Re: [PATCH] linux-user: Add emulation for MADV_WIPEONFORK and MADV_KEEPONFORK in madvise()

[Helge Deller]

On 12/12/22 22:16, Ilya Leoshkevich wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 08:00:45AM +0100, Helge Deller wrote:
> > Both parameters have a different value on the parisc platform, so first
> > translate the target value into a host value for usage in the native
> > madvise() syscall.
> >
> > Those parameters are often used by security sensitive applications (e.g.
> > tor browser, boringssl, ...) which expect the call to return a proper
> > return code on failure, so return -EINVAL if qemu fails to forward the
> > syscall to the host OS.
> >
> > Tested with testcase of tor browser when running hppa-linux guest on
> > x86-64 host.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Helge Deller <deller@gmx.de>
> >
> > diff --git a/linux-user/mmap.c b/linux-user/mmap.c
> > index 10f5079331..c75342108c 100644
> > --- a/linux-user/mmap.c
> > +++ b/linux-user/mmap.c
> > @@ -901,11 +901,25 @@ abi_long target_madvise(abi_ulong start, abi_ulong 
> > len_in, int advice)
> >           return -TARGET_EINVAL;
> >       }
> >
> > +    /* Translate for some architectures which have different MADV_xxx values */
> > +    switch (advice) {
> > +    case TARGET_MADV_DONTNEED:      /* alpha */
> > +        advice = MADV_DONTNEED;
> > +        break;
> > +    case TARGET_MADV_WIPEONFORK:    /* parisc */
> > +        advice = MADV_WIPEONFORK;
> > +        break;
> > +    case TARGET_MADV_KEEPONFORK:    /* parisc */
> > +        advice = MADV_KEEPONFORK;
> > +        break;
> > +    /* we do not care about the other MADV_xxx values yet */
> > +    }
> > +
> >       /*
> >        * A straight passthrough may not be safe because qemu sometimes turns
> >        * private file-backed mappings into anonymous mappings.
> >        *
> > -     * This is a hint, so ignoring and returning success is ok.
> > +     * For MADV_DONTNEED, which is a hint, ignoring and returning success is 
> > ok.
>
> Actually, MADV_DONTNEED is one of the few values, which is not always a
> hint - it can be used to e.g. zero out pages.

Right, it _should_ zero out pages and return 0, or otherwise return failure.
I think the problem is that some userspace apps will then sadly break if we
change the current behaviour....

Anyway, in this patch I didn't wanted to touch MAD_DONTNEED.

> As the next paragraph states, strictly speaking, MADV_DONTNEED is
> currently broken, because it can indeed be ignored without indication
> in some cases, but it's still arguably better than not honoring it at
> all.

Yep.

> >        *
> >        * This breaks MADV_DONTNEED, completely implementing which is quite
> >        * complicated. However, there is one low-hanging fruit: mappings that are
> > @@ -913,11 +927,17 @@ abi_long target_madvise(abi_ulong start, abi_ulong 
> > len_in, int advice)
> >        * passthrough is safe, so do it.
> >        */
> >       mmap_lock();
> > -    if (advice == TARGET_MADV_DONTNEED &&
> > -        can_passthrough_madv_dontneed(start, end)) {
> > -        ret = get_errno(madvise(g2h_untagged(start), len, MADV_DONTNEED));
> > -        if (ret == 0) {
> > -            page_reset_target_data(start, start + len);
> > +    switch (advice) {
> > +    case MADV_WIPEONFORK:
> > +    case MADV_KEEPONFORK:
> > +        ret = -EINVAL;
> > +        /* fall through */
> > +    case MADV_DONTNEED:
> > +        if (can_passthrough_madv_dontneed(start, end)) {
> > +            ret = get_errno(madvise(g2h_untagged(start), len, advice));
> > +            if ((advice == MADV_DONTNEED) && (ret == 0)) {
> > +                page_reset_target_data(start, start + len);
> > +            }
> >           }
> >       }
> >       mmap_unlock();
>
> Nit: maybe rename can_passthrough_madv_dontneed() to can_passthrough(),
> since now it's used not only for MADV_DONTNEED?

Maybe can_passthrough_madvise() is better?

> With the MADV_DONTNEED comment change:

Just for me to understand correctly:
You propose that I shouldn't touch that comment in my followup-patch, right?
That's ok.

> Acked-by: Ilya Leoshkevich <iii@linux.ibm.com>

Thanks!
Helge