[PATCH] arm64/module: Fix livepatch BTI exceptions with Clang 21+

[Will Deacon]

On Tue, Aug 11, 2026 at 03:18:17PM +0200, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 11 Aug 2026, at 14:02, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> > On Tue, 11 Aug 2026, at 11:44, Will Deacon wrote:
> >> On Mon, Aug 10, 2026 at 09:41:35AM -0700, Nick Desaulniers wrote:
> >
> >>> Sure, but let's replace this with a link to a bug report in llvm's
> >>> issue tracker?
> >>
> >> Yes, please! I can apply the patch once we have the bug number.
> >>
> >
> > I can look into that.
> 
> https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/215547

Thanks, Ard. I've ended up with the patch below.

Will

--->8

Author: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe at kernel.org>
Date:   Tue Aug 11 14:11:44 2026 +0000

    arm64: bti: Disable in-kernel BTI with recent versions of Clang
    
    The following BTI exception was seen when loading a livepatch module:
    
      Internal error: Oops - BTI: 0000000036000001 [#1]  SMP
      pstate: 634004c9 (nZCv daIF +PAN -UAO +TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=jc)
      pc : kill_orphaned_pgrp+0x0/0x150
      lr : do_exit+0x498/0xaf0 [livepatch_combined]
    
    The problem is that the patch module's do_exit() is branching to a
    static function in vmlinux using a module PLT veneer (indirect branch),
    but the target function doesn't have a BTI landing pad.
    
    Clang 21+ omits the landing pad for static functions which can only be
    reached by a direct branch.  That's normally fine for ordinary modules
    which only branch to global exported functions, but Mark Brown points
    out [1] that this isn't guaranteed if the module branches between
    sections. Futhermore, livepatch modules use klp relocations to reference
    arbitrary kernel symbols, so with CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_MODULE_REGION_FULL
    the module is far enough from the kernel that every R_AARCH64_CALL26
    needs a PLT.
    
    Put Clang 21+ in the naughty corner alongside GCC, which suffers from
    the same issue, by disabling CONFIG_ARM64_BTI_KERNEL until we have a
    version of the toolchain with the problem resolved.
    
    Cc: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb at kernel.org>
    Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/da06bbd3-d04b-4d0f-b331-f5b91bc373a5@sirena.org.uk [1]
    Fixes: fd1e0fd71f65 ("arm64: Implement HAVE_LIVEPATCH")
    Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe at kernel.org>
    [will: Stitched together commit message, diff and bug number]
    Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <will at kernel.org>

diff --git a/arch/arm64/Kconfig b/arch/arm64/Kconfig
index b3afe0688919..fc57d90d92c1 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/arm64/Kconfig
@@ -2116,6 +2116,8 @@ config ARM64_BTI_KERNEL
        depends on !CC_IS_GCC || GCC_VERSION >= 100100
        # https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=106671
        depends on !CC_IS_GCC
+       # https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/215547
+       depends on !CC_IS_CLANG || CLANG_VERSION < 210000
        depends on (!FUNCTION_GRAPH_TRACER || DYNAMIC_FTRACE_WITH_ARGS)
        help
          Build the kernel with Branch Target Identification annotations