[PATCH v5 00/22] x86: strict separation of startup code

Ard Biesheuvel posted 22 patches 1 month, 3 weeks ago
There is a newer version of this series
arch/x86/Kbuild                            |   2 +
arch/x86/Makefile                          |   1 -
arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile          |   2 +-
arch/x86/boot/compressed/misc.c            |   2 +
arch/x86/boot/compressed/sev-handle-vc.c   |   3 +
arch/x86/boot/compressed/sev.c             | 108 +------
arch/x86/boot/startup/Makefile             |  22 ++
arch/x86/boot/startup/exports.h            |  14 +
arch/x86/boot/startup/gdt_idt.c            |   4 +-
arch/x86/boot/startup/map_kernel.c         |   4 +-
arch/x86/boot/startup/sev-shared.c         | 317 ++++++--------------
arch/x86/boot/startup/sev-startup.c        | 196 ++----------
arch/x86/boot/startup/sme.c                |  27 +-
arch/x86/coco/sev/Makefile                 |   6 +-
arch/x86/coco/sev/core.c                   | 169 ++++++++---
arch/x86/coco/sev/{sev-nmi.c => noinstr.c} |  74 +++++
arch/x86/coco/sev/vc-handle.c              |   2 +
arch/x86/coco/sev/vc-shared.c              | 143 ++++++++-
arch/x86/include/asm/boot.h                |   2 +
arch/x86/include/asm/init.h                |   6 -
arch/x86/include/asm/setup.h               |   1 +
arch/x86/include/asm/sev-internal.h        |  27 +-
arch/x86/include/asm/sev.h                 |  17 +-
arch/x86/kernel/head64.c                   |   5 +-
arch/x86/kernel/head_32.S                  |   2 +-
arch/x86/kernel/head_64.S                  |  10 +-
arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S              |   9 +-
arch/x86/mm/mem_encrypt_amd.c              |   6 -
arch/x86/mm/mem_encrypt_boot.S             |   6 +-
arch/x86/platform/pvh/head.S               |   2 +-
arch/x86/tools/relocs.c                    |   8 +-
drivers/firmware/efi/libstub/x86-stub.c    |   4 +-
tools/objtool/builtin-check.c              |   2 +
tools/objtool/check.c                      |  39 ++-
tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h    |   1 +
35 files changed, 620 insertions(+), 623 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 arch/x86/boot/startup/exports.h
rename arch/x86/coco/sev/{sev-nmi.c => noinstr.c} (61%)
[PATCH v5 00/22] x86: strict separation of startup code
Posted by Ard Biesheuvel 1 month, 3 weeks ago
From: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>

This series implements a strict separation between startup code and
ordinary code, where startup code is built in a way that tolerates being
invoked from the initial 1:1 mapping of memory.

The existing approach of emitting this code into .head.text and checking
for absolute relocations in that section is not 100% safe, and produces
diagnostics that are sometimes difficult to interpret. [0]

Instead, rely on symbol prefixes, similar to how this is implemented for
the EFI stub and for the startup code in the arm64 port. This ensures
that startup code can only call other startup code, unless a special
symbol alias is emitted that exposes a non-startup routine to the
startup code.

This is somewhat intrusive, as there are many data objects that are
referenced both by startup code and by ordinary code, and an alias needs
to be emitted for each of those. If startup code references anything
that has not been made available to it explicitly, a build time link
error will occur.

This ultimately allows the .head.text section to be dropped entirely, as
it no longer has a special significance. Instead, code that only
executes at boot is emitted into .init.text as it should.

The majority of changes is around early SEV code. The main issue is that
its use of GHCB pages and SVSM calling areas in code that may run from
both the 1:1 mapping and the kernel virtual mapping is problematic as it
relies on __pa() to perform VA to PA translations, which are ambiguous
in this context. Also, __pa() pulls in non-trivial instrumented code
when CONFIG_DEBUG_VIRTUAL=y and so it is better to avoid VA to PA
translations altogether in the startup code.

Changes since v4:
- Incorporate feedback from Tom, and add a couple of RBs
- Drop patch that moved the MSR save/restore out of the early page state
  change helper - this is less efficient but likely negligible in
  practice
- Drop patch that unified the SEV-SNP hypervisor feature check, which
  was identified by Nikunj as the one breaking SEV-SNP boot.

Changes since RFT/v3:
- Rebase onto tip/master
- Incorporate Borislav's feedback on v3
- Switch to objtool to check for absolute references in startup code
- Remap inittext R-X when running on EFI implementations that require
  strict R-X/RW- separation
- Include a kbuild fix to incorporate arch/x86/boot/startup/ in the
  right manner
- For now, omit the LA57 changes that remove the problematic early
  5-level paging checks. We can revisit this once there is agreement on
  the approach. 

Changes since RFT/v2:
- Rebase onto tip/x86/boot and drop the patches from the previous
  revision that have been applied in the meantime.
- Omit the pgtable_l5_enabled() changes for now, and just expose PIC
  aliases for the variables in question - this can be sorted later.
- Don't use the boot SVSM calling area in snp_kexec_finish(), but pass
  down the correct per-CPU one to the early page state API.
- Rename arch/x86/coco/sev/sev-noinstr.o to arch/x86/coco/sev/noinstr.o
- Further reduce the amount of SEV code that needs to be constructed in
  a special way.

Change since RFC/v1:
- Include a major disentanglement/refactor of the SEV-SNP startup code,
  so that only code that really needs to run from the 1:1 mapping is
  included in the startup/ code

- Incorporate some early notes from Ingo

Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Cc: Kevin Loughlin <kevinloughlin@google.com>
Cc: Tom Lendacky <thomas.lendacky@amd.com>
Cc: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Nikunj A Dadhania <nikunj@amd.com>

[0] https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAHk-=wj7k9nvJn6cpa3-5Ciwn2RGyE605BMkjWE4MqnvC9E92A@mail.gmail.com/

Ard Biesheuvel (22):
  x86/sev: Separate MSR and GHCB based snp_cpuid() via a callback
  x86/sev: Use MSR protocol for remapping SVSM calling area
  x86/sev: Use MSR protocol only for early SVSM PVALIDATE call
  x86/sev: Run RMPADJUST on SVSM calling area page to test VMPL
  x86/sev: Move GHCB page based HV communication out of startup code
  x86/sev: Avoid global variable to store virtual address of SVSM area
  x86/sev: Share implementation of MSR-based page state change
  x86/sev: Pass SVSM calling area down to early page state change API
  x86/sev: Use boot SVSM CA for all startup and init code
  x86/boot: Drop redundant RMPADJUST in SEV SVSM presence check
  x86/boot: Provide PIC aliases for 5-level paging related constants
  x86/sev: Provide PIC aliases for SEV related data objects
  x86/sev: Move __sev_[get|put]_ghcb() into separate noinstr object
  x86/sev: Export startup routines for later use
  objtool: Add action to check for absence of absolute relocations
  x86/boot: Check startup code for absence of absolute relocations
  x86/boot: Revert "Reject absolute references in .head.text"
  x86/kbuild: Incorporate boot/startup/ via Kbuild makefile
  x86/boot: Create a confined code area for startup code
  efistub/x86: Remap inittext read-execute when needed
  x86/boot: Move startup code out of __head section
  x86/boot: Get rid of the .head.text section

 arch/x86/Kbuild                            |   2 +
 arch/x86/Makefile                          |   1 -
 arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile          |   2 +-
 arch/x86/boot/compressed/misc.c            |   2 +
 arch/x86/boot/compressed/sev-handle-vc.c   |   3 +
 arch/x86/boot/compressed/sev.c             | 108 +------
 arch/x86/boot/startup/Makefile             |  22 ++
 arch/x86/boot/startup/exports.h            |  14 +
 arch/x86/boot/startup/gdt_idt.c            |   4 +-
 arch/x86/boot/startup/map_kernel.c         |   4 +-
 arch/x86/boot/startup/sev-shared.c         | 317 ++++++--------------
 arch/x86/boot/startup/sev-startup.c        | 196 ++----------
 arch/x86/boot/startup/sme.c                |  27 +-
 arch/x86/coco/sev/Makefile                 |   6 +-
 arch/x86/coco/sev/core.c                   | 169 ++++++++---
 arch/x86/coco/sev/{sev-nmi.c => noinstr.c} |  74 +++++
 arch/x86/coco/sev/vc-handle.c              |   2 +
 arch/x86/coco/sev/vc-shared.c              | 143 ++++++++-
 arch/x86/include/asm/boot.h                |   2 +
 arch/x86/include/asm/init.h                |   6 -
 arch/x86/include/asm/setup.h               |   1 +
 arch/x86/include/asm/sev-internal.h        |  27 +-
 arch/x86/include/asm/sev.h                 |  17 +-
 arch/x86/kernel/head64.c                   |   5 +-
 arch/x86/kernel/head_32.S                  |   2 +-
 arch/x86/kernel/head_64.S                  |  10 +-
 arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S              |   9 +-
 arch/x86/mm/mem_encrypt_amd.c              |   6 -
 arch/x86/mm/mem_encrypt_boot.S             |   6 +-
 arch/x86/platform/pvh/head.S               |   2 +-
 arch/x86/tools/relocs.c                    |   8 +-
 drivers/firmware/efi/libstub/x86-stub.c    |   4 +-
 tools/objtool/builtin-check.c              |   2 +
 tools/objtool/check.c                      |  39 ++-
 tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h    |   1 +
 35 files changed, 620 insertions(+), 623 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 arch/x86/boot/startup/exports.h
 rename arch/x86/coco/sev/{sev-nmi.c => noinstr.c} (61%)

-- 
2.50.0.727.gbf7dc18ff4-goog
Re: [PATCH v5 00/22] x86: strict separation of startup code
Posted by Tom Lendacky 1 month, 2 weeks ago
On 7/15/25 22:18, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> From: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>

Hi Ard,

I tried to apply this to tip/master but ran into conflicts. What commit
is the series based on?

Thanks,
Tom

> 
> This series implements a strict separation between startup code and
> ordinary code, where startup code is built in a way that tolerates being
> invoked from the initial 1:1 mapping of memory.
> 
> The existing approach of emitting this code into .head.text and checking
> for absolute relocations in that section is not 100% safe, and produces
> diagnostics that are sometimes difficult to interpret. [0]
> 
> Instead, rely on symbol prefixes, similar to how this is implemented for
> the EFI stub and for the startup code in the arm64 port. This ensures
> that startup code can only call other startup code, unless a special
> symbol alias is emitted that exposes a non-startup routine to the
> startup code.
> 
> This is somewhat intrusive, as there are many data objects that are
> referenced both by startup code and by ordinary code, and an alias needs
> to be emitted for each of those. If startup code references anything
> that has not been made available to it explicitly, a build time link
> error will occur.
> 
> This ultimately allows the .head.text section to be dropped entirely, as
> it no longer has a special significance. Instead, code that only
> executes at boot is emitted into .init.text as it should.
> 
> The majority of changes is around early SEV code. The main issue is that
> its use of GHCB pages and SVSM calling areas in code that may run from
> both the 1:1 mapping and the kernel virtual mapping is problematic as it
> relies on __pa() to perform VA to PA translations, which are ambiguous
> in this context. Also, __pa() pulls in non-trivial instrumented code
> when CONFIG_DEBUG_VIRTUAL=y and so it is better to avoid VA to PA
> translations altogether in the startup code.
> 
> Changes since v4:
> - Incorporate feedback from Tom, and add a couple of RBs
> - Drop patch that moved the MSR save/restore out of the early page state
>   change helper - this is less efficient but likely negligible in
>   practice
> - Drop patch that unified the SEV-SNP hypervisor feature check, which
>   was identified by Nikunj as the one breaking SEV-SNP boot.
> 
> Changes since RFT/v3:
> - Rebase onto tip/master
> - Incorporate Borislav's feedback on v3
> - Switch to objtool to check for absolute references in startup code
> - Remap inittext R-X when running on EFI implementations that require
>   strict R-X/RW- separation
> - Include a kbuild fix to incorporate arch/x86/boot/startup/ in the
>   right manner
> - For now, omit the LA57 changes that remove the problematic early
>   5-level paging checks. We can revisit this once there is agreement on
>   the approach. 
> 
> Changes since RFT/v2:
> - Rebase onto tip/x86/boot and drop the patches from the previous
>   revision that have been applied in the meantime.
> - Omit the pgtable_l5_enabled() changes for now, and just expose PIC
>   aliases for the variables in question - this can be sorted later.
> - Don't use the boot SVSM calling area in snp_kexec_finish(), but pass
>   down the correct per-CPU one to the early page state API.
> - Rename arch/x86/coco/sev/sev-noinstr.o to arch/x86/coco/sev/noinstr.o
> - Further reduce the amount of SEV code that needs to be constructed in
>   a special way.
> 
> Change since RFC/v1:
> - Include a major disentanglement/refactor of the SEV-SNP startup code,
>   so that only code that really needs to run from the 1:1 mapping is
>   included in the startup/ code
> 
> - Incorporate some early notes from Ingo
> 
> Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
> Cc: Kevin Loughlin <kevinloughlin@google.com>
> Cc: Tom Lendacky <thomas.lendacky@amd.com>
> Cc: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
> Cc: Nikunj A Dadhania <nikunj@amd.com>
> 
> [0] https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAHk-=wj7k9nvJn6cpa3-5Ciwn2RGyE605BMkjWE4MqnvC9E92A@mail.gmail.com/
> 
> Ard Biesheuvel (22):
>   x86/sev: Separate MSR and GHCB based snp_cpuid() via a callback
>   x86/sev: Use MSR protocol for remapping SVSM calling area
>   x86/sev: Use MSR protocol only for early SVSM PVALIDATE call
>   x86/sev: Run RMPADJUST on SVSM calling area page to test VMPL
>   x86/sev: Move GHCB page based HV communication out of startup code
>   x86/sev: Avoid global variable to store virtual address of SVSM area
>   x86/sev: Share implementation of MSR-based page state change
>   x86/sev: Pass SVSM calling area down to early page state change API
>   x86/sev: Use boot SVSM CA for all startup and init code
>   x86/boot: Drop redundant RMPADJUST in SEV SVSM presence check
>   x86/boot: Provide PIC aliases for 5-level paging related constants
>   x86/sev: Provide PIC aliases for SEV related data objects
>   x86/sev: Move __sev_[get|put]_ghcb() into separate noinstr object
>   x86/sev: Export startup routines for later use
>   objtool: Add action to check for absence of absolute relocations
>   x86/boot: Check startup code for absence of absolute relocations
>   x86/boot: Revert "Reject absolute references in .head.text"
>   x86/kbuild: Incorporate boot/startup/ via Kbuild makefile
>   x86/boot: Create a confined code area for startup code
>   efistub/x86: Remap inittext read-execute when needed
>   x86/boot: Move startup code out of __head section
>   x86/boot: Get rid of the .head.text section
> 
>  arch/x86/Kbuild                            |   2 +
>  arch/x86/Makefile                          |   1 -
>  arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile          |   2 +-
>  arch/x86/boot/compressed/misc.c            |   2 +
>  arch/x86/boot/compressed/sev-handle-vc.c   |   3 +
>  arch/x86/boot/compressed/sev.c             | 108 +------
>  arch/x86/boot/startup/Makefile             |  22 ++
>  arch/x86/boot/startup/exports.h            |  14 +
>  arch/x86/boot/startup/gdt_idt.c            |   4 +-
>  arch/x86/boot/startup/map_kernel.c         |   4 +-
>  arch/x86/boot/startup/sev-shared.c         | 317 ++++++--------------
>  arch/x86/boot/startup/sev-startup.c        | 196 ++----------
>  arch/x86/boot/startup/sme.c                |  27 +-
>  arch/x86/coco/sev/Makefile                 |   6 +-
>  arch/x86/coco/sev/core.c                   | 169 ++++++++---
>  arch/x86/coco/sev/{sev-nmi.c => noinstr.c} |  74 +++++
>  arch/x86/coco/sev/vc-handle.c              |   2 +
>  arch/x86/coco/sev/vc-shared.c              | 143 ++++++++-
>  arch/x86/include/asm/boot.h                |   2 +
>  arch/x86/include/asm/init.h                |   6 -
>  arch/x86/include/asm/setup.h               |   1 +
>  arch/x86/include/asm/sev-internal.h        |  27 +-
>  arch/x86/include/asm/sev.h                 |  17 +-
>  arch/x86/kernel/head64.c                   |   5 +-
>  arch/x86/kernel/head_32.S                  |   2 +-
>  arch/x86/kernel/head_64.S                  |  10 +-
>  arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S              |   9 +-
>  arch/x86/mm/mem_encrypt_amd.c              |   6 -
>  arch/x86/mm/mem_encrypt_boot.S             |   6 +-
>  arch/x86/platform/pvh/head.S               |   2 +-
>  arch/x86/tools/relocs.c                    |   8 +-
>  drivers/firmware/efi/libstub/x86-stub.c    |   4 +-
>  tools/objtool/builtin-check.c              |   2 +
>  tools/objtool/check.c                      |  39 ++-
>  tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h    |   1 +
>  35 files changed, 620 insertions(+), 623 deletions(-)
>  create mode 100644 arch/x86/boot/startup/exports.h
>  rename arch/x86/coco/sev/{sev-nmi.c => noinstr.c} (61%)
>
Re: [PATCH v5 00/22] x86: strict separation of startup code
Posted by Ard Biesheuvel 1 month, 2 weeks ago
On Thu, 17 Jul 2025 at 00:27, Tom Lendacky <thomas.lendacky@amd.com> wrote:
>
> On 7/15/25 22:18, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> > From: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>
>
> Hi Ard,
>
> I tried to apply this to tip/master but ran into conflicts. What commit
> is the series based on?
>

Apologies, it is based on the same commit as v4:

f339770f60d9c3312133cfe6a349476848d9b128

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/ardb/linux.git/log/?h=x86-startup-confine-v5