[PATCH] D112941: [clang] Add support for the new pointer authentication builtins.

Mon Nov 8 13:41:39 PST 2021

ab added inline comments.

================
Comment at: clang/include/clang/Driver/Options.td:2865-2872
+let Group = f_Group in {
+  let Flags = [CC1Option] in {
+    def fptrauth_intrinsics : Flag<["-"], "fptrauth-intrinsics">,
+      HelpText<"Enable pointer-authentication intrinsics">;
+  }
+  def fno_ptrauth_intrinsics : Flag<["-"], "fno-ptrauth-intrinsics">;
+}
----------------
rjmccall wrote:
> kristof.beyls wrote:
> > My impression is that generally for `__builtin_XXX` intrinsics, there are no compiler flags to make them available or remove their availability.
> > Is there a good reason why a command line option is needed for the `__builtin_ptrauth` intrinsics, but not (IIUC) for most or any other existing `__builtin_XXX` intrinsic?
> > If there is no good reason, it seems better to me to not have a command line option so there is better consistency across all `__builtin_XXX` intrinsics?
> > 
> > (after having read more of the patch): my impression has changed now that the f(no-)ptrauth-intrinsics flag rather selects whether the ptrauth intrinsics get lowered to PAuth hardware instructions, or to "regular" instructions emulating the behavior of authenticated pointers. If that is correct (and assuming it's a useful option to have), I would guess a different name for the command line option could be less misleading. As is, it suggests this selects whether ptrauth_ intrinsics are available or not. If instead, as I'm guessing above, this selects whether ptrauth_ intrinsics get lowered to PAuth instructions or not, maybe something like '-femulate-ptrauth' would describe the effect of the command line switch a bit better?
> The ptrauth features were implemented gradually, beginning with the intrinsics.  Originally we needed a way to enable the intrinsics feature without relying on target information.  We do still need a way to enable them without necessarily enabling automatic type/qualifier-based pointer authentication.  I don't know if we need to be able to *disable* them when the target supports them; I agree that that would be a little strange.
> 
> If not, we could just enable the intrinsics whenever either the target says they're okay or software emulation (a separate, experimental feature) is enabled.  The AArch64 target has a `+pauth` target feature.  However, I don't know if `-arch arm64e` actually adds that feature on Apple targets.  Also, the `HasPAuth` field in the clang `TargetInfo` does not appear to be properly initialized to `false` when `+pauth` *isn't* present; fortunately, that field never used.
> 
> I'm not sure if it would actually be okay to remove the `-fptrauth-intrinsics` driver option if we just enabled the intrinsics based on the target feature.  That does feel cleaner, but unfortunately, we at Apple probably have explicit uses of the option that we'd have to clean up before we could remove the option.  We could treat that as an Apple problem and keep it out of the open source tree, though, and maybe remove the option altogether someday.
> 
> Ahmed, thoughts?
Hmm, I agree it would be strange to need to disable the intrinsics, but we do also gate the various higher-level qualifiers (and intrinsics) on `ptrauth_intrinsics`.  So, in `ptrauth.h` (and in various users) the feature now really means "we're in a 'ptrauth-aware' environment".  And it does make more sense to keep that separate from "we're running on a CPU that theoretically could support ptrauth".  It comes down to what "ptrauth-aware" really means, and that's probably also an Apple problem, and all current users of `ptrauth_intrinsics` should use something like `__arm64e__` instead.

That still means there's no equivalent for other targets and/or software emulation, but that seems okay: `ptrauth.h` already needs changes to be usable from anywhere other than arm64e (cf. the discussion about keys), and we can cross that bridge when we get there.

(One could argue that all the language-feature-specific qualifiers and intrinsics should be gated on the appropriate ptrauth_whatever feature, but the qualifiers are often used in precisely the glue/runtime code that doesn't build in the appropriate mode, so doesn't have the feature enabled.)

So, concretely, we could:
- continue gating these plain intrinsics on `ptrauth_intrinsics` in ptrauth.h (IIRC there's an ACLE feature macro but it's specific to return address signing and BTI defaults; I'll check)
- enable the feature when `+pauth`
- replace all other uses of `ptrauth_intrinsics` with `__arm64e__`, in both ptrauth.h (gating the ABI qualifiers) and gradually in our internal codebases

and keep `-fptrauth-intrinsics` downstream for the transition (or, depending on how much the flag is really used, just keep the old behavior of enabling the feature for arm64e only;  but yeah, that's my downstream problem)

================
Comment at: clang/lib/Headers/ptrauth.h:19-37
+  /* A process-independent key which can be used to sign code pointers.
+     Signing and authenticating with this key is a no-op in processes
+     which disable ABI pointer authentication. */
+  ptrauth_key_process_independent_code = ptrauth_key_asia,
+
+  /* A process-specific key which can be used to sign code pointers.
+     Signing and authenticating with this key is enforced even in processes
----------------
kristof.beyls wrote:
> rjmccall wrote:
> > kristof.beyls wrote:
> > > I think, but am not sure, that the decision of which keys are process independent and which ones are process-dependent is a software platform choice?
> > > If so, maybe ptrauth_key_process_{in,}dependent_* should only get defined conditionally?
> > > I'm not sure if any decisions have been taken already for e.g. linux, Android, other platforms.
> > > If not, maybe this block of code should be surrounded by an ifdef that is enabled only when targeting Darwin?
> > Yes, in retrospect it was a bad idea to define these particular generic names.  I believe Apple platforms no longer have "process-independent" keys.  It should really just be (1) the concrete keys, (2) recommended default keys for code and data pointers, and then (3) the specific keys used in specific schemas.  Beyond that, if people want a specific different key for some purpose, they should ask for it.
> > 
> > Unfortunately, there's already a fair amount of code using these names.  We could deprecate the old names and point people towards the new names, though.
> Thanks for those background insights!
> I was thinking that maybe the keys that should be deprecated could be enabled only when targeting Apple platforms? I'm assuming here that most existing code using these only target Apple platforms; so making them available only when targeting Apple platforms could help with not letting the use of them spread further without impacting existing code much?
Or we could keep these downstream as well, and deprecate them there directly.

Worth mentioning we'll have a similar problem with the "language-feature-specific" key enums and qualifiers (e.g., `ptrauth_key_function_pointer`): they're currently hardcoded in ptrauth.h with the arm64e values.  I was thinking maybe they should be defined by the frontend and exposed to ptrauth.h through macros (and/or builtin types, or something else), so that the single source of truth is the frontend logic that decides which schemas are used where.  But that's a problem for another day.

So, concretely:
- remove these 4 key aliases (and transition them downstream, yadda yadda)
- gate the later key aliases (that describe the language ABI schemas) on `__arm64e__`
- figure out some more complicated way of defining these, as needed, for other targets

Repository:
  rG LLVM Github Monorepo

CHANGES SINCE LAST ACTION
  https://reviews.llvm.org/D112941/new/

https://reviews.llvm.org/D112941