On Thu, Oct 10, 2019 at 12:33:05PM +0200, Borislav Petkov wrote: > On Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 10:55:40AM -0700, Kees Cook wrote: > > Instead of depending on markings in the section following NOTES to > > restore the associated Program Header, use a dummy section, as done > > in other architectures. > > This is very laconic and after some staring at ld.info, I think you mean > this: > > " If you place a section in one or more segments using ':PHDR', then > the linker will place all subsequent allocatable sections which do not > specify ':PHDR' in the same segments." > > but I could be way off. Yes, no? > > IOW, please write in the commit messages first what the problem is > you're addressing. Yeah, that's much improved. I really struggled to describe this, given how weird the linker script logic is here. > > --- a/arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S > > +++ b/arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S > > @@ -147,8 +147,9 @@ SECTIONS > > } :text = 0x9090 > > > > NOTES :text :note > > + .dummy : { *(.dummy) } :text > > > > - EXCEPTION_TABLE(16) :text = 0x9090 > > + EXCEPTION_TABLE(16) > > This is killing the filler byte but I have a suspicion that'll change > eventually to INT3... :) Yes, though since the exception table isn't executable, filling with 0x90 has no meaning, and I think when I looked at the alignment there were actually no fill bytes from here on. But it doesn't matter; it all goes away in the end. -- Kees Cook