Since kernel version 5.4.217 LTS, there has been an issue with the kernel live patching feature becoming unavailable.
When compiling the sample code for kernel live patching, the following message is displayed when enabled:
livepatch: klp_check_stack: kworker/u256:6:23490 has an unreliable stack
Reproduction steps:
1.git checkout v5.4.269 -b v5.4.269
2.make defconfig
3. Set CONFIG_LIVEPATCH=y、CONFIG_SAMPLE_LIVEPATCH=m
4. make -j bzImage
5. make samples/livepatch/livepatch-sample.ko
6. qemu-system-x86_64 -kernel arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage -nographic -append "console=ttyS0" -initrd initrd.img -m 1024M
7. insmod livepatch-sample.ko
Kernel live patch cannot complete successfully.
After some debugging, the immediate cause of the patch failure is an error in stack checking. The logs are as follows:
[ 340.974853] livepatch: klp_check_stack: kworker/u256:0:23486 has an unreliable stack
[ 340.974858] livepatch: klp_check_stack: kworker/u256:1:23487 has an unreliable stack
[ 340.974863] livepatch: klp_check_stack: kworker/u256:2:23488 has an unreliable stack
[ 340.974868] livepatch: klp_check_stack: kworker/u256:5:23489 has an unreliable stack
[ 340.974872] livepatch: klp_check_stack: kworker/u256:6:23490 has an unreliable stack
......
BTW,if you use the v5.4.217 tag for testing, make sure to set CONFIG_RETPOLINE = y and CONFIG_LIVEPATCH = y, and other steps are consistent with v5.4.269
After investigation, The problem is strongly related to the commit 8afd1c7da2b0 ("x86/speculation: Change FILL_RETURN_BUFFER to work with objtool"),
which would cause incorrect ORC entries to be generated, and the v5.4.217 version can undo this commit to make kernel livepatch work normally.
It is a back-ported upstream patch with some code adjustments,from the git log, the author also mentioned no intra-function call validation support.
Based on commit 24489321d0cd5339f9c2da01eb8bf2bccbac7956 (Linux 5.4.273), This patchset adds stack validation support for intra-function calls,
allowing the kernel live patching feature to work correctly.
v3 - v2
- fix the compile error in arch/x86/kvm/svm.c, the error message is../arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h: 313: Error: no such instruction: 'unwind_hint_empty'
v2 - v1
- add the tag "Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" in the sign-off area for patch x86/speculation: Support intra-function call
- add my own Signed-off to all patches
s
Alexandre Chartre (2):
objtool: is_fentry_call() crashes if call has no destination
objtool: Add support for intra-function calls
Rui Qi (1):
x86/speculation: Support intra-function call validation
arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h | 7 ++
arch/x86/include/asm/unwind_hints.h | 2 +-
include/linux/frame.h | 11 ++++
.../Documentation/stack-validation.txt | 8 +++
tools/objtool/arch/x86/decode.c | 6 ++
tools/objtool/check.c | 64 +++++++++++++++++--
6 files changed, 92 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
--
2.20.1
