diff --git a/Documentation/dev-tools/kasan.rst b/Documentation/dev-tools/kasan.rst index 69f384b0c2d3b6..f0dd0eaa9cde54 100644 --- a/Documentation/dev-tools/kasan.rst +++ b/Documentation/dev-tools/kasan.rst @@ -279,35 +279,35 @@ memory. Hardware tag-based KASAN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Hardware tag-based KASAN is similar to the software mode in concept, but uses +Hardware tag-based KASAN is similar to the software mode in concept but uses hardware memory tagging support instead of compiler instrumentation and shadow memory. Hardware tag-based KASAN is currently only implemented for arm64 architecture and based on both arm64 Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) introduced in ARMv8.5 -Instruction Set Architecture, and Top Byte Ignore (TBI). +Instruction Set Architecture and Top Byte Ignore (TBI). Special arm64 instructions are used to assign memory tags for each allocation. Same tags are assigned to pointers to those allocations. On every memory -access, hardware makes sure that tag of the memory that is being accessed is -equal to tag of the pointer that is used to access this memory. In case of a -tag mismatch a fault is generated and a report is printed. +access, hardware makes sure that the tag of the memory that is being accessed is +equal to the tag of the pointer that is used to access this memory. In case of a +tag mismatch, a fault is generated, and a report is printed. Hardware tag-based KASAN uses 0xFF as a match-all pointer tag (accesses through -pointers with 0xFF pointer tag aren't checked). The value 0xFE is currently +pointers with the 0xFF pointer tag are not checked). The value 0xFE is currently reserved to tag freed memory regions. -Hardware tag-based KASAN currently only supports tagging of -kmem_cache_alloc/kmalloc and page_alloc memory. +Hardware tag-based KASAN currently only supports tagging of slab and page_alloc +memory. -If the hardware doesn't support MTE (pre ARMv8.5), hardware tag-based KASAN -won't be enabled. In this case all boot parameters are ignored. +If the hardware does not support MTE (pre ARMv8.5), hardware tag-based KASAN +will not be enabled. In this case, all KASAN boot parameters are ignored. -Note, that enabling CONFIG_KASAN_HW_TAGS always results in in-kernel TBI being -enabled. Even when kasan.mode=off is provided, or when the hardware doesn't +Note that enabling CONFIG_KASAN_HW_TAGS always results in in-kernel TBI being +enabled. Even when ``kasan.mode=off`` is provided or when the hardware does not support MTE (but supports TBI). -Hardware tag-based KASAN only reports the first found bug. After that MTE tag +Hardware tag-based KASAN only reports the first found bug. After that, MTE tag checking gets disabled. Shadow memory