Arm TF-A can not access linux kernel's virtual/physical address? - TF-A

19 Aug 2024


      In my opinion, Arm TF-A (EL3) has higher privileges than Linux Kernel 
(EL1), and Secure World should be able to access all memory address in 
Normal World. To verify this feature, I added a new SMC call in Arm TF-A 
and wrote a kernel module to test it (on a Hikey960 Development Board). 
But the program does not run as expected that Arm TF-A stucked while 
accessing the memory address passed by Linux Kernel.
Here is my kernel module, which uses `alloc_pages` to acquire a physical 
address, and uses `page_address` converting it to a virtual address. And 
the module passes the physical address and the virtual address to Arm 
TF-A using `smc #0`:
```cpp
static int __init smc_testing_init(void) {
     uintptr_t phys_addr, virt_addr;
pr_info("Mmodule loaded\n");
phys_addr = (uintptr_t) alloc_pages(GFP_KERNEL, 2);
     virt_addr = (uintptr_t) page_address((struct page *) phys_addr);
     memset((void *) virt_addr, 'A', PAGE_SIZE << 2);
     printk("phys_addr: 0x%llx, virt_addr: 0x%llx\n", (uint64_t) 
phys_addr, (uint64_t) virt_addr);
asm volatile(
         "ldr x0, =0xC8000003\n"
         "mov x1, %0\n"
         "mov x2, %1\n"
         "smc #0\n"
         :
         : "r" (phys_addr), "r" (virt_addr)
         : "x0", "x1", "x2"
     );
__free_pages((struct page *) phys_addr, 2);
return 0;
}
static void __exit smc_testing_exit(void) {
pr_info("Module unloaded\n");
}
```
And here is the handler's code in Arm TF-A, which prints the addresses 
of physical address and virtual address, and access the first element of 
the memory address:
```cpp
if (0xC8000003 == smc_fid) {
     uintptr_t virt_addr = x3;
NOTICE("phys_addr: 0x%lx, virt_addr: 0x%lx\n", phys_addr, virt_addr);
     NOTICE("virt_addr[0] = 0x%x\n", *((uint32_t *)virt_addr));
     NOTICE("phys_addr[0] = 0x%x\n", *((uint32_t *)phys_addr));
SMC_RET0(handle);
}
```
Here is the output, Arm TF-A handles the request successfully, but 
failed to access the memory address passed by Linux Kernel:
```bash
# insmod ./smc_testing.ko
[   75.259590] smc_testing: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[   75.266682] Mmodule loaded
[   75.269404] phys_addr: 0xfffffc0002dc5e00, virt_addr: 0xffff0000b7178000
NOTICE:  phys_addr: 0xfffffc0002dc5e00, virt_addr: 0xffff0000b7178000
[   96.276605] rcu: INFO: rcu_preempt detected stalls on CPUs/tasks:
[   96.282741] rcu:     4-...0: (1 ticks this GP) 
idle=72ec/1/0x4000000000000000 softirq=204/204 fqs=2592
[   96.291835]  (detected by 0, t=5253 jiffies, g=-643, q=16 ncpus=8)
[   96.298044] Task dump for CPU 4:
[   96.301287] task:insmod          state:R  running task stack:0     
pid:201   ppid:185    flags:0x00000006
[   96.311254] Call trace:
[   96.313713]  __switch_to+0xe4/0x160
[   96.317241]  printk_rb_static+0x30/0x58
```