This patch allows progs to elide a null check on statically known map lookup keys. In other words, if the verifier can statically prove that the lookup will be in-bounds, allow the prog to drop the null check.
This is useful for two reasons:
1. Large numbers of nullness checks (especially when they cannot fail) unnecessarily pushes prog towards BPF_COMPLEXITY_LIMIT_JMP_SEQ. 2. It forms a tighter contract between programmer and verifier.
For (1), bpftrace is starting to make heavier use of percpu scratch maps. As a result, for user scripts with large number of unrolled loops, we are starting to hit jump complexity verification errors. These percpu lookups cannot fail anyways, as we only use static key values. Eliding nullness probably results in less work for verifier as well.
For (2), percpu scratch maps are often used as a larger stack, as the currrent stack is limited to 512 bytes. In these situations, it is desirable for the programmer to express: "this lookup should never fail, and if it does, it means I messed up the code". By omitting the null check, the programmer can "ask" the verifier to double check the logic.
=== Changelog ===
Changes in v6: * Use is_spilled_scalar_reg() helper and remove unnecessary comment * Add back deleted selftest with different helper to dirty dst buffer * Check size of spill is exactly key_size and update selftests * Read slot_type from correct offset into the spi * Rewrite selftests in C where possible * Mark constant map keys as precise
Changes in v5: * Dropped all acks * Use s64 instead of long for const_map_key * Ensure stack slot contains spilled reg before accessing spilled_ptr * Ensure spilled reg is a scalar before accessing tnum const value * Fix verifier selftest for 32-bit write to write at 8 byte alignment to ensure spill is tracked * Introduce more precise tracking of helper stack accesses * Do constant map key extraction as part of helper argument processing and then remove duplicated stack checks * Use ret_flag instead of regs[BPF_REG_0].type * Handle STACK_ZERO * Fix bug in bpf_load_hdr_opt() arg annotation
Changes in v4: * Only allow for CAP_BPF * Add test for stack growing upwards * Improve comment about stack growing upwards
Changes in v3: * Check if stack is (erroneously) growing upwards * Mention in commit message why existing tests needed change
Changes in v2: * Added a check for when R2 is not a ptr to stack * Added a check for when stack is uninitialized (no stack slot yet) * Updated existing tests to account for null elision * Added test case for when R2 can be both const and non-const
Daniel Xu (5): bpf: verifier: Add missing newline on verbose() call bpf: tcp: Mark bpf_load_hdr_opt() arg2 as read-write bpf: verifier: Refactor helper access type tracking bpf: verifier: Support eliding map lookup nullness bpf: selftests: verifier: Add nullness elision tests
kernel/bpf/verifier.c | 139 +++++++++++---- net/core/filter.c | 2 +- .../testing/selftests/bpf/progs/dynptr_fail.c | 6 +- tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/iters.c | 14 +- .../selftests/bpf/progs/map_kptr_fail.c | 2 +- .../selftests/bpf/progs/test_global_func10.c | 2 +- .../selftests/bpf/progs/uninit_stack.c | 5 +- .../bpf/progs/verifier_array_access.c | 168 ++++++++++++++++++ .../bpf/progs/verifier_basic_stack.c | 2 +- .../selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_const_or.c | 4 +- .../progs/verifier_helper_access_var_len.c | 12 +- .../selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_int_ptr.c | 2 +- .../selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_map_in_map.c | 2 +- .../selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_mtu.c | 2 +- .../selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_raw_stack.c | 4 +- .../selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_unpriv.c | 2 +- .../selftests/bpf/progs/verifier_var_off.c | 8 +- tools/testing/selftests/bpf/verifier/calls.c | 2 +- .../testing/selftests/bpf/verifier/map_kptr.c | 2 +- 19 files changed, 311 insertions(+), 69 deletions(-)