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Re: [Xen-ia64-devel] [PATCH] Fix vulnerability of copy_to_user in PAL em

To: Kouya Shimura <kouya@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Xen-ia64-devel] [PATCH] Fix vulnerability of copy_to_user in PAL emulation
From: tgingold@xxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:15:16 +0100
Cc: xen-ia64-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Quoting Kouya Shimura <kouya@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> There is a security vulnerability in PAL emulation
> since alt-dtlb miss handler of HVM absolutely
> inserts a identity-mapped TLB when psr.vm=0.
>
> HVM guest can access an arbitrary machine physical
> memory with this security hole.
>
> Actually windows 2008 destroys the content of machine
> physical address 0x108000. This is a serious problem.

Hi,

I was not aware that this issue was that serious.  Thank you for pointing this
out.

I think your solution is not the right approach.  We already have a mechanism
to avoid TLB issues: xencomm, and I think we should re-use it.

As we control the PAL (which is always in guest space), I think we should simply
xencomm-ize it (Must be done both in the GFW and PV firmware).

Tristan.

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