+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+======================
+Memory Protection Keys
+======================
+
Memory Protection Keys for Userspace (PKU aka PKEYs) is a feature
which is found on Intel's Skylake "Scalable Processor" Server CPUs.
It will be avalable in future non-server parts.
permissions are enforced on data access only and have no effect on
instruction fetches.
-=========================== Syscalls ===========================
+Syscalls
+========
-There are 3 system calls which directly interact with pkeys:
+There are 3 system calls which directly interact with pkeys::
int pkey_alloc(unsigned long flags, unsigned long init_access_rights)
int pkey_free(int pkey);
directly in order to change access permissions to memory covered
with a key. In this example WRPKRU is wrapped by a C function
called pkey_set().
+::
int real_prot = PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE;
pkey = pkey_alloc(0, PKEY_DISABLE_WRITE);
... application runs here
Now, if the application needs to update the data at 'ptr', it can
-gain access, do the update, then remove its write access:
+gain access, do the update, then remove its write access::
pkey_set(pkey, 0); // clear PKEY_DISABLE_WRITE
*ptr = foo; // assign something
pkey_set(pkey, PKEY_DISABLE_WRITE); // set PKEY_DISABLE_WRITE again
Now when it frees the memory, it will also free the pkey since it
-is no longer in use:
+is no longer in use::
munmap(ptr, PAGE_SIZE);
pkey_free(pkey);
-(Note: pkey_set() is a wrapper for the RDPKRU and WRPKRU instructions.
- An example implementation can be found in
- tools/testing/selftests/x86/protection_keys.c)
+.. note:: pkey_set() is a wrapper for the RDPKRU and WRPKRU instructions.
+ An example implementation can be found in
+ tools/testing/selftests/x86/protection_keys.c.
-=========================== Behavior ===========================
+Behavior
+========
The kernel attempts to make protection keys consistent with the
-behavior of a plain mprotect(). For instance if you do this:
+behavior of a plain mprotect(). For instance if you do this::
mprotect(ptr, size, PROT_NONE);
something(ptr);
-you can expect the same effects with protection keys when doing this:
+you can expect the same effects with protection keys when doing this::
pkey = pkey_alloc(0, PKEY_DISABLE_WRITE | PKEY_DISABLE_READ);
pkey_mprotect(ptr, size, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, pkey);
something(ptr);
That should be true whether something() is a direct access to 'ptr'
-like:
+like::
*ptr = foo;
or when the kernel does the access on the application's behalf like
-with a read():
+with a read()::
read(fd, ptr, 1);