contiki/cpu/x86/mm

X86 Lightweight Protection Domain Support for Contiki

Introduction

The X86 port of Contiki implements a simple, lightweight form of protection domains using a pluggable framework. Currently, there are three plugins available:

• Flat memory model with paging.
• Multi-segment memory model with either hardware- or software-switched segments. The hardware-switched segments approach is based on Task-State Segment (TSS) structures.

For an introduction to paging and TSS and possible ways in which they can be used, refer to the following resources:

• Intel Combined Manual (Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual), Vol. 3, Chapter 4
• Programming the 80386, by John H. Crawford and Patrick P. Gelsinger, Chapter 5

The overall goal of a protection domain implementation within this framework is to define a set of resources that should be accessible to each protection domain and to prevent that protection domain from accessing other resources. The details of each implementation of protection domains may differ substantially, but they should all be guided by the principle of least privilege [1]. However, that idealized principle is balanced against the practical objectives of limiting the number of relatively time-consuming context switches and minimizing changes to existing code. In fact, no changes were made to code outside of the CPU- and platform-specific code directories for the initial plugins.

Each protection domain can optionally be associated with a metadata and/or MMIO region. The hardware can support additional regions per protection domain, but that would increase complexity and is unneeded for the existing protection domains.

After boot, all code runs in the context of some protection domain. Two default protection domains are implemented:

• kern: Kernel protection domain that is more privileged than any other protection domain. As little code as possible should be placed in this protection domain.
• app: Application protection domain used whenever special privileges are not required.

Additional protection domains are defined as needed. For example, each driver may reside in a separate protection domain, although not all drivers require additional privileges beyond those available in the relevant scheduling context in the app protection domain. The Ethernet and UART drivers are assigned separate protection domains. Non-driver protection domains can also be defined. Other drivers only require access to programmed IO ports accessible via the IN* and OUT* instructions, and such drivers do not require separate protection domains. They run in the Contiki preemptive scheduling context and the kernel protection domain, both of which are granted access to all IO ports.

Each protection domain may have associated system calls. A system call transfers control from a client protection domain to a defined entrypoint in a server protection domain. As their name suggests, system calls adhere to a synchronous call-return model (rather than some alternative such as an asynchronous message-passing model). To invoke a system call, the client provides two identifiers to the system call dispatcher. The first identifies the server domain and the second identifies the system call to be invoked. The protection domain implementation should associate allowable system calls with particular server protection domains and reject any system call requests that are not within that set of allowable system calls. The system call implementations do not restrict the clients that are permitted to invoke each system call. No modifications that the client can make to the server domain and system call identifiers can open up new entrypoints into the server domain. The entrypoints are fixed at boot time.

However, if the identifiers were stored in shared memory, it may be possible for a protection domain to influence the system calls issued by some other protection domain, which may be undesirable. Thus, the server domain identifiers are stored in memory that can only be written by the kernel protection domain and the system call identifiers are embedded in the code.

The system call dispatcher is responsible for reconfiguring the system to enforce the appropriate resource access controls for the server protection domain. It should then transfer control to the approved entrypoint for the requested system call.

Contiki defines a process concept that is orthogonal to protection domains [2]. A single Contiki process may run code in multiple protection domains at various points in time. Contiki processes run in a cooperative scheduling context. Contiki also defines a preemptive scheduling context for interrupt handlers and real-time timers. When protection domain support is enabled, interrupts are only enabled when the application protection domain is active and is running code in the cooperative scheduling context. Code running in the preemptive context may also invoke multiple protection domains. Contiki can also support preemptive multithreading, but support for that has not yet been added to the X86 port so we do not discuss it further.

A single stack is shared by all code that runs in the cooperative scheduling context in all protection domains, and separate stacks are defined for short interrupt dispatchers in the preemptive scheduling context and for exception handlers and software system call dispatchers. Except for the interrupt dispatchers, code in the preemptive scheduling context also shares the same stack with the cooperative scheduling context. All protection domains also share a main data section, so similar considerations are also relevant to that.

Introducing multi-core support would complicate things further, since another core running a protection domain that the first core never invoked could access data from the protection domain on the first core. It may be possible to adequately address such concerns by allocating per-core stacks.

Note that this stack arrangement means that a given protection domain may read and write data written to the stack by some other protection domain. For example, a protection domain B may push data onto the stack and later pop that data off of the stack, but a protection domain A that invoked protection domain B may still be able to read the data that was pushed and popped to and from the stack, since popping the data off of the stack does not automatically erase that stack memory location. Another possibility is that protection domain B may modify a stack entry pushed by protection domain A before it invoked protection domain B, and protection domain A may later use the modified value. Permitting legitimate accesses to callers' stacks is in fact the primary motivation for this stack arrangement, in that it makes it simple for A to pass data to and from B (on the shared stack) when requesting services from B. A system call invocation is nearly transparent to the developer, appearing almost identical to an ordinary function call. However, B can access any data on the stack. The third case is that A can read data placed on the stack by B after B returns, unless B wipes that data from the stack before returning. A related sub-case is that if an interrupt handler is invoked, it pushes the current contents of the general-purpose registers onto the stack, which may then be revealed to other protection domains besides the one that was interrupted. However, interrupts are only actually enabled in the application protection domain.

Similarly, register contents may be accessed and modified across protection domain boundaries in some protection domain implementations. The TSS task switching mechanism automatically saves and restores many registers to and from TSS data structures when switching tasks, but the other protection domain implementations do not perform analogous operations.

For the reasons described above, each protection domain should only invoke other protection domains that it trusts to properly handle data on the stack.

Design

Boot Process

The system boots in the following phases.

UEFI Bootstrap

Primary implementation sources:

• cpu/x86/uefi/bootstrap_uefi.c

When the OS is compiled as a UEFI binary, a short bootstrap phase that is UEFI-compliant is run initially. It simply performs a minimal set of functions to exit the UEFI boot services and then transfer control to the Multiboot bootstrap phase.

Multiboot Bootstrap

Primary implementation sources:

• cpu/x86/bootstrap_quarkX1000.S

This phase disables interrupts, sets the stack pointer to the top of the main stack, and then invokes boot stage 0.

Boot Stage 0

Primary implementation sources:

• cpu/x86/init/common/cpu.c
• cpu/x86/init/common/gdt.c

The UEFI firmware or Multiboot-compliant bootloader should have configured an initial Global Descriptor Table (GDT) with flat segments and configured the CPU to operate in protected mode with paging disabled. Flat segments each map the whole 4GiB physical memory space. This is the state of the system when the OS enters boot stage 0. This stage is responsible for setting up a new GDT and loading the segment registers with the appropriate descriptors from the new GDT to enable boot stage 1 to run. Code in stage 1 for multi-segment protection domain implementations require that the appropriate segment-based address translations be configured.

Boot Stage 1

Primary implementation sources:

• cpu/x86/init/common/cpu.c
• cpu/x86/init/common/idt.c
• cpu/x86/mm/prot-domains.c

Boot stage 1 intializes the Interrupt Descriptor Table (IDT) and installs a handler for double-fault exceptions. Handlers for additional interrupts and exceptions are installed later in boot stages 1 and 2.

This stage also initializes protection domain support and enters the kernel protection domain.

Boot Stage 2

Primary implementation sources:

• cpu/x86/init/common/cpu.c
• platform/galileo/contiki-main.c

The entrypoint for the kernel protection domain is 'main'. Boot stage 2 initializes hardware devices and associated interrupts. It then transfers control to the application protection domain. Note that this is a transfer of control, not a call that would be matched with some future return. This is an important distinction, because protection domains are not reentrant. Thus, if the kernel protection domain called the application protection domain, it would not be possible to invoke any kernel system calls until the system is reset, since the application protection domain never exits/returns while the system is running. There are not actually any kernel system calls provided in the initial implementation of protection domains, but they may be added in the future.

The core protection domain configuration (e.g. allowable system calls and entrypoints, registered protection domains, etc.) is frozen by the conclusion of boot stage 2 to help prevent erroneous changes that could reduce the robustness of the system. The way that it is frozen is that there are no kernel system calls that are intended to permit changes to the core protection domain configuration. Thus, once the kernel protection domain has exited, the only way the core protection domain configuration can change would be due to undesirable memory manipulations (e.g. due to a faulty device driver).

Boot Stage 3

Primary implementation sources:

• platform/galileo/contiki-main.c

Boot stage 3 performs initialization procedures that are less tightly-coupled to hardware. For example, it launches Contiki processes and invokes Contiki configuration routines.

Privilege Levels

When protection domain support is inactive, all code runs at ring/privilege level 0. When protection domain support is active, only exception handlers and system call dispatchers (including dispatchers for system call returns) run at ring level 0. Code in the preemptive scheduling context runs at ring level 2 and code in the cooperative scheduling context runs at ring level 3. Ring levels with higher numbers are less privileged than those with lower numbers. Ring level 1 is unused.

IO and Interrupt Privileges

The kernel protection domain cooperative scheduling context needs access to IO ports, for device initialization. Some other protection domains also require such access. The IO Privilege Level (IOPL) that is assigned to a protection domain using the relevant bits in the EFLAGS field could be set according to whether IO port access is required in that protection domain. This is straightforward for TSS, which includes separate flags settings for each protection domain. However, this would introduce additional complexity and overhead in the critical system call and return dispatchers for other plugins. Instead, the IOPL is always set to block IO access from the cooperative scheduling context. Port IO instructions in that context will then generate general protection faults, and the exception handler decodes and emulates authorized port IO instructions.

Interrupts are handled at ring level 2, since they do not use any privileged instructions. They do cause the interrupt flag to be cleared as they are delivered. The interrupt flag can only be modified by instructions executing at a ring level that is numerically less than or equal to the IOPL. Each interrupt handler needs to set the interrupt flag using the IRET instruction when it returns. Protection domains that require access to port IO (currently just the kernel protection domain) are configured with an IOPL of 3 whereas others are configured with an IOPL of 2. That is why interrupts are configured to run at ring level 2. Interrupts are only enabled in the application protection domain.

Some interrupt handlers require access to port IO, and all are permitted such access, since they need it anyway for restoring the interrupt flag when returning. IO port access is a very powerful privilege, since it can be used to remap MMIO regions of PCI devices, reconfigure PCI devices, etc. Thus, further restricting access to IO ports may improve the robustness of the system, but would increase complexity and space requirements and possibly necessitate additional context switches, since IO port access is controlled by the combined settings of IOPL as well as an optional IO bitmap in the TSS.

Interrupt and Exception Dispatching

Primary implementation sources:

• cpu/x86/init/common/interrupt.h

Separate stacks are allocated for dispatching interrupts and exceptions. However, to save space, the main bodies of some interrupt and exception handlers are run on the main stack. A handler may expect to have access to data from the interrupt or exception stack, so the interrupt or exception dispatcher copies that data prior to pivoting to the main stack and executing the handler.

Protection Domain Control Structures (PDCSes)

Each protection domain is managed by the kernel and privileged functions using a PDCS. The structure of the PDCS is partially hardware-imposed in the cases of the two segment-based plugins, since the PDCS contains the Local Descriptor Table (LDT) and the TSS, if applicable. In the paging plugin, the PDCS structure is entirely software-defined. None of the initial protection domain plugins support re-entrant protection domains due to hardware-imposed limitations of TSS and to simplify the implementation of the other plugins by enabling domain-specific information (e.g. system call return address) to be trivially stored in each PDCS.

Paging-Based Protection Domains

Primary implementation sources:

• cpu/x86/mm/paging-prot-domains.c
• cpu/x86/mm/syscalls-int.c
• cpu/x86/mm/syscalls-int-asm.S

Introduction

Only a single page table is used for all protection domains. A flat memory model is used. Almost all linear-to-physical address mappings are identity mappings, with the exceptions being the MMIO and metadata regions. The X86 port of Contiki currently only supports at most one MMIO and one metadata range per driver, and the paging-based protection domain implementation always starts at particular linear addresses when mapping an MMIO or metadata range. This may reduce overhead, due to the way protection domain switches are implemented.

System Call and Return Dispatching

The system call dispatcher executes at ring level 0, since it uses the privileged INVLPG or MOV CR3 instructions to invalidate TLB entries. The dispatcher modifies page table entries to grant only the permissions required by the protection domain being activated. It then optionally uses the INVLPG instruction to invalidate any TLB entries for any page table entries that were modified. If INVLPG is not used to invalidate specific TLB entries, then CR3 is reloaded to invalidate the entire TLB (global entries would be excluded, but they are not used in this implementation).

It is more efficient to always start at a particular linear address when mapping an MMIO or metadata region, since the page table entries for that region can be updated to unmap any previous region of that type, map the new region, and then invalidated to cause the new settings to take effect. The alternative using an identity linear-to-physical address mapping for regions would be to unmap the previous region by editing one set of page table entries and to then map the new region by editing a different set of page table entries and to finally perform invalidations for both sets of page table entries. Another drawback of such an identity address mapping is that additional page tables may need to be allocated to represent the various MMIO regions, since page tables are indexed by linear address and MMIO regions are often at high physical addresses. Note that this is specific to MMIO regions, since metadata regions are not at particularly high physical addresses. Additionally, if different base linear addresses are used, it is necessary to communicate those to the system call handler code so that the regions can be accessed. This would require care to prevent an adversary from manipulating the addresses and it may increase complexity.

The overall process of handling a system call can be illustrated at a high level as follows. Some minor steps are omitted in the interest of clarity and brevity.

 == BEGIN Client protection domain ==========================================
 -- BEGIN Caller ------------------------------------------------------------
  1.  Call system call stub.
 --
  20. Continue execution...
 -- END Caller --------------------------------------------------------------
 -- BEGIN System call stub --------------------------------------------------
  2.  Already in desired (server) protection domain?
    - No: Issue software interrupt #100 to request system call.
    - Yes: Jump to system call body.
 -- END System call stub ----------------------------------------------------
 == END Client protection domain ============================================
 == BEGIN Ring level 0 ======================================================
 -- BEGIN System call dispatcher---------------------------------------------
  3.  Check that the requested system call is allowed.  Get entrypoint.
  4.  Check that the server protection domain is available (not yet present
      in the protection domain call stack) and then mark it as busy.
  5.  Save the caller return address from the main stack into the client
      PDCS.
  6.  Overwrite the caller return address on the main stack to point to
      system call return stub.
  7.  Push server protection domain onto protection domain call stack.
  8.  Update the interrupt return stack EIP to start of system call body.
  9.  Update and invalidate page table entries to grant only the permissions
      required by the server protection domain.
  10. Update interrupt flag to disable interrupts, since interrupts are only
      enabled in app protection domain, which exports no system calls.
  11. Perform interrupt return (IRET).
 -- END System call dispatcher ----------------------------------------------
 -- BEGIN System call return dispatcher -------------------------------------
  15. Mark protection domain on top of protection domain call stack as
      available.
  16. Retrieve the caller return address from the kernel data structure for
      the client protection domain and use it to overwrite the EIP in the
      interrupt return stack.
  17. Update and invalidate page table entries to grant only the permissions
      required by the client protection domain.
  18. Update interrupt flag to only enable interrupts if returning to app
      protection domain cooperative scheduling context.
  19. Perform interrupt return (IRET).
 -- END System call dispatcher ----------------------------------------------
 == END Ring level 0 ========================================================
 == BEGIN Server protection domain ==========================================
 -- BEGIN System call body --------------------------------------------------
  12. Execute the work for the requested system call.
  13. Return (to system call return stub, unless invoked from server
      protection domain, in which case return is to caller).
 -- END System call body ----------------------------------------------------
 -- BEGIN System call return stub -------------------------------------------
  14. Issue software interrupt #101 to request system call return.
 -- END System call return stub ---------------------------------------------
 == END Server protection domain ============================================

The first step in performing a system call is to invoke a system call stub that actually issues the software interrupt to request a system call dispatch. This approach reduces disruption to existing code, since macros are used to generate separate stubs and corresponding system call bodies with a single system call signature definition.

Memory Layout

The approximate memory layout of the system is depicted below, starting with the highest physical addresses and proceeding to lower physical addresses. Optional permissions are denoted with parentheses. See cpu/x86/quarkX1000_paging.ld for details of how this memory layout is implemented.

                                              | Kernel | App    | Other  |
 ...                                          +--------+--------+--------+
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Domain X MMIO                            | |        |        | (RW)   |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 ...                                          |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Domain X DMA-accessible metadata         | |        |        | (RW)   |
 | (section .dma_bss)                       | |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Domain X metadata (section .meta_bss)    | |        |        | (RW)   |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 ...                                          |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Kernel-private data                      | | RW     |        |        |
 | (sections .prot_dom_bss, .gdt_bss, etc.) | |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | System call data (section .syscall_bss)  | | RW     | R      | R      |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Kernel-owned data (section .kern_bss)    | | RW     | R      | R      |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Page-aligned, Kernel-owned data          | | RW     | R      | R      |
 | (section .page_aligned_kern_bss)         | |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Common data                              | | RW     | RW     | RW     |
 | (sections .data, .rodata*, .bss, etc.)   | |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 (not-present guard band page)                |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Exception stack                          | | RW     | RW     | RW     |
 | (section .exc_stack)                     | |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Interrupt stack                          | | RW     | RW     | RW     |
 | (section .int_stack)                     | |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Main stack (section .main_stack)         | | RW     | RW     | RW     |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 (not-present guard band page)                |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Main code (.text)                        | | RX     | RX     | RX     |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Bootstrap code (section .boot_text)      | |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 | Multiboot header                         | |        |        |        |
 +------------------------------------------+ |        |        |        |
 ...

The only protection domain that is permitted to access kernel-owned data is the kernel protection domain. Some devices can also be instructed to perform DMA to kernel-owned data, although that is an incorrect configuration.

Paging only differentiates between memory accesses from ring 3 (user level) and those from rings 0-2 (supervisor level). To avoid granting code running in the preemptive scheduling context supervisory write access to kernel data structures (including the page tables), those structures are marked read-only (except when the kernel protection domain is active) and the Write Protect (WP) bit in Control Register 0 (CR0) is cleared only when it is necessary to update a write-protected structure. Only ring 0 is allowed to modify CR0.

Optional metadata for each protection domain is intended to only be accessible from the associated protection domain and devices.

Read accesses to executable code have not been observed to be needed in at least a limited set of tests, but they are permitted, since paging does not support an execute-only permission setting. On the other hand, the Execute-Disable feature is used to prevent execution of non-code memory regions. All non-startup code is mapped in all protection domains. Limiting the code that is executable within each protection domain to just the code that is actually needed within that protection domain could improve the robustness of the system, but it is challenging to determine all code that may be needed in a given protection domain (e.g. all needed library routines).

Stack accesses to non-stack memory are not needed, but they are permitted. However, one page of unmapped linear address space is placed above and below the stacks to detect erroneous stack accesses to those linear address regions, which are the types of accesses most likely to occur during a stack overflow or underflow condition. The main stack is placed just below the interrupt stack, which is just below the exception stack. Stack overflows are more common than stack underflows, which motivates arranging the stacks such that an overflow from a less-critical stack will not affect a more-critical stack. Furthermore, the main stack is the most likely to overflow, since the code that uses it is typically the most voluminous and difficult to characterize. That provides additional motivation for positioning it such that an overflow results in an immediate page fault. An alternative design placing each stack on a separate group of contiguous pages may improve the robustness of the system by permitting the insertion of unmapped guard pages around them to generate page faults in the event an overflow or underflow occurs on any stack. However, that would consume additional memory.

Data in the .rodata sections is marked read/write, even though it may be possible to improve the robustness of the system by marking that data as read-only. Doing so would introduce additional complexity into the system.

Hardware-Switched Segment-Based Protection Domains

Primary implementation sources:

• cpu/x86/mm/tss-prot-domains.c
• cpu/x86/mm/tss-prot-domains-asm.S

Introduction

One TSS is allocated for each protection domain. Each one is associated with its own dedicated LDT. The memory resources assigned to each protection domain are represented as segment descriptors in the LDT for the protection domain. Additional shared memory resources are represented as segment descriptors in the GDT.

System Call and Return Dispatching

The system call dispatcher runs in the context of the server protection domain. It is a common piece of code that is shared among all protection domains. Thus, each TSS, except the application TSS, has its EIP field initialized to the entrypoint for the system call dispatcher so that will be the first code to run when the first switch to that task is performed.

The overall process of handling a system call can be illustrated at a high level as follows. Some minor steps are omitted from this illustration in the interest of clarity and brevity.

 == BEGIN Client protection domain ==========================================
 -- BEGIN Caller ------------------------------------------------------------
  1.  Call system call stub.
 --
  13. Continue execution...
 -- END Caller --------------------------------------------------------------
 -- BEGIN System call stub --------------------------------------------------
  2.  Already in desired (server) protection domain?
    - No: Request task switch to server protection domain.
    - Yes: Jump to system call body.
 --
  12. Return to caller.
 -- END System call stub ----------------------------------------------------
 == END Client protection domain ============================================
 == BEGIN Server protection domain ==========================================
 -- BEGIN System call dispatcher---------------------------------------------
  3.  Check that the requested system call is allowed.  Get entrypoint.
  4.  Switch to the main stack.
  5.  Pop the client return address off the stack to a callee-saved register.
  6.  Push the address of the system call return dispatcher onto the stack.
  7.  Jump to system call body.
 --
  10. Restore the client return address to the stack.
  11. Request task switch to client protection domain.
 -- END System call dispatcher ----------------------------------------------
 -- BEGIN System call body --------------------------------------------------
  8.  Execute the work for the requested system call.
  9.  Return (to system call return stub, unless invoked from server
      protection domain, in which case return is to caller).
 -- END System call body ----------------------------------------------------
 == END Server protection domain ============================================

An additional exception handler is needed, for the "Device Not Available" exception. The handler comprises just a CLTS and an IRET instruction. The CLTS instruction is privileged, which is why it must be run at ring level 0. This exception handler is invoked when a floating point instruction is used following a task switch, and its sole purpose is to enable the floating point instruction to execute after the exception handler returns. See the TSS resources listed above for more details regarding interactions between task switching and floating point instructions.

Each segment register may represent a different data region within each protection domain, although the FS register is used for two separate purposes at different times. The segments are defined as follows:

• CS (code segment) maps all non-startup code with execute-only permissions in all protection domains. Limiting the code that is executable within each protection domain to just the code that is actually needed within that protection domain could improve the robustness of the system, but it is challenging to determine all code that may be needed in a given protection domain (e.g. all needed library routines). Furthermore, that code may not all be contiguous, and each segment descriptor can only map a contiguous memory region. Finally, segment-based memory addressing is relative to an offset of zero from the beginning of each segment, introducing additional complexity if such fine-grained memory management were to be used.
• DS (default data segment) typically maps the main stack and all non-stack data memory that is accessible from all protection domains. Limiting the data that is accessible via DS within each protection domain to just the subset of the data that is actually needed within that protection domain could improve the robustness of the system, but it is challenging for similar reasons to those that apply to CS. Access to the main stack via DS is supported so that code that copies the stack pointer to a register and attempts to access stack entries via DS works correctly. Disallowing access to the main stack via DS could improve the robustness of the system, but that may require modifying code that expects to be able to access the stack via DS.
• ES is loaded with the same segment descriptor as DS so that string operations (e.g. the MOVS instruction) work correctly.
• FS usually maps the kernel-owned data region. That region can only be written via FS in the kernel protection domain. FS contains a descriptor specifying a read-only mapping in all other protection domains except the application protection domain, in which FS is nullified. Requiring that code specifically request access to the kernel-owned data region by using the FS segment may improve the robustness of the system by blocking undesired accesses to the kernel-owned data region via memory access instructions within the kernel protection domain that implicitly access DS. The reason for granting read-only access to the kernel-owned data region from most protection domains is that the system call dispatcher runs in the context of the server protection domain to minimize overhead, and it requires access to the kernel-owned data region. It may improve the robustness of the system to avoid this by running the system call dispatcher in a more-privileged ring level (e.g. ring 1) within the protection domain and just granting access to the kernel-owned data region from that ring. However, that would necessitate a ring level transition to ring 3 when dispatching the system call, which would increase overhead. The application protection domain does not export any system calls, so it does not require access to the kernel-owned data region.
• FS is temporarily loaded with a segment descriptor that maps just an MMIO region used by a driver protection domain when such a driver needs to perform MMIO accesses.
• GS maps an optional region of readable and writable metadata that can be associated with a protection domain. In protection domains that are not associated with metadata, GS is nullified.
• SS usually maps just the main stack. This may improve the robustness of the system by enabling immediate detection of stack underflows and overflows rather than allowing such a condition to result in silent data corruption. Interrupt handlers use a stack segment that covers the main stack and also includes a region above the main stack that is specifically for use by interrupt handlers. In like manner, exception handlers use a stack segment that covers both of the other stacks and includes an additional region. This is to support the interrupt dispatchers that copy parameters from the interrupt-specific stack region to the main stack prior to pivoting to the main stack to execute an interrupt handler body.

The approximate memory layout of the system is depicted below, starting with the highest physical addresses and proceeding to lower physical addresses. The memory ranges that are mapped at various times by each of the segment registers are also depicted. Read the descriptions of each segment above for more information about what memory range may be mapped by each segment register at various times with various protection domain configurations. Parenthetical notes indicate the protection domains that can use each mapping. The suffix [L] indicates that the descriptor is loaded from LDT. Optional mappings are denoted by a '?' after the protection domain label. The 'other' protection domain label refers to protection domains other than the application and kernel domains.

 ...
 +------------------------------------------+ \
 | Domain X MMIO                            | +- FS[L]
 +------------------------------------------+ /  (other?)
 ...
 +------------------------------------------+ \
 | Domain X DMA-accessible metadata         | +- GS[L] (other?)
 | (section .dma_bss)                       | |
 +------------------------------------------+ /
 +------------------------------------------+ \
 | Domain X metadata (section .meta_bss)    | +- GS[L] (other?)
 +------------------------------------------+ /
 ...
 +------------------------------------------+ \
 | Kernel-private data                      | |
 | (sections .prot_dom_bss, .gdt_bss, etc.) | +- FS[L] (kern)
 +------------------------------------------+ |
 +------------------------------------------+ \
 | System call data (section .syscall_bss)  | |
 +------------------------------------------+ +- FS[L] (all)
 +------------------------------------------+ |
 | Kernel-owned data (section .kern_bss)    | |
 +------------------------------------------+ /
 +------------------------------------------+             \
 | Common data                              |             |
 | (sections .data, .rodata*, .bss, etc.)   |             |
 +------------------------------------------+             +- DS, ES
 +------------------------------------------+ \           |  (all)
 | Exception stack (section .exc_stack)     | |           |
 |+----------------------------------------+| \           |
 || Interrupt stack (section .int_stack)   || |           |
 ||+--------------------------------------+|| \           |
 ||| Main stack (section .main_stack)     ||| +- SS (all) |
 +++--------------------------------------+++ /           /
 +------------------------------------------+ \
 | Main code (.text)                        | +- CS (all)
 +------------------------------------------+ /
 +------------------------------------------+
 | Bootstrap code (section .boot_text)      |
 +------------------------------------------+
 +------------------------------------------+
 | Multiboot header                         |
 +------------------------------------------+
 ...

This memory layout is more efficient than the layout that is possible with paging-based protection domains, since segments have byte granularity, whereas the minimum unit of control supported by paging is a 4KiB page. For example, this means that metadata may need to be padded to be a multiple of the page size. This may also permit potentially-undesirable accesses to padded areas of code and data regions that do not entirely fill the pages that they occupy.

Kernel data structure access, including to the descriptor tables themselves, is normally restricted to the code running at ring level 0, specifically the exception handlers and the system call and return dispatchers. It is also accessible from the cooperative scheduling context in the kernel protection domain. Interrupt delivery is disabled in the kernel protection domain, so the preemptive scheduling context is not used.

SS, DS, and ES all have the same base address, since the compiler may assume that a flat memory model is in use. Memory accesses that use a base register of SP/ESP or BP/EBP or that are generated by certain other instructions (e.g. PUSH, RET, etc.) are directed to SS by default, whereas other accesses are directed to DS or ES by default. The compiler may use an instruction that directs an access to DS or ES even if the data being accessed is on the stack, which is why these three segments must use the same base address. However, it is possible to use a lower limit for SS than for DS and ES for the following reasons. Compilers commonly provide an option for preventing the frame pointer, EBP, from being omitted and possibly used to point to non-stack data. In our tests, compilers never used ESP to point to non-stack data.

Each task switch ends up saving and restoring more state than is actually useful to us, but the implementation attempts to minimize overhead by configuring the register values in each TSS to reduce the number of register loads that are needed in the system call dispatcher. Specifically, two callee-saved registers are populated with base addresses used when computing addresses in the entrypoint information table as well as a mask corresponding to the ID of the server protection domain that is used to check whether the requested system call is exported by the server protection domain. Callee-saved registers are used, since the task return will update the saved register values.

Note that this implies that the intervening code run between the task call and return can modify critical data used by the system call dispatcher. However, this is analogous to the considerations associated with sharing a single stack amongst all protection domains and should be addressed similarly, by only invoking protection domains that are trusted by the caller to not modify the saved critical values. This consideration is specific to the TSS-based dispatcher and is not shared by the ring 0 dispatcher used in the other plugins.

Data in the .rodata sections is marked read/write, even though it may be possible to improve the robustness of the system by marking that data as read-only. Doing so would introduce even more complexity into the system than would be the case with paging-based protection domains, since it would require allocating different segment descriptors for the read-only vs. the read/write data.

Supporting Null-Pointer Checks

A lot of code considers a pointer value of 0 to be invalid. However, segment offsets always start at 0. To accommodate the common software behavior, at least the first byte of each segment is marked as unusable. An exception to this is that the first byte of the stack segments is usable.

Interrupt and Exception Dispatching

A distinctive challenge that occurs during interrupt and exception dispatching is that the state of the segment registers when an interrupt or exception occurs is somewhat unpredictable. For example, an exception may occur while MMIO is being performed, meaning that FS is loaded with the MMIO descriptor instead of the kernel descriptor. Leaving the segment registers configured in that way could cause incorrect interrupt or exception handler behavior. Thus, the interrupt or exception dispatcher must save the current segment configuration, switch to a configuration that is suitable for the handler body, and then restore the saved segment configuration after the handler body returns. Another motivation for this is that the interrupted code may have corrupted the segment register configuration in an unexpected manner, since segment register load instructions are unprivileged. Similar segment register updates must be performed for similar reasons when dispatching system calls.

Software-Switched Segment-Based Protection Domains

Primary implementation sources:

• cpu/x86/mm/swseg-prot-domains.c

The requirement to allocate a TSS for each protection domain in the hardware-switched segments plugin may consume a substantial amount of space, since the size of each TSS is fixed by hardware to be at least 104 bytes. The software-switched segments plugin saves space by defining a more compact PDCS. However, the layout and definitions of the segments is identical to what was described above for the hardware-switched segments plugin.

The system call and return procedure is mostly identical to that for paging-based protection domains. However, instead of updating and invalidating page tables, the dispatchers update the LDT and some of the segment registers.

Pointer Validation

Primary implementation sources:

• cpu/x86/mm/syscalls.h

At the beginning of each system call routine, it is necessary to check that any untrusted pointer that could have been influenced by a caller (i.e. a stack parameter or global variable) refers to a location above the return address and to halt otherwise. This is to prevent a protection domain from calling a different protection domain and passing a pointer that references a location in the callee's stack other than its parameters to influence the execution of the callee in an unintended manner. For example, if an incoming pointer referenced the return address, it could potentially redirect execution with the privileges of the callee protection domain.

When the paging-based plugin is in use, it is also necessary to check that the pointer is either within the stack region or the shared data region (or a guard band region, since that will generate a fault) to prevent redirection of data accesses to MMIO or metadata regions. The other plugins already configure segments to restrict accesses to DS to just those regions. Pointers provided as inputs to system calls as defined above should never be dereferenced in any segment other than DS.

The pointer is both validated and copied to a new storage location, which must be within the callee's local stack region (excluding the parameter region). This is to mitigate scenarios such as two pointers being validated and an adversary later inducing a write through one of the pointers to the other pointer to corrupt the latter pointer before it is used.

Any pointer whose value is fixed at link or load time does not need to be validated prior to use, since no adversary within the defined threat model is able to influence the link or load process.

DMA Restrictions

Primary implementation sources:

• cpu/x86/drivers/quarkX1000/imr.c
• cpu/x86/drivers/quarkX1000/imr-conf.c

The CPU is not the only agent with the ability to issue requests to the interconnect within the SoC. For example, SoC peripherals such as the Ethernet driver use DMA to efficiently access memory buffers. This could introduce a risk that DMA could be used to bypass the memory protections enforced on the CPU by segmentation or paging. For example, a device driver could instruct a device to access a memory region to which the kernel has not granted the driver's protection domain permission to access.

The Isolated Memory Region (IMR) feature is configured to restrict the memory that can be accessed by system agents other than the CPU [3]. It only allows those system agents to access portions of the Contiki memory space that are specifically intended to be used with DMA. The source code for each protection domain specifies that its optional metadata region needs to be accessible from other system agents besides the CPU by using ATTR_BSS_DMA instead of ATTR_BSS_META when allocating storage for the metadata.

Extending the Framework

Adding a New Protection Domain

The following steps are required. See the existing device drivers for examples of various types of protection domains and how they are initialized.

• Allocate storage for the PDCS and the corresponding client-accessible data structure using the PROT_DOMAINS_ALLOC macro.
• Apply the ATTR_BSS_META attribute to the metadata structure, if applicable. Apply the ATTR_BSS_DMA attribute instead if the metadata structure needs to be DMA-accessible. Pad the metadata structure to completely fill an integer multiple of the minimum page size, 4096, when paging-based protection domains are in use. See the definition of quarkX1000_eth_meta_t for an example.
• Perform the following steps during boot stage 2:
  • Initialize the protection domain ID in the client-accessible data structure using the PROT_DOMAINS_INIT_ID macro.
  • Register the domain. See prot-domains.c:prot_domains_init for an example of registering a non-driver protection domain. See cpu/x86/drivers/quarkX1000/eth.c:quarkX1000_eth_init for an example of registering a PCI driver protection domain with an MMIO region and a metadata region.

Adding a New System Call

The following steps are required:

• Define the system call procedure using the SYSCALLS_DEFINE or SYSCALLS_DEFINE_SINGLETON macro. See cpu/x86/drivers/legacy_pc/uart-16x50.c:uart_16x50_tx for an example of a non-singleton system call. See cpu/x86/drivers/quarkX1000/eth.c:quarkX1000_eth_send for an example of a singleton system call. A singleton system call is one for which at most one server protection domain will be associated with it.
• During boot phase 2, associate the system call with one or more server protection domains using the SYSCALLS_AUTHZ macro.

Usage

To enable protection domain support, add "X86_CONF_PROT_DOMAINS=" to the command line and specify one of the following options:

• paging
• tss
• swseg

The paging option accepts a sub-option to determine whether the TLB is fully- or selectively-invalidated during protection domain switches. By default, full invalidation is selected. Set the X86_CONF_USE_INVLPG variable to 1 to override the default.

References

[1] J. H. Saltzer, "Protection and the Control of Information Sharing in Multics," Commun. ACM, vol. 17, no. 7, pp. 388-402, Jul. 1974.

[2] https://github.com/contiki-os/contiki/wiki/Processes

[3] "Intel(R) Quark(TM) SoC X1000 Secure Boot Programmer's Reference Manual," http://www.intel.com/support/processors/quark/sb/CS-035228.htm