Re: [PATCH] x86: Implement arch_prctl(ARCH_VSYSCALL_LOCKOUT) to disable vsyscall

[Florian Weimer]

* Andy Lutomirski:

> This could possibly be much more generic: have a mask of legacy
> features to disable and a separate mask of lock bits.

Is that really necessary?  Adding additional ARCH_* constants does not
seem to be particularly onerous and helps with detection of kernel
support.

>> I can turn this into a toggle, and we could probably default our builds
>> to vsyscalls=xonly.  Given the userspace ABI impact, we'd still have to
>> upstream the toggle.  Do you see a chance of a patch a long these lines
>> going in at all, given that it's an incomplete solution for
>> vsyscall=emulate?
>
> There is basically no reason for anyone to use vsyscall=emulate any
> more.  I'm aware of exactly one use case, and it's quite bizarre and
> involves instrumenting an outdated binary with an outdated
> instrumentation tool.  If either one is recent (last few years),
> vsyscall=xonly is fine.

Yeah, we plan to stick to vsyscall=xonly.  This means that the toggle is
easier to implement, of course.

>> Hmm.  But only for vsyscall=xonly, right?  With vsyscall=emulate,
>> reading at those addresses will still succeed.
>
> IMO if vsyscall is disabled for a process, reads and executes should
> both fail.  This is trivial in xonly mode.

Right, I'll document this as a glitch for now.

I've got a v2 (with the toggle rather than pure lockout) and will sent
it out shortly.

Thanks,
Florian