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-rw-r--r--security/Kconfig.hardening52
1 files changed, 32 insertions, 20 deletions
diff --git a/security/Kconfig.hardening b/security/Kconfig.hardening
index 023aea5e117c..90cbaff86e13 100644
--- a/security/Kconfig.hardening
+++ b/security/Kconfig.hardening
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ choice
 	prompt "Initialize kernel stack variables at function entry"
 	default GCC_PLUGIN_STRUCTLEAK_BYREF_ALL if COMPILE_TEST && GCC_PLUGINS
 	default INIT_STACK_ALL_PATTERN if COMPILE_TEST && CC_HAS_AUTO_VAR_INIT_PATTERN
+	default INIT_STACK_ALL_ZERO if CC_HAS_AUTO_VAR_INIT_PATTERN
 	default INIT_STACK_NONE
 	help
 	  This option enables initialization of stack variables at
@@ -39,11 +40,11 @@ choice
 	  syscalls.
 
 	  This chooses the level of coverage over classes of potentially
-	  uninitialized variables. The selected class will be
+	  uninitialized variables. The selected class of variable will be
 	  initialized before use in a function.
 
 	config INIT_STACK_NONE
-		bool "no automatic initialization (weakest)"
+		bool "no automatic stack variable initialization (weakest)"
 		help
 		  Disable automatic stack variable initialization.
 		  This leaves the kernel vulnerable to the standard
@@ -80,7 +81,7 @@ choice
 		  and is disallowed.
 
 	config GCC_PLUGIN_STRUCTLEAK_BYREF_ALL
-		bool "zero-init anything passed by reference (very strong)"
+		bool "zero-init everything passed by reference (very strong)"
 		depends on GCC_PLUGINS
 		depends on !(KASAN && KASAN_STACK)
 		select GCC_PLUGIN_STRUCTLEAK
@@ -91,33 +92,44 @@ choice
 		  of uninitialized stack variable exploits and information
 		  exposures.
 
+		  As a side-effect, this keeps a lot of variables on the
+		  stack that can otherwise be optimized out, so combining
+		  this with CONFIG_KASAN_STACK can lead to a stack overflow
+		  and is disallowed.
+
 	config INIT_STACK_ALL_PATTERN
-		bool "0xAA-init everything on the stack (strongest)"
+		bool "pattern-init everything (strongest)"
 		depends on CC_HAS_AUTO_VAR_INIT_PATTERN
 		help
-		  Initializes everything on the stack with a 0xAA
-		  pattern. This is intended to eliminate all classes
-		  of uninitialized stack variable exploits and information
-		  exposures, even variables that were warned to have been
-		  left uninitialized.
+		  Initializes everything on the stack (including padding)
+		  with a specific debug value. This is intended to eliminate
+		  all classes of uninitialized stack variable exploits and
+		  information exposures, even variables that were warned about
+		  having been left uninitialized.
 
 		  Pattern initialization is known to provoke many existing bugs
 		  related to uninitialized locals, e.g. pointers receive
-		  non-NULL values, buffer sizes and indices are very big.
+		  non-NULL values, buffer sizes and indices are very big. The
+		  pattern is situation-specific; Clang on 64-bit uses 0xAA
+		  repeating for all types and padding except float and double
+		  which use 0xFF repeating (-NaN). Clang on 32-bit uses 0xFF
+		  repeating for all types and padding.
 
 	config INIT_STACK_ALL_ZERO
-		bool "zero-init everything on the stack (strongest and safest)"
+		bool "zero-init everything (strongest and safest)"
 		depends on CC_HAS_AUTO_VAR_INIT_ZERO
 		help
-		  Initializes everything on the stack with a zero
-		  value. This is intended to eliminate all classes
-		  of uninitialized stack variable exploits and information
-		  exposures, even variables that were warned to have been
-		  left uninitialized.
-
-		  Zero initialization provides safe defaults for strings,
-		  pointers, indices and sizes, and is therefore
-		  more suitable as a security mitigation measure.
+		  Initializes everything on the stack (including padding)
+		  with a zero value. This is intended to eliminate all
+		  classes of uninitialized stack variable exploits and
+		  information exposures, even variables that were warned
+		  about having been left uninitialized.
+
+		  Zero initialization provides safe defaults for strings
+		  (immediately NUL-terminated), pointers (NULL), indices
+		  (index 0), and sizes (0 length), so it is therefore more
+		  suitable as a production security mitigation than pattern
+		  initialization.
 
 endchoice