Re: [PATCH 4/4] x86_64: enable text relative kallsyms for 64-bit targets

From: Kees Cook
Date: Wed Jan 20 2016 - 14:12:46 EST


On Wed, Jan 20, 2016 at 1:05 AM, Ard Biesheuvel
<ard.biesheuvel@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> This enables the newly introduced text-relative kallsyms support when
> building 64-bit targets. This cuts the size of the kallsyms address
> table in half, reducing the memory footprint of the kernel .rodata
> section by about 400 KB for a KALLSYMS_ALL build, and about 100 KB
> reduction in compressed size. (with CONFIG_RELOCATABLE=y)
>
> Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@xxxxxxxxxx>

Tested-by: Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

-Kees

> ---
> I tested this with my Ubuntu Wily box's config-4.2.0-23-generic, and
> got the following results:
>
> BEFORE:
> =======
> $ size vmlinux
> text data bss dec hex filename
> 12972949 2213240 1482752 16668941 fe590d vmlinux
>
> $ readelf -S .tmp_kallsyms2.o |less
> There are 9 section headers, starting at offset 0x3e0788:
>
> Section Headers:
> [Nr] Name Type Address Offset
> Size EntSize Flags Link Info Align
> ...
> [ 4] .rodata PROGBITS 0000000000000000 00000040
> 00000000001c7738 0000000000000000 A 0 0 8
> [ 5] .rela.rodata RELA 0000000000000000 001c7950
> 0000000000218e38 0000000000000018 I 7 4 8
> [ 6] .shstrtab STRTAB 0000000000000000 001c7778
> 0000000000000039 0000000000000000 0 0 1
>
> $ ls -l arch/x86/boot/bzImage
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 ard ard 6893168 Jan 20 09:36 arch/x86/boot/bzImage
>
> AFTER:
> ======
> $ size vmlinux
> text data bss dec hex filename
> 12604501 2213240 1482752 16300493 f8b9cd vmlinux
>
> $ readelf -S .tmp_kallsyms2.o |less
> There are 8 section headers, starting at offset 0x16dd10:
>
> Section Headers:
> [Nr] Name Type Address Offset
> Size EntSize Flags Link Info Align
> ...
> [ 4] .rodata PROGBITS 0000000000000000 00000040
> 000000000016db20 0000000000000000 A 0 0 8
> [ 5] .shstrtab STRTAB 0000000000000000 0016db60
> 0000000000000034 0000000000000000 0 0 1
> ...
>
> $ ls -l arch/x86/boot/bzImage
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 ard ard 6790224 Jan 19 22:24 arch/x86/boot/bzImage
> ---
> arch/x86/Kconfig | 1 +
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>
> diff --git a/arch/x86/Kconfig b/arch/x86/Kconfig
> index 4a10ba9e95da..180a94bda8d4 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/Kconfig
> +++ b/arch/x86/Kconfig
> @@ -142,6 +142,7 @@ config X86
> select HAVE_UNSTABLE_SCHED_CLOCK
> select HAVE_USER_RETURN_NOTIFIER
> select IRQ_FORCED_THREADING
> + select KALLSYMS_TEXT_RELATIVE if X86_64
> select MODULES_USE_ELF_RELA if X86_64
> select MODULES_USE_ELF_REL if X86_32
> select OLD_SIGACTION if X86_32
> --
> 2.5.0
>



--
Kees Cook
Chrome OS & Brillo Security