Cache the dont_correlate() result once per symbol at the start of
correlate_symbols(). This reduces klp diff time on an arm64 LTO
vmlinux.o from 2m51s to 35s.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Add debugging messages to show how duplicate symbols get correlated, and
split the --debug feature into --debug-correlate and --debug-clone.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Rewrite the symbol correlation code, using a tiered list of
deterministic strategies in a loop. For duplicately named symbols, each
tier applies a filter with the goal of finding a 1:1 deterministic
correlation between the original and patched version of the symbol.
The three matching strategies are:
find_twin(): A funnel of progressively tighter filters. Candidates
with the same demangled name are counted at four levels: name, scope
(local-vs-global), file (strict file association), and checksum
(unchanged functions). The widest level that yields a 1:1 match wins,
narrower levels are only tried when the wider level is ambiguous.
find_twin_suffixed(): Uses already-correlated LLVM symbol pairs to map
.llvm.<hash> suffixes from orig to patched. Because all promoted
symbols from the same TU share the same hash, one correlated pair
seeds the mapping for the entire TU.
find_twin_positional(): Last resort, matches symbols by position among
same-named candidates, similar to livepatch sympos. Used for data
objects like __quirk variables where no deterministic filter can
distinguish the candidates.
Overall this works much better than the existing algorithm, particularly
with LTO kernels.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Start checksumming data objects in preparation for revamping the
correlation algorithm.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Move the checksum functionality out of the main objtool command into a
new "objtool klp checksum" subcommand.
This has the benefit of making the code (and the patch generation
process itself) more modular.
For bisectability, both "objtool --checksum" and "objtool klp checksum"
work for now. The former will be removed after klp-build has been
converted to use the new subcommand.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Clang generates anonymous data sections named .data..Lanon.<hash>.
These need section-symbol references in the same way as .data..Lubsan
(GCC) and .data..L__unnamed_ (Clang UBSAN) sections. Without this,
convert_reloc_sym() fails when processing relocations that reference
these sections.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Use the section symbol's index instead of the old symbol's index when
updating the ELF relocation entry in convert_reloc_sym_to_secsym().
Found by Sashiko review.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Clang aggregates UBSAN type descriptors into shared anonymous
.data..L__unnamed_* sections. This data is used by UBSAN trap handlers.
When a changed function has an UBSAN bounds check, klp-diff clones the
entire UBSAN data section associated with the TU. Relocations within
the cloned section that reference named rodata objects in .rodata.cst*
(like 'exponent', 'pirq_ali_set.irqmap') become KLP relocations because
those objects now get correlated.
That results in a .klp.rela.vmlinux..data section which can easily have
thousands of KLP relocs, most of which are completely superfluous, used
by functions which aren't cloned to the patch module.
The .rodata.cst* sections are SHF_MERGE constant pool sections
containing small fixed-size data (lookup tables, bitmasks) that is only
read by value. Pointer identity is never relevant for these objects, so
correlating them is unnecessary.
Exclude .rodata.cst* objects from correlation so they get cloned as
local data instead of generating KLP relocations.
It might be possible to someday treat UBSAN data sections as special
sections, and only extract the few needed entries. But this works for
now.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
klp-diff treats all rodata as uncorrelated, so any reference to it uses
a duplicated copy rather than using a KLP reloc.
For the contents of the data itself, a duplicated copy is fine.
However, pointer comparisons (e.g., f->f_op == &foo_ops) are broken.
Fix it by correlating non-anonymous rodata objects.
Also, use a new find_symbol_containing_inclusive() helper for matching
the end of a symbol so bounds calculations don't get broken, for the
case where an array or other symbol's ending address is used as part of
a bounds calculation.
While these are really two distinct changes, they need to be done in the
same patch so as to avoid introducing bisection regressions.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Inline section_reference_needed() and is_reloc_allowed() into
convert_reloc_sym() and remove the redundant is_reloc_allowed() check in
clone_reloc().
Move the is_sec_sym() checks into the convert callees so they become
no-ops when the reloc is already in the right format. This allows
convert_reloc_sym() to unconditionally dispatch to the right converter
based on section type.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Objtool has some hacks which NOP out certain calls/jumps and replace
their relocations with R_X86_64_NONE. The klp-diff relocation
extraction code will error out when trying to copy these relocations due
to their negative addend, which would only makes sense for a PC-relative
branch instruction. Just ignore them.
Fixes: dd590d4d57 ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
.kcfi_traps contains references to kCFI trap instruction locations.
When a KCFI type check fails at an indirect call, the trap handler looks
up the faulting address in this section.
Add it to the special sections list so the entries get extracted for the
changed functions they reference.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Objtool is failing to extract text annotations which reference
.altinstr_replacement instructions:
1) Alternative replacement fake symbols are NOTYPE rather than FUNC,
and they don't have sym->included set, thus they aren't recognized
by should_keep_special_sym().
2) .discard.annotate_insn gets processed before .altinstr_replacement,
so the referenced (fake) symbols don't have clones yet.
Fix the first issue by checking for a valid clone instead of
sym->included and by accepting NOTYPE symbols when processing
.discard.annotate_insn.
Fix the second issue by deferring text annotation processing until after
the other special sections have been cloned.
Fixes: dd590d4d57 ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Fix NULL dereference when cloning a symbol from an empty section.
sec->data is only populated for sections with non-zero size.
Fixes: dd590d4d57 ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
When a section is empty (e.g. only zero-length alternative
replacements), there are no symbols to convert a section symbol
reference to. Skip the reloc instead of erroring out.
Fixes: dd590d4d57 ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Convert the callback-based iterate_sym_by_demangled_name() with a new
for_each_sym_by_demangled_name() macro. This eliminates the callback
struct/function and makes the code more compact and readable.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
create_fake_symbols() has two phases: creating symbols from
ANNOTATE_DATA_SPECIAL entries, and a fallback that uses sh_entsize for
special sections like .static_call_sites.
When .discard.annotate_data is absent, the function returns early,
skipping the entsize fallback and silently allowing unsupported
module-local static call keys through.
Fix it by jumping to the entsize phase instead of returning early.
Fixes: dd590d4d57 ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-4-opus
Signed-off-by: Joe Lawrence <joe.lawrence@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Clang emits various .L-prefixed local symbols beyond .Ltmp*, such as
.L__const.* for local constant data. These are assembler-local labels
not present in kallsyms, so they can never be resolved at module load
time.
Broaden the check from .Ltmp* to all .L* symbols so they get cloned into
the patch module instead.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Clang LTO uses __UNIQUE_ID() to generate some uniquely named wrapper
functions, like initstubs. If they're uncorrelated, prevent them from
being reported as new functions and included unnecessarily.
Note that dont_correlate() already includes prefix functions, so prefix
functions are still being ignored here.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
With LTO, the initcall infrastructure generates __initstub__kmod_*
wrapper functions in .init.text. These are the LTO equivalent of
__initcall__kmod_* data pointers, which are already excluded from
correlation.
These are __init functions whose memory is freed after boot, so there's
no reason to include or reference them in a livepatch module.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Some arch/x86/crypto/*.S files define local .set/.equ constants that get
duplicated in vmlinux.o. This causes klp-diff to fail with "Multiple
correlation candidates" errors since it can't uniquely match these
between orig and patched builds.
Skip ABS symbols in dont_correlate(). They're purely compile-time
assembly constants that are never referenced by relocations, so they
don't need correlation.
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Symbols created by __ADDRESSABLE() are only used to convince the
toolchain not to optimize out the referenced symbol.
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
While there was once a section named .data.once, it has since been
renamed to .data..once with commit dbefa1f31a ("Rename .data.once to
.data..once to fix resetting WARN*_ONCE"). Fix it.
Fixes: dd590d4d57 ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
For naming function-local static locals, GCC uses <var>.<id>, e.g.
__already_done.15, while Clang uses <func>.<var> with optional .<id>,
e.g. create_worker.__already_done.111
The existing is_uncorrelated_static_local() check only matches the GCC
convention where the variable name is a prefix. Handle both cases by
checking for a prefix match (GCC) and by checking after the first dot
separator (Clang).
Fixes: dd590d4d57 ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Signed-off-by: Joe Lawrence <joe.lawrence@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Pull objtool updates from Ingo Molnar:
- KLP support updates and fixes (Song Liu)
- KLP-build script updates and fixes (Joe Lawrence)
- Support Clang RAX DRAP sequence, to address clang false positive
(Josh Poimboeuf)
- Reorder ORC register numbering to match regular x86 register
numbering (Josh Poimboeuf)
- Misc cleanups (Wentong Tian, Song Liu)
* tag 'objtool-core-2026-04-13' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip:
objtool/x86: Reorder ORC register numbering
objtool: Support Clang RAX DRAP sequence
livepatch/klp-build: report patch validation fuzz
livepatch/klp-build: add terminal color output
livepatch/klp-build: provide friendlier error messages
livepatch/klp-build: improve short-circuit validation
livepatch/klp-build: fix shellcheck complaints
livepatch/klp-build: add Makefile with check target
livepatch/klp-build: add grep-override function
livepatch/klp-build: switch to GNU patch and recountdiff
livepatch/klp-build: support patches that add/remove files
objtool/klp: Correlate locals to globals
objtool/klp: Match symbols based on demangled_name for global variables
objtool/klp: Remove .llvm suffix in demangle_name()
objtool/klp: Also demangle global objects
objtool/klp: Use sym->demangled_name for symbol_name hash
objtool/klp: Remove trailing '_' in demangle_name()
objtool/klp: Remove redundant strcmp() in correlate_symbols()
objtool: Use section/symbol type helpers
Commit 356e4b2f5b ("objtool: Fix data alignment in elf_add_data()")
corrected the alignment of data within a section (honoring the section's
sh_addralign). Apply the same alignment when klp-diff mode clones a
symbol, adjusting the new symbol's offset for the output section's
sh_addralign.
Fixes: dd590d4d57 ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Signed-off-by: Joe Lawrence <joe.lawrence@redhat.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260310203751.1479229-2-joe.lawrence@redhat.com
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Allow correlating original locals to patched globals, and vice versa.
This is needed when:
1. User adds/removes "static" for a function.
2. CONFIG_LTO_CLANG_THIN promotes local functions and objects to global
and add .llvm.<hash> suffix.
Signed-off-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260305231531.3847295-8-song@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
correlate_symbols() will always try to match full name first. If there is
no match, try match only demangled_name.
In very rare cases, it is possible to have multiple foo.llvm.<hash> in
the same kernel. Whenever there is ambiguity like this, fail the klp diff.
Signed-off-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260305231531.3847295-7-song@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Patching a function which references a static key living in a kernel
module is unsupported due to ordering issues inherent to late module
patching:
1) Load a livepatch module which has a __jump_table entry which needs
a klp reloc to reference static key K which lives in module M.
2) The __jump_table klp reloc does *not* get resolved because module M
is not yet loaded.
3) jump_label_add_module() corrupts memory (or causes a panic) when
dereferencing the uninitialized pointer to key K.
validate_special_section_klp_reloc() intends to prevent that from ever
happening by catching it at build time. However, it incorrectly assumes
the special section entry's reloc symbol references have already been
converted from section symbols to object symbols, causing the validation
to miss corruption in extracted static branch/call table entries.
Make sure the references have been properly converted before doing the
validation.
Fixes: dd590d4d57 ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Reported-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Reviewed-and-tested-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/124ad747b751df0df1725eff89de8332e3fb26d6.1770759954.git.jpoimboe@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
When compiling with CONFIG_LTO_CLANG_THIN, vmlinux.o has
__irf_[start|end] before the first FILE entry:
$ readelf -sW vmlinux.o
Symbol table '.symtab' contains 597706 entries:
Num: Value Size Type Bind Vis Ndx Name
0: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE LOCAL DEFAULT UND
1: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE LOCAL DEFAULT 18 __irf_start
2: 0000000000000200 0 NOTYPE LOCAL DEFAULT 18 __irf_end
3: 0000000000000000 0 SECTION LOCAL DEFAULT 17 .text
4: 0000000000000000 0 SECTION LOCAL DEFAULT 18 .init.ramfs
This causes klp-build warnings like:
vmlinux.o: warning: objtool: no correlation: __irf_start
vmlinux.o: warning: objtool: no correlation: __irf_end
The problem is that Clang LTO is stripping the initramfs_data.o FILE
symbol, causing those two symbols to be orphaned and not noticed by
klp-diff's correlation logic. Add a loop to correlate any symbols found
before the first FILE symbol.
Fixes: dd590d4d57 ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Reported-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/e21ec1141fc749b5f538d7329b531c1ab63a6d1a.1770055235.git.jpoimboe@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
The klp_object_ext and klp_func_ext data, which are stored in the
__klp_objects and __klp_funcs sections, respectively, are not needed
after they are used to create the actual klp_object and klp_func
instances. This operation is implemented by the init function in
scripts/livepatch/init.c.
Prefix the two sections with ".init" so they are freed after the module
is initializated.
Signed-off-by: Petr Pavlu <petr.pavlu@suse.com>
Acked-by: Joe Lawrence <joe.lawrence@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Reviewed-by: Aaron Tomlin <atomlin@atomlin.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260123102825.3521961-3-petr.pavlu@suse.com
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Running objtool klp-diff on a changed function which uses WARN() can
fail with:
vmlinux.o: error: objtool: md_run+0x866: failed to convert reloc sym '__bug_table' to its proper format
The problem is that since commit 5b472b6e5b ("x86_64/bug: Implement
__WARN_printf()"), each __WARN_printf() call site now directly
references its bug table entry. klp-diff errors out when it can't
convert such section-based references to object symbols (because bug
table entries don't have symbols).
Luckily, klp-diff already has code to create symbols for bug table
entries. Move that code earlier, before function diffing.
Fixes: dd590d4d57 ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Fixes: 5b472b6e5b ("x86_64/bug: Implement __WARN_printf()")
Reported-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Tested-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/a8e0a714b9da962858842b9aecd63b4900927c88.1769406850.git.jpoimboe@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Add a klp-build script which automates the generation of a livepatch
module from a source .patch file by performing the following steps:
- Builds an original kernel with -function-sections and
-fdata-sections, plus objtool function checksumming.
- Applies the .patch file and rebuilds the kernel using the same
options.
- Runs 'objtool klp diff' to detect changed functions and generate
intermediate binary diff objects.
- Builds a kernel module which links the diff objects with some
livepatch module init code (scripts/livepatch/init.c).
- Finalizes the livepatch module (aka work around linker wreckage)
using 'objtool klp post-link'.
Acked-by: Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
Tested-by: Joe Lawrence <joe.lawrence@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Add a --debug option to klp diff which prints cloning decisions and an
indented dependency tree for all cloned symbols and relocations. This
helps visualize which symbols and relocations were included and why.
Acked-by: Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
Tested-by: Joe Lawrence <joe.lawrence@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Add a new klp diff subcommand which performs a binary diff between two
object files and extracts changed functions into a new object which can
then be linked into a livepatch module.
This builds on concepts from the longstanding out-of-tree kpatch [1]
project which began in 2012 and has been used for many years to generate
livepatch modules for production kernels. However, this is a complete
rewrite which incorporates hard-earned lessons from 12+ years of
maintaining kpatch.
Key improvements compared to kpatch-build:
- Integrated with objtool: Leverages objtool's existing control-flow
graph analysis to help detect changed functions.
- Works on vmlinux.o: Supports late-linked objects, making it
compatible with LTO, IBT, and similar.
- Simplified code base: ~3k fewer lines of code.
- Upstream: No more out-of-tree #ifdef hacks, far less cruft.
- Cleaner internals: Vastly simplified logic for symbol/section/reloc
inclusion and special section extraction.
- Robust __LINE__ macro handling: Avoids false positive binary diffs
caused by the __LINE__ macro by introducing a fix-patch-lines script
(coming in a later patch) which injects #line directives into the
source .patch to preserve the original line numbers at compile time.
Note the end result of this subcommand is not yet functionally complete.
Livepatch needs some ELF magic which linkers don't like:
- Two relocation sections (.rela*, .klp.rela*) for the same text
section.
- Use of SHN_LIVEPATCH to mark livepatch symbols.
Unfortunately linkers tend to mangle such things. To work around that,
klp diff generates a linker-compliant intermediate binary which encodes
the relevant KLP section/reloc/symbol metadata.
After module linking, a klp post-link step (coming soon) will clean up
the mess and convert the linked .ko into a fully compliant livepatch
module.
Note this subcommand requires the diffed binaries to have been compiled
with -ffunction-sections and -fdata-sections, and processed with
'objtool --checksum'. Those constraints will be handled by a klp-build
script introduced in a later patch.
Without '-ffunction-sections -fdata-sections', reliable object diffing
would be infeasible due to toolchain limitations:
- For intra-file+intra-section references, the compiler might
occasionally generated hard-coded instruction offsets instead of
relocations.
- Section-symbol-based references can be ambiguous:
- Overlapping or zero-length symbols create ambiguity as to which
symbol is being referenced.
- A reference to the end of a symbol (e.g., checking array bounds)
can be misinterpreted as a reference to the next symbol, or vice
versa.
A potential future alternative to '-ffunction-sections -fdata-sections'
would be to introduce a toolchain option that forces symbol-based
(non-section) relocations.
Acked-by: Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
Tested-by: Joe Lawrence <joe.lawrence@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
