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Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2017 22:21:22 +0100
From: Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@...aro.org>
To: Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>
Cc: "linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org" <linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>,
"kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com" <kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com>, Will Deacon <will.deacon@....com>,
Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@....com>, Laura Abbott <labbott@...oraproject.org>,
Li Kun <hw.likun@...wei.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v4] arm64: kernel: implement fast refcount checking
On 31 July 2017 at 22:16, Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 12:22 PM, Ard Biesheuvel
> <ard.biesheuvel@...aro.org> wrote:
>> v4: Implement add-from-zero checking using a conditional compare rather than
>> a conditional branch, which I omitted from v3 due to the 10% performance
>> hit: this will result in the new refcount to be written back to memory
>> before invoking the handler, which is more in line with the other checks,
>> and is apparently much easier on the branch predictor, given that there
>> is no performance hit whatsoever.
>
> So refcount_inc() and refcount_add(n, ...) will write 1 and n
> respectively, then hit the handler to saturate?
Yes, but this is essentially what occurs on overflow and sub-to-zero
as well: the result is always stored before hitting the handler. Isn't
this the case for x86 as well?
> That seems entirely
> fine to me: checking inc-from-zero is just a protection against a
> possible double-free condition. It's still technically a race, but a
> narrow race on a rare condition is better than being able to always
> win it.
>
Indeed.
> Nice!
>
Thanks!
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