system will actually have 1.5 GB worth of kernel
> > > > > > modules
> > > > > > loaded.
> > > > > >    Is there a specific reason why that much space is dedicated to
> > > > > > kernel
> > > > > > modules,
> > > > > >    and would it be feasible to split that region cleanly with bpf?
> > > > > 
> > > > > Hopefully someone from BPF side of things will chime in, but my
> > > > > understanding
> > > > > was that they would like even more space than today if possible and so
> > > > > they
> > > > > may
> > > > > not like the reduced space.
> > > > 
> > > > I wouldn't mind of the region is split as Jessica suggests but in a way
> > > > where
> > > > there would be _no_ runtime regressions for BPF. This might also allow
> > > > to
> > > > have
> > > > more flexibility in sizing the area dedicated for BPF in future, and
> > > > could
> > > > potentially be done in similar way as Ard was proposing recently [4].
> > > > 
> > > >   [4] https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/netdev/list/?series=77779
> > > 
> > > CCing Ard.
> > > 
> > > The benefit of sharing the space, for randomization at least, is that you
> > > can
> > > spread the allocations over a larger area.
> > > 
> > > I think there are also other benefits to unifying how this memory is
> > > managed
> > > though, rather than spreading it further. Today there are various patterns
> > > and
> > > techniques used like calling different combinations of set_memory_* before
> > > freeing, zeroing in modules or setting invalid instructions like BPF does,
> > > etc.
> > > There is also special care to be taken on vfree-ing executable memory. So
> > > this
> > > way things only have to be done right once and there is less duplication.
> > > 
> > > Not saying there shouldn't be __weak alloc and free method in BPF for arch
> > > specific behavior, just that there is quite a few other concerns that
> > > could be
> > > good to centralize even more than today.
> > > 
> > > What if there was a unified executable alloc API with support for things
> > > like:
> > >  - Concepts of two regions for Ard's usage, near(modules) and far(vmalloc)
> > > from
> > >    kernel text. Won't apply for every arch, but maybe enough that some
> > > logic
> > >    could be unified
> > >  - Limits for each of the usages (modules, bpf, kprobes, ftrace)
> > >  - Centralized logic for moving between RW and RO+X
> > >  - Options for exclusive regions or all shared
> > >  - Randomizing base, randomizing independently or none
> > >  - Some cgroups hooks?
> > > 
> > > Would there be any interest in that for the future?
> > > 
> > > As a next step, if BPF doesn't want to use this by default, could BPF just
> > > call
> > > vmalloc_node_range directly from Ard's new __weak functions on x86? Then
> > > modules
> > > can randomize across the whole space and BPF can fill the gaps linearly
> > > from
> > > the
> > > beginning. Is that acceptable? Then the vmalloc optimizations could be
> > > dropped
> > > for the time being since the BPFs would not be fragmented, but the
> > > separate
> > > regions could come as part of future work.
> > 
> > Jessica, Daniel,
> > 
> > Any advice for me on how we could move this forward?
> 
> Hi Rick,
> 
> It would be good for the x86 folks to chime in if they find the
> x86-related module changes agreeable (in particular, the partitioning
> and sizing of the module space in separate randomization and backup
> areas). Has that happened already or did I just miss that in the
> previous versions?
Andrew Morton(on v8) and Kees Cook(way back on v1 IIRC) had asked if we need the
backup area at all. The answer is yes in the case of heavy usage from the other
module_alloc users, or late added large modules have a real world chance of
being blocked.

The sizes of the areas were chosen experimentally with the simulations, but I
didn't save the data.

Anyone in particular you would want to see comment on this?

> I'm impartial towards the vmalloc optimizations, as I wouldn't
> consider module loading performance-critical (For instance, you'd most
> likely just load a driver once and be done with it, and it's not like
> you'd very frequently be loading/unloading modules. And note I mean
> loading a kernel module, not module_alloc() allocations. These two
> concepts are starting to get conflated :-/ ). So, I'd leave the
> optimizations up to the BPF folks if they consider that beneficial for
> their module_alloc() allocations.
Daniel, Alexei,

Any thoughts how you would prefer this works with BPF JIT?

> And it looks like there isn't really a strong push or interest on
> having a separate vmalloc area for bpf, so I suppose we can drop that
> idea for now (that would be a separate patchset on its own anyway).
> I just suggested the idea because I was curious if that would have
> helped with the potential fragmentation issues. In any case it sounded
> like the potentially reduced space (should the module space be split
> between bpf and modules) isn't desirable.
[snip]