diff options
author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2016-07-26 13:05:11 -0700 |
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committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2016-07-26 13:05:11 -0700 |
commit | 0f776dc377f6c87f4e4d4a5f63602f33fb93b31e (patch) | |
tree | 25811858d15be4c526c6c887d8c41c0546edd6b9 /Documentation/security | |
parent | 015cd867e566e3a27b5e8062eb24eeaa4d77297f (diff) | |
parent | a88b1672d4ddf9895eb53e6980926d5e960dea8e (diff) |
Merge tag 'docs-for-linus' of git://git.lwn.net/linux
Pull documentation updates from Jonathan Corbet:
"Some big changes this month, headlined by the addition of a new
formatted documentation mechanism based on the Sphinx system.
The objectives here are to make it easier to create better-integrated
(and more attractive) documents while (eventually) dumping our
one-of-a-kind, cobbled-together system for something that is widely
used and maintained by others. There's a fair amount of information
what's being done, why, and how to use it in:
https://lwn.net/Articles/692704/
https://lwn.net/Articles/692705/
Closer to home, Documentation/kernel-documentation.rst describes how
it works.
For now, the new system exists alongside the old one; you should soon
see the GPU documentation converted over in the DRM pull and some
significant media conversion work as well. Once all the docs have
been moved over and we're convinced that the rough edges (of which are
are a few) have been smoothed over, the DocBook-based stuff should go
away.
Primary credit is to Jani Nikula for doing the heavy lifting to make
this stuff actually work; there has also been notable effort from
Markus Heiser, Daniel Vetter, and Mauro Carvalho Chehab.
Expect a couple of conflicts on the new index.rst file over the course
of the merge window; they are trivially resolvable. That file may be
a bit of a conflict magnet in the short term, but I don't expect that
situation to last for any real length of time.
Beyond that, of course, we have the usual collection of tweaks,
updates, and typo fixes"
* tag 'docs-for-linus' of git://git.lwn.net/linux: (77 commits)
doc-rst: kernel-doc: fix handling of address_space tags
Revert "doc/sphinx: Enable keep_warnings"
doc-rst: kernel-doc directive, fix state machine reporter
docs: deprecate kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
doc/sphinx: Enable keep_warnings
Documentation: add watermark_scale_factor to the list of vm systcl file
kernel-doc: Fix up warning output
docs: Get rid of some kernel-documentation warnings
doc-rst: add an option to ignore DocBooks when generating docs
workqueue: Fix a typo in workqueue.txt
Doc: ocfs: Fix typo in filesystems/ocfs2-online-filecheck.txt
Documentation/sphinx: skip build if user requested specific DOCBOOKS
Documentation: add cleanmediadocs to the documentation targets
Add .pyc files to .gitignore
Doc: PM: Fix a typo in intel_powerclamp.txt
doc-rst: flat-table directive - initial implementation
Documentation: add meta-documentation for Sphinx and kernel-doc
Documentation: tiny typo fix in usb/gadget_multi.txt
Documentation: fix wrong value in md.txt
bcache: documentation formatting, edited for clarity, stripe alignment notes
...
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/security')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/security/self-protection.txt | 28 |
1 files changed, 18 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/security/self-protection.txt b/Documentation/security/self-protection.txt index babd6378ec05..3010576c9fca 100644 --- a/Documentation/security/self-protection.txt +++ b/Documentation/security/self-protection.txt @@ -183,8 +183,9 @@ provide meaningful defenses. ### Canaries, blinding, and other secrets It should be noted that things like the stack canary discussed earlier -are technically statistical defenses, since they rely on a (leakable) -secret value. +are technically statistical defenses, since they rely on a secret value, +and such values may become discoverable through an information exposure +flaw. Blinding literal values for things like JITs, where the executable contents may be partially under the control of userspace, need a similar @@ -199,8 +200,8 @@ working?) in order to maximize their success. Since the location of kernel memory is almost always instrumental in mounting a successful attack, making the location non-deterministic raises the difficulty of an exploit. (Note that this in turn makes -the value of leaks higher, since they may be used to discover desired -memory locations.) +the value of information exposures higher, since they may be used to +discover desired memory locations.) #### Text and module base @@ -222,14 +223,21 @@ become more difficult to locate. Much of the kernel's dynamic memory (e.g. kmalloc, vmalloc, etc) ends up being relatively deterministic in layout due to the order of early-boot initializations. If the base address of these areas is not the same -between boots, targeting them is frustrated, requiring a leak specific -to the region. +between boots, targeting them is frustrated, requiring an information +exposure specific to the region. + +#### Structure layout + +By performing a per-build randomization of the layout of sensitive +structures, attacks must either be tuned to known kernel builds or expose +enough kernel memory to determine structure layouts before manipulating +them. -## Preventing Leaks +## Preventing Information Exposures Since the locations of sensitive structures are the primary target for -attacks, it is important to defend against leaks of both kernel memory +attacks, it is important to defend against exposure of both kernel memory addresses and kernel memory contents (since they may contain kernel addresses or other sensitive things like canary values). @@ -250,8 +258,8 @@ sure structure holes are cleared. When releasing memory, it is best to poison the contents (clear stack on syscall return, wipe heap memory on a free), to avoid reuse attacks that rely on the old contents of memory. This frustrates many uninitialized -variable attacks, stack info leaks, heap info leaks, and use-after-free -attacks. +variable attacks, stack content exposures, heap content exposures, and +use-after-free attacks. ### Destination tracking |