diff mbox series

[RFT,v6,1/9] Documentation: userspace-api: Add shadow stack API documentation

Message ID 20240623-clone3-shadow-stack-v6-1-9ee7783b1fb9@kernel.org (mailing list archive)
State New
Headers show
Series fork: Support shadow stacks in clone3() | expand

Commit Message

Mark Brown June 23, 2024, 11:23 a.m. UTC
There are a number of architectures with shadow stack features which we are
presenting to userspace with as consistent an API as we can (though there
are some architecture specifics). Especially given that there are some
important considerations for userspace code interacting directly with the
feature let's provide some documentation covering the common aspects.

Signed-off-by: Mark Brown <broonie@kernel.org>
---
 Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst        |  1 +
 Documentation/userspace-api/shadow_stack.rst | 41 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 42 insertions(+)

Comments

Randy Dunlap June 25, 2024, 10:31 p.m. UTC | #1
Hi,

On 6/23/24 4:23 AM, Mark Brown wrote:
> There are a number of architectures with shadow stack features which we are
> presenting to userspace with as consistent an API as we can (though there
> are some architecture specifics). Especially given that there are some
> important considerations for userspace code interacting directly with the
> feature let's provide some documentation covering the common aspects.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Mark Brown <broonie@kernel.org>
> ---
>  Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst        |  1 +
>  Documentation/userspace-api/shadow_stack.rst | 41 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  2 files changed, 42 insertions(+)
> 

Fix run-on sentences...

> diff --git a/Documentation/userspace-api/shadow_stack.rst b/Documentation/userspace-api/shadow_stack.rst
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000000..c576ad3d7ec1
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/Documentation/userspace-api/shadow_stack.rst
> @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
> +=============
> +Shadow Stacks
> +=============
> +
> +Introduction
> +============
> +
> +Several architectures have features which provide backward edge
> +control flow protection through a hardware maintained stack, only
> +writeable by userspace through very limited operations.  This feature
> +is referred to as shadow stacks on Linux, on x86 it is part of Intel

                                      Linux. On x86

> +Control Enforcement Technology (CET), on arm64 it is Guarded Control

                                  (CET); on arm64

> +Stacks feature (FEAT_GCS) and for RISC-V it is the Zicfiss extension.

                  (FEAT_GCS); and for

> +It is expected that this feature will normally be managed by the
> +system dynamic linker and libc in ways broadly transparent to
> +application code, this document covers interfaces and considerations.

               code. This document

> +
> +
> +Enabling
> +========
> +
> +Shadow stacks default to disabled when a userspace process is
> +executed, they can be enabled for the current thread with a syscall:

   executed. They

> +
> + - For x86 the ARCH_SHSTK_ENABLE arch_prctl()
> +
> +It is expected that this will normally be done by the dynamic linker.
> +Any new threads created by a thread with shadow stacks enabled will
> +themselves have shadow stacks enabled.
> +
> +
> +Enablement considerations
> +=========================
> +
> +- Returning from the function that enables shadow stacks without first
> +  disabling them will cause a shadow stack exception.  This includes
> +  any syscall wrapper or other library functions, the syscall will need

                                          functions. The syscall

> +  to be inlined.
> +- A lock feature allows userspace to prevent disabling of shadow stacks.
> +- Those that change the stack context like longjmp() or use of ucontext
> +  changes on signal return will need support from libc.
>
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst b/Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst
index 5926115ec0ed..d60a6dc0cbcf 100644
--- a/Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@  Everything else
 
    ELF
    netlink/index
+   shadow_stack
    sysfs-platform_profile
    vduse
    futex2
diff --git a/Documentation/userspace-api/shadow_stack.rst b/Documentation/userspace-api/shadow_stack.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c576ad3d7ec1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/userspace-api/shadow_stack.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ 
+=============
+Shadow Stacks
+=============
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+Several architectures have features which provide backward edge
+control flow protection through a hardware maintained stack, only
+writeable by userspace through very limited operations.  This feature
+is referred to as shadow stacks on Linux, on x86 it is part of Intel
+Control Enforcement Technology (CET), on arm64 it is Guarded Control
+Stacks feature (FEAT_GCS) and for RISC-V it is the Zicfiss extension.
+It is expected that this feature will normally be managed by the
+system dynamic linker and libc in ways broadly transparent to
+application code, this document covers interfaces and considerations.
+
+
+Enabling
+========
+
+Shadow stacks default to disabled when a userspace process is
+executed, they can be enabled for the current thread with a syscall:
+
+ - For x86 the ARCH_SHSTK_ENABLE arch_prctl()
+
+It is expected that this will normally be done by the dynamic linker.
+Any new threads created by a thread with shadow stacks enabled will
+themselves have shadow stacks enabled.
+
+
+Enablement considerations
+=========================
+
+- Returning from the function that enables shadow stacks without first
+  disabling them will cause a shadow stack exception.  This includes
+  any syscall wrapper or other library functions, the syscall will need
+  to be inlined.
+- A lock feature allows userspace to prevent disabling of shadow stacks.
+- Those that change the stack context like longjmp() or use of ucontext
+  changes on signal return will need support from libc.