Alex,
Sorry for this last minute another revision. There was a bug (see changelog) that charlie reported. Although that could have been sent as a later fixup.
Primary reason to send another revision is to flip default of `CONFIG_RISCV_USER_CFI` to `N` from `Y`.After having discussion with Atish and Charlie, we came to a conclusion that `CONFIG_RISCV_USER_CFI` should be by default set to `N`. Reason being there are no RVA23 hardware today, although toolchain already have `-march=zicfilp_zicfiss` options being support. This would lead to cfi config being selected and generated vDSO would also have shadow stack instructions in them. On a RVA23 compatible hardware (or any cpu implementing zimop and zcmop) this shouldn't be a problem. But that's not the case today, most hardware dont have these extension implemented. And thus it would start leading to illegal instruction exception.
So either you can take this revision (it has your reported fix for "riscv: enable kernel access to shadow stack memory via FWFT sbi call" where kernel build was failing when !SBI and !RV64) or you can change default of CONFIG_RISCV_USER_CFI to no (in patch "riscv: create a config for shadow stack and landing pad instr support"). Let me know.
On Thu, May 22, 2025 at 10:31:03PM -0700, Deepak Gupta wrote:
Basics and overview
Software with larger attack surfaces (e.g. network facing apps like databases, browsers or apps relying on browser runtimes) suffer from memory corruption issues which can be utilized by attackers to bend control flow of the program to eventually gain control (by making their payload executable). Attackers are able to perform such attacks by leveraging call-sites which rely on indirect calls or return sites which rely on obtaining return address from stack memory.
To mitigate such attacks, risc-v extension zicfilp enforces that all indirect calls must land on a landing pad instruction `lpad` else cpu will raise software check exception (a new cpu exception cause code on riscv). Similarly for return flow, risc-v extension zicfiss extends architecture with
- `sspush` instruction to push return address on a shadow stack
- `sspopchk` instruction to pop return address from shadow stack
and compare with input operand (i.e. return address on stack)
- `sspopchk` to raise software check exception if comparision above
was a mismatch
- Protection mechanism using which shadow stack is not writeable via
regular store instructions
More information an details can be found at extensions github repo [1].
Equivalent to landing pad (zicfilp) on x86 is `ENDBRANCH` instruction in Intel CET [3] and branch target identification (BTI) [4] on arm. Similarly x86's Intel CET has shadow stack [5] and arm64 has guarded control stack (GCS) [6] which are very similar to risc-v's zicfiss shadow stack.
x86 and arm64 support for user mode shadow stack is already in mainline.
Kernel awareness for user control flow integrity
This series picks up Samuel Holland's envcfg changes [2] as well. So if those are being applied independently, they should be removed from this series.
Enabling:
In order to maintain compatibility and not break anything in user mode, kernel doesn't enable control flow integrity cpu extensions on binary by default. Instead exposes a prctl interface to enable, disable and lock the shadow stack or landing pad feature for a task. This allows userspace (loader) to enumerate if all objects in its address space are compiled with shadow stack and landing pad support and accordingly enable the feature. Additionally if a subsequent `dlopen` happens on a library, user mode can take a decision again to disable the feature (if incoming library is not compiled with support) OR terminate the task (if user mode policy is strict to have all objects in address space to be compiled with control flow integirty cpu feature). prctl to enable shadow stack results in allocating shadow stack from virtual memory and activating for user address space. x86 and arm64 are also following same direction due to similar reason(s).
clone/fork:
On clone and fork, cfi state for task is inherited by child. Shadow stack is part of virtual memory and is a writeable memory from kernel perspective (writeable via a restricted set of instructions aka shadow stack instructions) Thus kernel changes ensure that this memory is converted into read-only when fork/clone happens and COWed when fault is taken due to sspush, sspopchk or ssamoswap. In case `CLONE_VM` is specified and shadow stack is to be enabled, kernel will automatically allocate a shadow stack for that clone call.
map_shadow_stack:
x86 introduced `map_shadow_stack` system call to allow user space to explicitly map shadow stack memory in its address space. It is useful to allocate shadow for different contexts managed by a single thread (green threads or contexts) risc-v implements this system call as well.
signal management:
If shadow stack is enabled for a task, kernel performs an asynchronous control flow diversion to deliver the signal and eventually expects userspace to issue sigreturn so that original execution can be resumed. Even though resume context is prepared by kernel, it is in user space memory and is subject to memory corruption and corruption bugs can be utilized by attacker in this race window to perform arbitrary sigreturn and eventually bypass cfi mechanism. Another issue is how to ensure that cfi related state on sigcontext area is not trampled by legacy apps or apps compiled with old kernel headers.
In order to mitigate control-flow hijacting, kernel prepares a token and place it on shadow stack before signal delivery and places address of token in sigcontext structure. During sigreturn, kernel obtains address of token from sigcontext struture, reads token from shadow stack and validates it and only then allow sigreturn to succeed. Compatiblity issue is solved by adopting dynamic sigcontext management introduced for vector extension. This series re-factor the code little bit to allow future sigcontext management easy (as proposed by Andy Chiu from SiFive)
config and compilation:
Introduce a new risc-v config option `CONFIG_RISCV_USER_CFI`. Selecting this config option picks the kernel support for user control flow integrity. This optin is presented only if toolchain has shadow stack and landing pad support. And is on purpose guarded by toolchain support. Reason being that eventually vDSO also needs to be compiled in with shadow stack and landing pad support. vDSO compile patches are not included as of now because landing pad labeling scheme is yet to settle for usermode runtime.
To get more information on kernel interactions with respect to zicfilp and zicfiss, patch series adds documentation for `zicfilp` and `zicfiss` in following: Documentation/arch/riscv/zicfiss.rst Documentation/arch/riscv/zicfilp.rst
How to test this series
Toolchain
$ git clone git@github.com:sifive/riscv-gnu-toolchain.git -b cfi-dev $ riscv-gnu-toolchain/configure --prefix=<path-to-where-to-build> --with-arch=rv64gc_zicfilp_zicfiss --enable-linux --disable-gdb --with-extra-multilib-test="rv64gc_zicfilp_zicfiss-lp64d:-static" $ make -j$(nproc)
Qemu
Get the lastest qemu $ cd qemu $ mkdir build $ cd build $ ../configure --target-list=riscv64-softmmu $ make -j$(nproc)
Opensbi
$ git clone git@github.com:deepak0414/opensbi.git -b v6_cfi_spec_split_opensbi $ make CROSS_COMPILE=<your riscv toolchain> -j$(nproc) PLATFORM=generic
Linux
Running defconfig is fine. CFI is enabled by default if the toolchain supports it.
$ make ARCH=riscv CROSS_COMPILE=<path-to-cfi-riscv-gnu-toolchain>/build/bin/riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu- -j$(nproc) defconfig $ make ARCH=riscv CROSS_COMPILE=<path-to-cfi-riscv-gnu-toolchain>/build/bin/riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu- -j$(nproc)
In case you're building your own rootfs using toolchain, please make sure you pick following patch to ensure that vDSO compiled with lpad and shadow stack.
"arch/riscv: compile vdso with landing pad"
Branch where above patch can be picked https://github.com/deepak0414/linux-riscv-cfi/tree/vdso_user_cfi_v6.12-rc1
Running
Modify your qemu command to have: -bios <path-to-cfi-opensbi>/build/platform/generic/firmware/fw_dynamic.bin -cpu rv64,zicfilp=true,zicfiss=true,zimop=true,zcmop=true
vDSO related Opens (in the flux)
I am listing these opens for laying out plan and what to expect in future patch sets. And of course for the sake of discussion.
Shadow stack and landing pad enabling in vDSO
vDSO must have shadow stack and landing pad support compiled in for task to have shadow stack and landing pad support. This patch series doesn't enable that (yet). Enabling shadow stack support in vDSO should be straight forward (intend to do that in next versions of patch set). Enabling landing pad support in vDSO requires some collaboration with toolchain folks to follow a single label scheme for all object binaries. This is necessary to ensure that all indirect call-sites are setting correct label and target landing pads are decorated with same label scheme.
How many vDSOs
Shadow stack instructions are carved out of zimop (may be operations) and if CPU doesn't implement zimop, they're illegal instructions. Kernel could be running on a CPU which may or may not implement zimop. And thus kernel will have to carry 2 different vDSOs and expose the appropriate one depending on whether CPU implements zimop or not.
References
[1] - https://github.com/riscv/riscv-cfi [2] - https://lore.kernel.org/all/20240814081126.956287-1-samuel.holland@sifive.co... [3] - https://lwn.net/Articles/889475/ [4] - https://developer.arm.com/documentation/109576/0100/Branch-Target-Identifica... [5] - https://www.intel.com/content/dam/develop/external/us/en/documents/catc17-in... [6] - https://lwn.net/Articles/940403/
To: Thomas Gleixner tglx@linutronix.de To: Ingo Molnar mingo@redhat.com To: Borislav Petkov bp@alien8.de To: Dave Hansen dave.hansen@linux.intel.com To: x86@kernel.org To: H. Peter Anvin hpa@zytor.com To: Andrew Morton akpm@linux-foundation.org To: Liam R. Howlett Liam.Howlett@oracle.com To: Vlastimil Babka vbabka@suse.cz To: Lorenzo Stoakes lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com To: Paul Walmsley paul.walmsley@sifive.com To: Palmer Dabbelt palmer@dabbelt.com To: Albert Ou aou@eecs.berkeley.edu To: Conor Dooley conor@kernel.org To: Rob Herring robh@kernel.org To: Krzysztof Kozlowski krzk+dt@kernel.org To: Arnd Bergmann arnd@arndb.de To: Christian Brauner brauner@kernel.org To: Peter Zijlstra peterz@infradead.org To: Oleg Nesterov oleg@redhat.com To: Eric Biederman ebiederm@xmission.com To: Kees Cook kees@kernel.org To: Jonathan Corbet corbet@lwn.net To: Shuah Khan shuah@kernel.org To: Jann Horn jannh@google.com To: Conor Dooley conor+dt@kernel.org To: Miguel Ojeda ojeda@kernel.org To: Alex Gaynor alex.gaynor@gmail.com To: Boqun Feng boqun.feng@gmail.com To: Gary Guo gary@garyguo.net To: Björn Roy Baron bjorn3_gh@protonmail.com To: Benno Lossin benno.lossin@proton.me To: Andreas Hindborg a.hindborg@kernel.org To: Alice Ryhl aliceryhl@google.com To: Trevor Gross tmgross@umich.edu Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org Cc: linux-riscv@lists.infradead.org Cc: devicetree@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-arch@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-kselftest@vger.kernel.org Cc: alistair.francis@wdc.com Cc: richard.henderson@linaro.org Cc: jim.shu@sifive.com Cc: andybnac@gmail.com Cc: kito.cheng@sifive.com Cc: charlie@rivosinc.com Cc: atishp@rivosinc.com Cc: evan@rivosinc.com Cc: cleger@rivosinc.com Cc: alexghiti@rivosinc.com Cc: samitolvanen@google.com Cc: broonie@kernel.org Cc: rick.p.edgecombe@intel.com Cc: rust-for-linux@vger.kernel.org
changelog
v16:
- If FWFT is not implemented or returns error for shadow stack activation, then
no_usercfi is set to disable shadow stack. Although this should be picked up by extension validation and activation. Fixed this bug for zicfilp and zicfiss both. Thanks to Charlie Jenkins for reporting this.
- If toolchain doesn't support cfi, cfi kselftest shouldn't build. Suggested by
Charlie Jenkins.
- Default for CONFIG_RISCV_USER_CFI is set to no. Charlie/Atish suggested to
keep it off till we have more hardware availibility with RVA23 profile and zimop/zcmop implemented. Else this will start breaking people's workflow
- Includes the fix if "!RV64 and !SBI" then definitions for FWFT in
asm-offsets.c error.
v15:
- Toolchain has been updated to include `-fcf-protection` flag. This
exists for x86 as well. Updated kernel patches to compile vDSO and selftest to compile with `fcf-protection=full` flag.
- selecting CONFIG_RISCV_USERCFI selects CONFIG_RISCV_SBI.
- Patch to enable shadow stack for kernel wasn't hidden behind
CONFIG_RISCV_USERCFI and CONFIG_RISCV_SBI. fixed that.
v14:
- rebased on top of palmer/sbi-v3. Thus dropped clement's FWFT patches
Updated RISCV_ISA_EXT_XXXX in hwcap and hwprobe constants.
- Took Radim's suggestions on bitfields.
- Placed cfi_state at the end of thread_info block so that current situation
is not disturbed with respect to member fields of thread_info in single cacheline.
v13:
- cpu_supports_shadow_stack/cpu_supports_indirect_br_lp_instr uses
riscv_has_extension_unlikely()
- uses nops(count) to create nop slide
- RISCV_ACQUIRE_BARRIER is not needed in `amo_user_shstk`. Removed it
- changed ternaries to simply use implicit casting to convert to bool.
- kernel command line allows to disable zicfilp and zicfiss independently.
updated kernel-parameters.txt.
- ptrace user abi for cfi uses bitmasks instead of bitfields. Added ptrace
kselftest.
- cosmetic and grammatical changes to documentation.
v12:
- It seems like I had accidently squashed arch agnostic indirect branch
tracking prctl and riscv implementation of those prctls. Split them again.
- set_shstk_status/set_indir_lp_status perform CSR writes only when CPU
support is available. As suggested by Zong Li.
- Some minor clean up in kselftests as suggested by Zong Li.
v11:
- patch "arch/riscv: compile vdso with landing pad" was unconditionally
selecting `_zicfilp` for vDSO compile. fixed that. Changed `lpad 1` to to `lpad 0`. v10:
- dropped "mm: helper `is_shadow_stack_vma` to check shadow stack vma". This patch
is not that interesting to this patch series for risc-v. There are instances in arch directories where VM_SHADOW_STACK flag is anyways used. Dropping this patch to expedite merging in riscv tree.
- Took suggestions from `Clement` on "riscv: zicfiss / zicfilp enumeration" to
validate presence of cfi based on config.
- Added a patch for vDSO to have `lpad 0`. I had omitted this earlier to make sure
we add single vdso object with cfi enabled. But a vdso object with scheme of zero labeled landing pad is least common denominator and should work with all objects of zero labeled as well as function-signature labeled objects.
v9:
- rebased on master (39a803b754d5 fix braino in "9p: fix ->rename_sem exclusion")
- dropped "mm: Introduce ARCH_HAS_USER_SHADOW_STACK" (master has it from arm64/gcs)
- dropped "prctl: arch-agnostic prctl for shadow stack" (master has it from arm64/gcs)
v8:
- rebased on palmer/for-next
- dropped samuel holland's `envcfg` context switch patches.
they are in parlmer/for-next
v7:
- Removed "riscv/Kconfig: enable HAVE_EXIT_THREAD for riscv"
Instead using `deactivate_mm` flow to clean up. see here for more context https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230908203655.543765-1-rick.p.edgecombe@intel.c...
- Changed the header include in `kselftest`. Hopefully this fixes compile
issue faced by Zong Li at SiFive.
- Cleaned up an orphaned change to `mm/mmap.c` in below patch
"riscv/mm : ensure PROT_WRITE leads to VM_READ | VM_WRITE"
- Lock interfaces for shadow stack and indirect branch tracking expect arg == 0
Any future evolution of this interface should accordingly define how arg should be setup.
- `mm/map.c` has an instance of using `VM_SHADOW_STACK`. Fixed it to use helper
`is_shadow_stack_vma`.
v6:
- Picked up Samuel Holland's changes as is with `envcfg` placed in
`thread` instead of `thread_info`
- fixed unaligned newline escapes in kselftest
- cleaned up messages in kselftest and included test output in commit message
- fixed a bug in clone path reported by Zong Li
- fixed a build issue if CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_V is not selected
(this was introduced due to re-factoring signal context management code)
v5:
- rebased on v6.12-rc1
- Fixed schema related issues in device tree file
- Fixed some of the documentation related issues in zicfilp/ss.rst
(style issues and added index)
- added `SHADOW_STACK_SET_MARKER` so that implementation can define base
of shadow stack.
- Fixed warnings on definitions added in usercfi.h when
CONFIG_RISCV_USER_CFI is not selected.
- Adopted context header based signal handling as proposed by Andy Chiu
- Added support for enabling kernel mode access to shadow stack using
FWFT (https://github.com/riscv-non-isa/riscv-sbi-doc/blob/master/src/ext-firmware-...)
(Note: I had an issue in my workflow due to which version number wasn't picked up correctly while sending out patches)
v4:
- rebased on 6.11-rc6
- envcfg: Converged with Samuel Holland's patches for envcfg management on per-
thread basis.
- vma_is_shadow_stack is renamed to is_vma_shadow_stack
- picked up Mark Brown's `ARCH_HAS_USER_SHADOW_STACK` patch
- signal context: using extended context management to maintain compatibility.
- fixed `-Wmissing-prototypes` compiler warnings for prctl functions
- Documentation fixes and amending typos.
- Link to v4: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20240912231650.3740732-1-debug@rivosinc.com/
v3:
- envcfg
logic to pick up base envcfg had a bug where `ENVCFG_CBZE` could have been picked on per task basis, even though CPU didn't implement it. Fixed in this series.
- dt-bindings
As suggested, split into separate commit. fixed the messaging that spec is in public review
- arch_is_shadow_stack change
arch_is_shadow_stack changed to vma_is_shadow_stack
- hwprobe
zicfiss / zicfilp if present will get enumerated in hwprobe
- selftests
As suggested, added object and binary filenames to .gitignore Selftest binary anyways need to be compiled with cfi enabled compiler which will make sure that landing pad and shadow stack are enabled. Thus removed separate enable/disable tests. Cleaned up tests a bit.
v2:
- Using config `CONFIG_RISCV_USER_CFI`, kernel support for riscv control flow
integrity for user mode programs can be compiled in the kernel.
Enabling of control flow integrity for user programs is left to user runtime
This patch series introduces arch agnostic `prctls` to enable shadow stack
and indirect branch tracking. And implements them on riscv.
Changes in v16:
Changes in v15:
- changelog posted just below cover letter
- Link to v14: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250429-v5_user_cfi_series-v14-0-5239410d012a@riv...
Changes in v14:
- changelog posted just below cover letter
- Link to v13: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250424-v5_user_cfi_series-v13-0-971437de586a@riv...
Changes in v13:
- changelog posted just below cover letter
- Link to v12: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250314-v5_user_cfi_series-v12-0-e51202b53138@riv...
Changes in v12:
- changelog posted just below cover letter
- Link to v11: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250310-v5_user_cfi_series-v11-0-86b36cbfb910@riv...
Changes in v11:
- changelog posted just below cover letter
- Link to v10: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250210-v5_user_cfi_series-v10-0-163dcfa31c60@riv...
Andy Chiu (1): riscv: signal: abstract header saving for setup_sigcontext
Deepak Gupta (25): mm: VM_SHADOW_STACK definition for riscv dt-bindings: riscv: zicfilp and zicfiss in dt-bindings (extensions.yaml) riscv: zicfiss / zicfilp enumeration riscv: zicfiss / zicfilp extension csr and bit definitions riscv: usercfi state for task and save/restore of CSR_SSP on trap entry/exit riscv/mm : ensure PROT_WRITE leads to VM_READ | VM_WRITE riscv mm: manufacture shadow stack pte riscv mmu: teach pte_mkwrite to manufacture shadow stack PTEs riscv mmu: write protect and shadow stack riscv/mm: Implement map_shadow_stack() syscall riscv/shstk: If needed allocate a new shadow stack on clone riscv: Implements arch agnostic shadow stack prctls prctl: arch-agnostic prctl for indirect branch tracking riscv: Implements arch agnostic indirect branch tracking prctls riscv/traps: Introduce software check exception riscv/signal: save and restore of shadow stack for signal riscv/kernel: update __show_regs to print shadow stack register riscv/ptrace: riscv cfi status and state via ptrace and in core files riscv/hwprobe: zicfilp / zicfiss enumeration in hwprobe riscv: kernel command line option to opt out of user cfi riscv: enable kernel access to shadow stack memory via FWFT sbi call riscv: create a config for shadow stack and landing pad instr support riscv: Documentation for landing pad / indirect branch tracking riscv: Documentation for shadow stack on riscv kselftest/riscv: kselftest for user mode cfi
Jim Shu (1): arch/riscv: compile vdso with landing pad
Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt | 8 + Documentation/arch/riscv/index.rst | 2 + Documentation/arch/riscv/zicfilp.rst | 115 +++++ Documentation/arch/riscv/zicfiss.rst | 179 +++++++ .../devicetree/bindings/riscv/extensions.yaml | 14 + arch/riscv/Kconfig | 21 + arch/riscv/Makefile | 5 +- arch/riscv/include/asm/asm-prototypes.h | 1 + arch/riscv/include/asm/assembler.h | 44 ++ arch/riscv/include/asm/cpufeature.h | 12 + arch/riscv/include/asm/csr.h | 16 + arch/riscv/include/asm/entry-common.h | 2 + arch/riscv/include/asm/hwcap.h | 2 + arch/riscv/include/asm/mman.h | 25 + arch/riscv/include/asm/mmu_context.h | 7 + arch/riscv/include/asm/pgtable.h | 30 +- arch/riscv/include/asm/processor.h | 2 + arch/riscv/include/asm/thread_info.h | 3 + arch/riscv/include/asm/usercfi.h | 95 ++++ arch/riscv/include/asm/vector.h | 3 + arch/riscv/include/uapi/asm/hwprobe.h | 2 + arch/riscv/include/uapi/asm/ptrace.h | 34 ++ arch/riscv/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h | 1 + arch/riscv/kernel/Makefile | 1 + arch/riscv/kernel/asm-offsets.c | 10 + arch/riscv/kernel/cpufeature.c | 27 + arch/riscv/kernel/entry.S | 33 +- arch/riscv/kernel/head.S | 27 + arch/riscv/kernel/process.c | 26 +- arch/riscv/kernel/ptrace.c | 95 ++++ arch/riscv/kernel/signal.c | 148 +++++- arch/riscv/kernel/sys_hwprobe.c | 2 + arch/riscv/kernel/sys_riscv.c | 10 + arch/riscv/kernel/traps.c | 43 ++ arch/riscv/kernel/usercfi.c | 545 +++++++++++++++++++++ arch/riscv/kernel/vdso/Makefile | 6 + arch/riscv/kernel/vdso/flush_icache.S | 4 + arch/riscv/kernel/vdso/getcpu.S | 4 + arch/riscv/kernel/vdso/rt_sigreturn.S | 4 + arch/riscv/kernel/vdso/sys_hwprobe.S | 4 + arch/riscv/mm/init.c | 2 +- arch/riscv/mm/pgtable.c | 17 + include/linux/cpu.h | 4 + include/linux/mm.h | 7 + include/uapi/linux/elf.h | 2 + include/uapi/linux/prctl.h | 27 + kernel/sys.c | 30 ++ tools/testing/selftests/riscv/Makefile | 2 +- tools/testing/selftests/riscv/cfi/.gitignore | 3 + tools/testing/selftests/riscv/cfi/Makefile | 16 + tools/testing/selftests/riscv/cfi/cfi_rv_test.h | 82 ++++ tools/testing/selftests/riscv/cfi/riscv_cfi_test.c | 173 +++++++ tools/testing/selftests/riscv/cfi/shadowstack.c | 385 +++++++++++++++ tools/testing/selftests/riscv/cfi/shadowstack.h | 27 + 54 files changed, 2360 insertions(+), 29 deletions(-)
base-commit: 4181f8ad7a1061efed0219951d608d4988302af7 change-id: 20240930-v5_user_cfi_series-3dc332f8f5b2 --
- debug