RTIC: selinux: ARM64: Move selinux_state to a separate page

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Currently, the change moves selinux_state structure to a separate page.
The page is 2MB aligned not 4K to avoid TLB related performance impact as,
for some CPU core designs, the TLB does not cache 4K stage 2 (IPA to PA)
mappings if the IPA comes from a stage 1 mapping. In future, we plan to
move more security-related kernel assets to this page to enhance
protection.

Signed-off-by: Preeti Nagar <redacted>
---

9 more lines

diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
index b97c628..d1a5434 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h

@@ -770,6 +770,15 @@
 		*(.scommon)						\
 	}
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_SECURITY_RTIC
+#define RTIC_BSS							\
+	. = ALIGN(SZ_2M);						\
+	KEEP(*(.bss.rtic))						\
+	. = ALIGN(SZ_2M);
+#else
+#define RTIC_BSS
+#endif
+
 /*
  * Allow archectures to redefine BSS_FIRST_SECTIONS to add extra
  * sections to the front of bss.

@@ -782,6 +791,7 @@
 	. = ALIGN(bss_align);						\
 	.bss : AT(ADDR(.bss) - LOAD_OFFSET) {				\
 		BSS_FIRST_SECTIONS					\
+		RTIC_BSS						\
 		. = ALIGN(PAGE_SIZE);					\
 		*(.bss..page_aligned)					\
 		. = ALIGN(PAGE_SIZE);					\

diff --git a/include/linux/init.h b/include/linux/init.h
index e668832..e6d452a 100644
--- a/include/linux/init.h
+++ b/include/linux/init.h

@@ -300,6 +300,12 @@ void __init parse_early_options(char *cmdline);
 /* Data marked not to be saved by software suspend */
 #define __nosavedata __section(".data..nosave")
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_SECURITY_RTIC
+#define __rticdata  __section(".bss.rtic")
+#else
+#define __rticdata
+#endif
+
 #ifdef MODULE
 #define __exit_p(x) x
 #else

diff --git a/security/Kconfig b/security/Kconfig
index 7561f6f..1af913a 100644
--- a/security/Kconfig
+++ b/security/Kconfig

@@ -291,5 +291,16 @@ config LSM
 
 source "security/Kconfig.hardening"
 
+config SECURITY_RTIC
+	bool "RunTime Integrity Check feature"
+	depends on ARM64
+	help
+	  RTIC(RunTime Integrity Check) feature is to protect Linux kernel
+	  at runtime. This relocates some of the security sensitive kernel
+	  structures to a separate RTIC specific page.
+
+	  This is to enable monitoring and protection of these kernel assets
+	  from a higher exception level(EL) against any unauthorized changes.
+
 endmenu
 

diff --git a/security/selinux/hooks.c b/security/selinux/hooks.c
index 644b17e..59d7eee 100644
--- a/security/selinux/hooks.c
+++ b/security/selinux/hooks.c

@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@
 #include "audit.h"
 #include "avc_ss.h"
 
-struct selinux_state selinux_state;
+struct selinux_state selinux_state __rticdata;
 
 /* SECMARK reference count */
 static atomic_t selinux_secmark_refcount = ATOMIC_INIT(0);

-- 
QUALCOMM INDIA, on behalf of Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc. is a member
of Code Aurora Forum, hosted by The Linux Foundation

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 2:19 AM Preeti Nagar [off-list ref] wrote:

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Currently, the change moves selinux_state structure to a separate page.
The page is 2MB aligned not 4K to avoid TLB related performance impact as,
for some CPU core designs, the TLB does not cache 4K stage 2 (IPA to PA)
mappings if the IPA comes from a stage 1 mapping. In future, we plan to
move more security-related kernel assets to this page to enhance
protection.

Signed-off-by: Preeti Nagar <redacted>

This addresses my feedback from the RFC regarding the section symbols.
No comment on whether there is a better approach, or the 2MB vs page
alignment, but perhaps other folks cc'ed can please take a look.

Acked-by: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@google.com>

53 more quoted lines

-- 
Thanks,
~Nick Desaulniers

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 11:22 AM Preeti Nagar [off-list ref] wrote:

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Currently, the change moves selinux_state structure to a separate page.
The page is 2MB aligned not 4K to avoid TLB related performance impact as,
for some CPU core designs, the TLB does not cache 4K stage 2 (IPA to PA)
mappings if the IPA comes from a stage 1 mapping. In future, we plan to
move more security-related kernel assets to this page to enhance
protection.

Part of this commit message should likely be added as a new file under
Documentation/ somewhere.

Rewording suggestion:

         The RTIC (RunTime Integrity Check) feature protects the kernel
         at runtime by relocating some of its security-sensitive structures
         to a separate RTIC-specific page. This enables monitoring and
         and protecting them from a higher exception level against
         unauthorized changes.

Cheers,
Miguel

[Please include arm64 and kvm folks for threads involving the stage-2 MMU]

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 03:47:52PM +0530, Preeti Nagar wrote:

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Although I really like the idea of using stage-2 to protect the kernel, I
think the approach you outline here is deeply flawed. Identifying "sensitive
variables" of the kernel to protect is subjective and doesn't scale.
Furthermore, the triaging of what constitues a valid access is notably
absent from your description and is assumedly implemented in an opaque blob
at EL2.

I think a better approach would be along the lines of:

  1. Introduce the protection at stage-1 (like we already have for mapping
     e.g. the kernel text R/O)

  2. Implement the handlers in the kernel, so the heuristics are clear.

  3. Extend this to involve KVM, so that the host can manage its own
     stage-2 to firm-up the stage-1 protections.

I also think we should avoid tying this to specific data structures.
Rather, we should introduce a mechanism to make arbitrary data read-only.

I've CC'd Ard and Marc, as I think they've both been thinking about this
sort of thing recently as well.

Will

On Wed, 17 Feb 2021 at 10:42, Will Deacon [off-list ref] wrote:

[Please include arm64 and kvm folks for threads involving the stage-2 MMU]

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 03:47:52PM +0530, Preeti Nagar wrote:

quoted

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Although I really like the idea of using stage-2 to protect the kernel, I
think the approach you outline here is deeply flawed. Identifying "sensitive
variables" of the kernel to protect is subjective and doesn't scale.
Furthermore, the triaging of what constitues a valid access is notably
absent from your description and is assumedly implemented in an opaque blob

12 more quoted lines

Agree here. Making an arbitrary set of data structures r/o behind the
OS's back doesn't seem like an easy thing to maintain or reason about,
especially if this r/o-ness is only enforced on a tiny subset of
devices. If something needs to be writable only at boot, we have
__ro_after_init, and having hypervisor assisted enforcement of /that/
might be a worthwhile thing to consider, including perhaps ways to do
controlled patching of this region at runtime.

I also think we should avoid tying this to specific data structures.
Rather, we should introduce a mechanism to make arbitrary data read-only.

I've CC'd Ard and Marc, as I think they've both been thinking about this
sort of thing recently as well.

Will

On 2021-02-17 09:42, Will Deacon wrote:

[Please include arm64 and kvm folks for threads involving the stage-2 MMU]

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 03:47:52PM +0530, Preeti Nagar wrote:

quoted

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Although I really like the idea of using stage-2 to protect the kernel, I
think the approach you outline here is deeply flawed. Identifying "sensitive
variables" of the kernel to protect is subjective and doesn't scale.
Furthermore, the triaging of what constitues a valid access is notably
absent from your description and is assumedly implemented in an opaque blob
at EL2.

10 more quoted lines

+1 on that. Even if, as I suspect, this is targeting some unspecified
hypervisor that is not KVM, the first course of action should be for
this to be implemented in the kernel's own hypervisor first so that
anyone can review understand what is at play.

Thanks,

         M.
-- 
Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny...

On 2021-02-17 15:45, Marc Zyngier wrote:

On 2021-02-17 09:42, Will Deacon wrote:

quoted

[Please include arm64 and kvm folks for threads involving the stage-2 MMU]

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 03:47:52PM +0530, Preeti Nagar wrote:

quoted

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Although I really like the idea of using stage-2 to protect the kernel, I
think the approach you outline here is deeply flawed. Identifying "sensitive
variables" of the kernel to protect is subjective and doesn't scale.
Furthermore, the triaging of what constitues a valid access is notably
absent from your description and is assumedly implemented in an opaque blob

20 more quoted lines

Thank you for your comments. The key value add of the feature is a third
party independent entity keeping a watch on crucial kernel assets, such that
in case the kernel itself is compromised, still, the protection can remain intact.
Can this be achieved if the implementation is done in KVM? I've limited knowledge
of KVM currently, can surely look into more details for a better understanding.

Agree that the mechanism for triaging what constitutes valid access needs a clear
approach. We will discuss your suggestions internally if we can use them to improve
the overall feature design and share updated patches. Thank you!

On 2021-02-17 02:02, Miguel Ojeda wrote:

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 11:22 AM Preeti Nagar [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Currently, the change moves selinux_state structure to a separate page.
The page is 2MB aligned not 4K to avoid TLB related performance impact as,
for some CPU core designs, the TLB does not cache 4K stage 2 (IPA to PA)
mappings if the IPA comes from a stage 1 mapping. In future, we plan to
move more security-related kernel assets to this page to enhance
protection.

3 more quoted lines

Yes, that will be helpful, will put it in Documentation/security in the
next update. Thank you!

quoted

diff --git a/security/Kconfig b/security/Kconfig
index 7561f6f..1af913a 100644
--- a/security/Kconfig
+++ b/security/Kconfig

@@ -291,5 +291,16 @@ config LSM

 source "security/Kconfig.hardening"

+config SECURITY_RTIC
+       bool "RunTime Integrity Check feature"
+       depends on ARM64
+       help
+         RTIC(RunTime Integrity Check) feature is to protect Linux kernel
+         at runtime. This relocates some of the security sensitive kernel
+         structures to a separate RTIC specific page.
+
+         This is to enable monitoring and protection of these kernel assets
+         from a higher exception level(EL) against any unauthorized changes.

Rewording suggestion:

         The RTIC (RunTime Integrity Check) feature protects the kernel
         at runtime by relocating some of its security-sensitive structures
         to a separate RTIC-specific page. This enables monitoring and
         and protecting them from a higher exception level against
         unauthorized changes.

Thanks :)

Cheers,
Miguel

On 2021-02-16 23:39, Nick Desaulniers wrote:

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 2:19 AM Preeti Nagar [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Currently, the change moves selinux_state structure to a separate page.
The page is 2MB aligned not 4K to avoid TLB related performance impact as,
for some CPU core designs, the TLB does not cache 4K stage 2 (IPA to PA)
mappings if the IPA comes from a stage 1 mapping. In future, we plan to
move more security-related kernel assets to this page to enhance
protection.

8 more quoted lines

Thank you! I look forward to reviews and suggestions from the added folks.

quoted

---
The RFC patch reviewed available at:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-security-module/1610099389-28329-1-git-send-email-pnagar@codeaurora.org/
---
 include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h | 10 ++++++++++
 include/linux/init.h              |  6 ++++++
 security/Kconfig                  | 11 +++++++++++
 security/selinux/hooks.c          |  2 +-
 4 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
index b97c628..d1a5434 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h

@@ -770,6 +770,15 @@
                *(.scommon)                                             \
        }

+#ifdef CONFIG_SECURITY_RTIC
+#define RTIC_BSS                                                       \
+       . = ALIGN(SZ_2M);                                               \
+       KEEP(*(.bss.rtic))                                              \
+       . = ALIGN(SZ_2M);
+#else
+#define RTIC_BSS
+#endif
+
 /*
  * Allow archectures to redefine BSS_FIRST_SECTIONS to add extra
  * sections to the front of bss.

@@ -782,6 +791,7 @@
        . = ALIGN(bss_align);                                           \
        .bss : AT(ADDR(.bss) - LOAD_OFFSET) {                           \
                BSS_FIRST_SECTIONS                                      \
+               RTIC_BSS                                                \
                . = ALIGN(PAGE_SIZE);                                   \
                *(.bss..page_aligned)                                   \
                . = ALIGN(PAGE_SIZE);                                   \

diff --git a/include/linux/init.h b/include/linux/init.h
index e668832..e6d452a 100644

53 more quoted lines

On 2021-02-17 15:23, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:

On Wed, 17 Feb 2021 at 10:42, Will Deacon [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

[Please include arm64 and kvm folks for threads involving the stage-2 MMU]

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 03:47:52PM +0530, Preeti Nagar wrote:

quoted

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Although I really like the idea of using stage-2 to protect the kernel, I
think the approach you outline here is deeply flawed. Identifying "sensitive
variables" of the kernel to protect is subjective and doesn't scale.
Furthermore, the triaging of what constitues a valid access is notably

22 more quoted lines

Thank you for the suggestions. We will look into the possibility of protection
of __ro_after_init and controlled updates to these. I understand, if this can be
made generic as Will also suggested, it might be more useful and easy to scale
and maintain.

quoted

I also think we should avoid tying this to specific data structures.
Rather, we should introduce a mechanism to make arbitrary data read-only.

I've CC'd Ard and Marc, as I think they've both been thinking about this
sort of thing recently as well.

Will

On 2/17/21 10:42 AM, Will Deacon wrote:

[Please include arm64 and kvm folks for threads involving the stage-2 MMU]

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 03:47:52PM +0530, Preeti Nagar wrote:

quoted

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Although I really like the idea of using stage-2 to protect the kernel, I
think the approach you outline here is deeply flawed. Identifying "sensitive
variables" of the kernel to protect is subjective and doesn't scale.
Furthermore, the triaging of what constitues a valid access is notably
absent from your description and is assumedly implemented in an opaque blob
at EL2.

4 more quoted lines

Will that really solve the problem? There is a lot of caches that are used
to resolve policy data in selinux, and this caches will not be protected.
If you can manipulate kernel data you can do cache poisoning.

  2. Implement the handlers in the kernel, so the heuristics are clear.

  3. Extend this to involve KVM, so that the host can manage its own
     stage-2 to firm-up the stage-1 protections.

I also think we should avoid tying this to specific data structures.
Rather, we should introduce a mechanism to make arbitrary data read-only.

I've CC'd Ard and Marc, as I think they've both been thinking about this
sort of thing recently as well.

Will

On Mon, 22 Feb 2021 04:58:41 +0000,
pnagar@codeaurora.org wrote:

On 2021-02-17 15:45, Marc Zyngier wrote:

[...]

quoted

+1 on that. Even if, as I suspect, this is targeting some unspecified
hypervisor that is not KVM, the first course of action should be for
this to be implemented in the kernel's own hypervisor first so that
anyone can review understand what is at play.

Thanks,

         M.

Thank you for your comments. The key value add of the feature is a
third party independent entity keeping a watch on crucial kernel
assets, such that in case the kernel itself is compromised, still,
the protection can remain intact.  Can this be achieved if the
implementation is done in KVM? I've limited knowledge of KVM
currently, can surely look into more details for a better
understanding.

[+Quentin]

KVM/arm64 doesn't currently support Stage-2 mappings on the host side,
but there are patches[1] on the list that implement this
functionality, and that I'm hoping to get in 5.13 (no pressure,
Quentin... ;-).

This could also be implemented with the current KVM code though, as a
PV service to guests, and I'd suggest looking into that as an initial
approach.

Thanks,

	M.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/r/20210108121524.656872-1-qperret@google.com

-- 
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 5:19 AM Preeti Nagar [off-list ref] wrote:

The changes introduce a new security feature, RunTime Integrity Check
(RTIC), designed to protect Linux Kernel at runtime. The motivation
behind these changes is:
1. The system protection offered by Security Enhancements(SE) for
Android relies on the assumption of kernel integrity. If the kernel
itself is compromised (by a perhaps as yet unknown future vulnerability),
SE for Android security mechanisms could potentially be disabled and
rendered ineffective.
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon devices use Secure Boot, which adds cryptographic
checks to each stage of the boot-up process, to assert the authenticity
of all secure software images that the device executes.  However, due to
various vulnerabilities in SW modules, the integrity of the system can be
compromised at any time after device boot-up, leading to un-authorized
SW executing.

The feature's idea is to move some sensitive kernel structures to a
separate page and monitor further any unauthorized changes to these,
from higher Exception Levels using stage 2 MMU. Moving these to a
different page will help avoid getting page faults from un-related data.
The mechanism we have been working on removes the write permissions for
HLOS in the stage 2 page tables for the regions to be monitored, such
that any modification attempts to these will lead to faults being
generated and handled by handlers. If the protected assets are moved to
a separate page, faults will be generated corresponding to change attempts
to these assets only. If not moved to a separate page, write attempts to
un-related data present on the monitored pages will also be generated.

Using this feature, some sensitive variables of the kernel which are
initialized after init or are updated rarely can also be protected from
simple overwrites and attacks trying to modify these.

Currently, the change moves selinux_state structure to a separate page.
The page is 2MB aligned not 4K to avoid TLB related performance impact as,
for some CPU core designs, the TLB does not cache 4K stage 2 (IPA to PA)
mappings if the IPA comes from a stage 1 mapping. In future, we plan to
move more security-related kernel assets to this page to enhance
protection.

Signed-off-by: Preeti Nagar <redacted>

9 more quoted lines

As long as we are only talking about moving the selinux_state struct
itself and none of the pointers inside I think we should be okay (the
access decision cache pointed to by selinux_state->avc could change
frequently).  Have you done any performance measurements of this
change?  Assuming they are not terrible, I have no objections to this
patch from a SELinux perspective.

-- 
paul moore
www.paul-moore.com