riscv: add documentation for landing pad / indirect branch tracking

Add documentation on landing pad aka indirect branch tracking on riscv
and the kernel interfaces exposed for user tasks to enable it.

Reviewed-by: Zong Li <zong.li@sifive.com>
Signed-off-by: Deepak Gupta <debug@rivosinc.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251112-v5_user_cfi_series-v23-26-b55691eacf4f@rivosinc.com
[pjw@kernel.org: cleaned up the documentation]
Signed-off-by: Paul Walmsley <pjw@kernel.org>

diff --git a/Documentation/arch/riscv/index.rst b/Documentation/arch/riscv/index.rst
index eecf347ce849444bcdb8780019a5c99adcde4c96..be7237b6968213494353c96f70975c2aa443fa3f 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/arch/riscv/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/arch/riscv/index.rst
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ RISC-V architecture
     uabi
     vector
     cmodx
+    zicfilp
 
     features
 

diff --git a/Documentation/arch/riscv/zicfilp.rst b/Documentation/arch/riscv/zicfilp.rst
new file mode 100644 (file)
index 0000000..78a3e01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/arch/riscv/zicfilp.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+:Author: Deepak Gupta <debug@rivosinc.com>
+:Date:   12 January 2024
+
+====================================================
+Tracking indirect control transfers on RISC-V Linux
+====================================================
+
+This document briefly describes the interface provided to userspace by Linux
+to enable indirect branch tracking for user mode applications on RISC-V.
+
+1. Feature Overview
+--------------------
+
+Memory corruption issues usually result in crashes.  However, in the
+hands of a creative adversary, these can result in a variety of
+security issues.
+
+Some of those security issues can be code re-use attacks, where an
+adversary can use corrupt function pointers, chaining them together to
+perform jump oriented programming (JOP) or call oriented programming
+(COP) and thus compromise control flow integrity (CFI) of the program.
+
+Function pointers live in read-write memory and thus are susceptible
+to corruption.  This can allow an adversary to control the program
+counter (PC) value.  On RISC-V, the zicfilp extension enforces a
+restriction on such indirect control transfers:
+
+- Indirect control transfers must land on a landing pad instruction ``lpad``.
+  There are two exceptions to this rule:
+
+  - rs1 = x1 or rs1 = x5, i.e. a return from a function and returns are
+    protected using shadow stack (see zicfiss.rst)
+
+  - rs1 = x7. On RISC-V, the compiler usually does the following to reach a
+    function which is beyond the offset of possible J-type instruction::
+
+      auipc x7, <imm>
+      jalr (x7)
+
+    This form of indirect control transfer is immutable and doesn't
+    rely on memory.  Thus rs1=x7 is exempted from tracking and
+    these are considered software guarded jumps.
+
+The ``lpad`` instruction is a pseudo-op of ``auipc rd, <imm_20bit>``
+with ``rd=x0``.  This is a HINT op.  The ``lpad`` instruction must be
+aligned on a 4 byte boundary.  It compares the 20 bit immediate with
+x7. If ``imm_20bit`` == 0, the CPU doesn't perform any comparison with
+``x7``. If ``imm_20bit`` != 0, then ``imm_20bit`` must match ``x7``
+else CPU will raise ``software check exception`` (``cause=18``) with
+``*tval = 2``.
+
+The compiler can generate a hash over function signatures and set them
+up (truncated to 20 bits) in x7 at callsites.  Function prologues can
+have ``lpad`` instructions encoded with the same function hash. This
+further reduces the number of valid program counter addresses a call
+site can reach.
+
+2. ELF and psABI
+-----------------
+
+The toolchain sets up :c:macro:`GNU_PROPERTY_RISCV_FEATURE_1_FCFI` for
+property :c:macro:`GNU_PROPERTY_RISCV_FEATURE_1_AND` in the notes
+section of the object file.
+
+3. Linux enabling
+------------------
+
+User space programs can have multiple shared objects loaded in their
+address spaces.  It's a difficult task to make sure all the
+dependencies have been compiled with indirect branch support. Thus
+it's left to the dynamic loader to enable indirect branch tracking for
+the program.
+
+4. prctl() enabling
+--------------------
+
+:c:macro:`PR_SET_INDIR_BR_LP_STATUS` / :c:macro:`PR_GET_INDIR_BR_LP_STATUS` /
+:c:macro:`PR_LOCK_INDIR_BR_LP_STATUS` are three prctls added to manage indirect
+branch tracking.  These prctls are architecture-agnostic and return -EINVAL if
+the underlying functionality is not supported.
+
+* prctl(PR_SET_INDIR_BR_LP_STATUS, unsigned long arg)
+
+If arg1 is :c:macro:`PR_INDIR_BR_LP_ENABLE` and if CPU supports
+``zicfilp`` then the kernel will enable indirect branch tracking for the
+task.  The dynamic loader can issue this :c:macro:`prctl` once it has
+determined that all the objects loaded in the address space support
+indirect branch tracking.  Additionally, if there is a `dlopen` to an
+object which wasn't compiled with ``zicfilp``, the dynamic loader can
+issue this prctl with arg1 set to 0 (i.e. :c:macro:`PR_INDIR_BR_LP_ENABLE`
+cleared).
+
+* prctl(PR_GET_INDIR_BR_LP_STATUS, unsigned long * arg)
+
+Returns the current status of indirect branch tracking. If enabled
+it'll return :c:macro:`PR_INDIR_BR_LP_ENABLE`
+
+* prctl(PR_LOCK_INDIR_BR_LP_STATUS, unsigned long arg)
+
+Locks the current status of indirect branch tracking on the task. User
+space may want to run with a strict security posture and wouldn't want
+loading of objects without ``zicfilp`` support in them, to disallow
+disabling of indirect branch tracking. In this case, user space can
+use this prctl to lock the current settings.
+
+5. violations related to indirect branch tracking
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+Pertaining to indirect branch tracking, the CPU raises a software
+check exception in the following conditions:
+
+- missing ``lpad`` after indirect call / jmp
+- ``lpad`` not on 4 byte boundary
+- ``imm_20bit`` embedded in ``lpad`` instruction doesn't match with ``x7``
+
+In all 3 cases, ``*tval = 2`` is captured and software check exception is
+raised (``cause=18``).
+
+The kernel will treat this as :c:macro:`SIGSEGV` with code =
+:c:macro:`SEGV_CPERR` and follow the normal course of signal delivery.