This series is a result of the recent thread on LKML regarding kpt_restrict https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/9/30/224 It seems we have not reached total consensus. This patch set does not claim to solve the whole issue but rather take a small step forward without taking any steps backwards. It may be that, since this issue is security related, there is no total solution only trade offs? I am quite new to kernel development, which implies, neither am I a kernel security expert. In order that my understanding of the issue is explicit I am listing here the things we all seem to agree on. 1. We are leaking addresses. 2. There are _some_ use cases for printing addresses. 3. Printing kernel pointers with %p and %x is bad. 4. We could reduce the number of leaked addresses if we had a mechanism to print unique identifiers. If I am badly mistaken please feel free to yell at me, here to learn, happy to be corrected. This patch set solves point 4 (above) by adding a printk specifier %pX to print a unique identifier (hash) based on a pointer. This was suggested by Linus (in the above thread) as; + hashval = hash_three_words( + (unsigned long)ptr, + (unsigned long)ptr >> 16 >> 16, + boot_time_random_int); I did not understand the code (specifically why the right shift of 16 twice?). I therefore chose to use an algorithm from kernel/kcmp.h for creating the hash (suggested by Tycho Anderson). This patch is a softer version of Linus' suggestion because it does not change the behaviour of the %p specifier. I don't see the benefit in making such a breaking change without addressing the issue of %x (and I don't the balls to right now). Patch 2 and 3 of the series give an example usage of the new specifier. Thanks for taking the time to read this. All criticism and advice willingly accepted. thanks, Tobin. Tobin C. Harding (3): lib/vsprintf: add 'X' specifier to hash pointers KVM: use %pX to print token identifier vfio_pci: use %pX to print token identifier Documentation/printk-formats.txt | 9 +++++++++ drivers/vfio/pci/vfio_pci_intrs.c | 2 +- include/linux/printk.h | 17 +++++++++++++++++ lib/vsprintf.c | 33 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ scripts/checkpatch.pl | 2 +- virt/kvm/eventfd.c | 2 +- 6 files changed, 62 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) -- 2.7.4
