[PATCH v2] arm64: map [_text, _stext) virtual address range non-executable+read-only
Omar Sandoval
osandov at osandov.com
Fri Sep 19 14:27:51 PDT 2025
From: Omar Sandoval <osandov at fb.com>
Since the referenced fixes commit, the kernel's .text section is only
mapped starting from _stext; the region [_text, _stext) is omitted. As a
result, other vmalloc/vmap allocations may use the virtual addresses
nominally in the range [_text, _stext). This address reuse confuses
multiple things:
1. crash_prepare_elf64_headers() sets up a segment in /proc/vmcore
mapping the entire range [_text, _end) to
[__pa_symbol(_text), __pa_symbol(_end)). Reading an address in
[_text, _stext) from /proc/vmcore therefore gives the incorrect
result.
2. Tools doing symbolization (either by reading /proc/kallsyms or based
on the vmlinux ELF file) will incorrectly identify vmalloc/vmap
allocations in [_text, _stext) as kernel symbols.
In practice, both of these issues affect the drgn debugger.
Specifically, there were cases where the vmap IRQ stacks for some CPUs
were allocated in [_text, _stext). As a result, drgn could not get the
stack trace for a crash in an IRQ handler because the core dump
contained invalid data for the IRQ stack address. The stack addresses
were also symbolized as being in the _text symbol.
Fix this by bringing back the mapping of [_text, _stext), but now make
it non-executable and read-only. This prevents other allocations from
using it while still achieving the original goal of not mapping
unpredictable data as executable. Other than the changed protection,
this is effectively a revert of the fixes commit.
Fixes: e2a073dde921 ("arm64: omit [_text, _stext) from permanent kernel mapping")
Cc: stable at vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Omar Sandoval <osandov at fb.com>
---
Hi,
We're working on our AArch64 stack tracing reliability in drgn [1], so I
finally got back around to this patch from March [2]. I reworked it as
Will suggested to map the range non-executable instead of leaving it
unmapped.
1: https://github.com/osandov/drgn/pull/547
2: https://lore.kernel.org/all/ec2d02358eee53f095ad9a7d9c96af8f4d0d4eeb.1741636880.git.osandov@osandov.com/
Based on v6.17-rc6.
Thanks!
arch/arm64/kernel/pi/map_kernel.c | 6 ++++++
arch/arm64/kernel/setup.c | 4 ++--
arch/arm64/mm/init.c | 2 +-
arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c | 14 +++++++++-----
4 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/pi/map_kernel.c b/arch/arm64/kernel/pi/map_kernel.c
index 0f4bd7771859..a8d76d0354da 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/pi/map_kernel.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/pi/map_kernel.c
@@ -78,6 +78,12 @@ static void __init map_kernel(u64 kaslr_offset, u64 va_offset, int root_level)
twopass |= enable_scs;
prot = twopass ? data_prot : text_prot;
+ /*
+ * [_stext, _text) isn't executed after boot and contains some
+ * non-executable, unpredictable data, so map it non-executable.
+ */
+ map_segment(init_pg_dir, &pgdp, va_offset, _text, _stext, data_prot,
+ false, root_level);
map_segment(init_pg_dir, &pgdp, va_offset, _stext, _etext, prot,
!twopass, root_level);
map_segment(init_pg_dir, &pgdp, va_offset, __start_rodata,
diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/setup.c b/arch/arm64/kernel/setup.c
index 77c7926a4df6..23c05dc7a8f2 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/setup.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/setup.c
@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ static void __init request_standard_resources(void)
unsigned long i = 0;
size_t res_size;
- kernel_code.start = __pa_symbol(_stext);
+ kernel_code.start = __pa_symbol(_text);
kernel_code.end = __pa_symbol(__init_begin - 1);
kernel_data.start = __pa_symbol(_sdata);
kernel_data.end = __pa_symbol(_end - 1);
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ u64 cpu_logical_map(unsigned int cpu)
void __init __no_sanitize_address setup_arch(char **cmdline_p)
{
- setup_initial_init_mm(_stext, _etext, _edata, _end);
+ setup_initial_init_mm(_text, _etext, _edata, _end);
*cmdline_p = boot_command_line;
diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/init.c b/arch/arm64/mm/init.c
index ea84a61ed508..0dd558613bd7 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/init.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/init.c
@@ -279,7 +279,7 @@ void __init arm64_memblock_init(void)
* Register the kernel text, kernel data, initrd, and initial
* pagetables with memblock.
*/
- memblock_reserve(__pa_symbol(_stext), _end - _stext);
+ memblock_reserve(__pa_symbol(_text), _end - _text);
if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD) && phys_initrd_size) {
/* the generic initrd code expects virtual addresses */
initrd_start = __phys_to_virt(phys_initrd_start);
diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
index 183801520740..324b96e3632c 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
@@ -574,8 +574,8 @@ void __init mark_linear_text_alias_ro(void)
/*
* Remove the write permissions from the linear alias of .text/.rodata
*/
- update_mapping_prot(__pa_symbol(_stext), (unsigned long)lm_alias(_stext),
- (unsigned long)__init_begin - (unsigned long)_stext,
+ update_mapping_prot(__pa_symbol(_text), (unsigned long)lm_alias(_text),
+ (unsigned long)__init_begin - (unsigned long)_text,
PAGE_KERNEL_RO);
}
@@ -636,7 +636,7 @@ static inline void arm64_kfence_map_pool(phys_addr_t kfence_pool, pgd_t *pgdp) {
static void __init map_mem(pgd_t *pgdp)
{
static const u64 direct_map_end = _PAGE_END(VA_BITS_MIN);
- phys_addr_t kernel_start = __pa_symbol(_stext);
+ phys_addr_t kernel_start = __pa_symbol(_text);
phys_addr_t kernel_end = __pa_symbol(__init_begin);
phys_addr_t start, end;
phys_addr_t early_kfence_pool;
@@ -683,7 +683,7 @@ static void __init map_mem(pgd_t *pgdp)
}
/*
- * Map the linear alias of the [_stext, __init_begin) interval
+ * Map the linear alias of the [_text, __init_begin) interval
* as non-executable now, and remove the write permission in
* mark_linear_text_alias_ro() below (which will be called after
* alternative patching has completed). This makes the contents
@@ -710,6 +710,10 @@ void mark_rodata_ro(void)
WRITE_ONCE(rodata_is_rw, false);
update_mapping_prot(__pa_symbol(__start_rodata), (unsigned long)__start_rodata,
section_size, PAGE_KERNEL_RO);
+ /* mark the range between _text and _stext as read only. */
+ update_mapping_prot(__pa_symbol(_text), (unsigned long)_text,
+ (unsigned long)_stext - (unsigned long)_text,
+ PAGE_KERNEL_RO);
}
static void __init declare_vma(struct vm_struct *vma,
@@ -780,7 +784,7 @@ static void __init declare_kernel_vmas(void)
{
static struct vm_struct vmlinux_seg[KERNEL_SEGMENT_COUNT];
- declare_vma(&vmlinux_seg[0], _stext, _etext, VM_NO_GUARD);
+ declare_vma(&vmlinux_seg[0], _text, _etext, VM_NO_GUARD);
declare_vma(&vmlinux_seg[1], __start_rodata, __inittext_begin, VM_NO_GUARD);
declare_vma(&vmlinux_seg[2], __inittext_begin, __inittext_end, VM_NO_GUARD);
declare_vma(&vmlinux_seg[3], __initdata_begin, __initdata_end, VM_NO_GUARD);
--
2.51.0
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