x86/entry: Clarify the RF saving/restoring situation with SYSCALL/SYSRET
authorBorislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
Wed, 3 Aug 2016 17:14:29 +0000 (19:14 +0200)
committerIngo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 13:53:43 +0000 (15:53 +0200)
Clarify why exactly RF cannot be restored properly by SYSRET to avoid
confusion.

No functionality change.

Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de>
Acked-by: Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net>
Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
Cc: Brian Gerst <brgerst@gmail.com>
Cc: Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@redhat.com>
Cc: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
Cc: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@redhat.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20160803171429.GA2590@nazgul.tnic
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S

index 9f85827..d172c61 100644 (file)
@@ -288,11 +288,15 @@ return_from_SYSCALL_64:
        jne     opportunistic_sysret_failed
 
        /*
-        * SYSRET can't restore RF.  SYSRET can restore TF, but unlike IRET,
-        * restoring TF results in a trap from userspace immediately after
-        * SYSRET.  This would cause an infinite loop whenever #DB happens
-        * with register state that satisfies the opportunistic SYSRET
-        * conditions.  For example, single-stepping this user code:
+        * SYSCALL clears RF when it saves RFLAGS in R11 and SYSRET cannot
+        * restore RF properly. If the slowpath sets it for whatever reason, we
+        * need to restore it correctly.
+        *
+        * SYSRET can restore TF, but unlike IRET, restoring TF results in a
+        * trap from userspace immediately after SYSRET.  This would cause an
+        * infinite loop whenever #DB happens with register state that satisfies
+        * the opportunistic SYSRET conditions.  For example, single-stepping
+        * this user code:
         *
         *           movq       $stuck_here, %rcx
         *           pushfq