In linux-2.6.16, we have noticed a problem where the gs base value
returned from an arch_prtcl(ARCH_GET_GS, ...) call will be incorrect if:
- the current/calling task has NOT set its own gs base yet to a
non-zero value,
- some other task that ran on the same processor previously set their
own gs base to a non-zero value.
In this situation, the ARCH_GET_GS code will read and return the
MSR_KERNEL_GS_BASE msr register.
However, since the __switch_to() code does NOT load/zero the
MSR_KERNEL_GS_BASE register when the task that is switched IN has a zero
next->gs value, the caller of arch_prctl(ARCH_GET_GS, ...) will get back
the value of some previous tasks's gs base value instead of 0.
Change the arch_prctl() ARCH_GET_GS code to only read and return
the MSR_KERNEL_GS_BASE msr register if the 'gs' register of the calling
task is non-zero.
Side note: Since in addition to using arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_GS, ...),
a task can also setup a gs base value by using modify_ldt() and write
an index value into 'gs' from user space, the patch below reads
'gs' instead of using thread.gs, since in the modify_ldt() case,
the thread.gs value will be 0, and incorrect value would be returned
(the task->thread.gs value).
When the user has not set its own gs base value and the 'gs'
register is zero, then the MSR_KERNEL_GS_BASE register will not be
read and a value of zero will be returned by reading and returning
'task->thread.gs'.
The first patch shown below is an attempt at implementing this
approach.
Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
John Blackwood
97c2803c9c