[CRIU] Ptrace with FSGSBASE

[Bae, Chang Seok]

Hi, 

I’m working on enabling FSGSBASE instructions [1, 2] in Linux kernel. The FSGSBASE instruction set allows 
to read/write FS/GS base directly from any privilege. With that, any thread may have own FS/GS base 
regardless of its selector. The reason I’m contacting you is to coordinate any legacy behavior that your tool chain
may rely on, before submitting our patches.

Currently, FS/GS base is reloaded from GDT/LDT if selector is not zero. With that, ptrace has such implications 
on fs/gs set via SETREG* so far:

(1) If fs/gs only set
	- to any nonzero value, fs_base/gs_base is fetched from GDT/LDT, when tracee resumes.
	- to zero, current fs_base/gs_base is kept
(2) If fs_base/gs_base only set to any new,
	- when fs/gs is zero, new fs_base/gs_base is set 
	- when fs/gs is nonzero, new value is ignored 
		and fs_base/gs_base is fetched from GDT/LDT, when tracee resumes 
(3) If both fs/gs and fs_base/gs_base are set;
	- fs/gs set to any nonzero, fs_base/gs_base fetched from 
		GDT/LDT entry of the new fs/gs (selector), when tracee resumes
	- fs/gs set to zero, new fs_base/gs_base is set

Note. ptrace's SETREG* accepts user_regs_struct aligned data, where fs/gs and fs_base/gs_base entries are.

We prepared kernel patch set with following behaviors when FSGSBASE instructions are enabled.

	(1) is taken as regarded as a legacy behavior; it will do the same
	(2) & (3), (New) regardless of fs/gs value, new base value is always set

This new behavior is driven by that each thread’s FS/GS base is preserved during context switch. 

Chang

[1] http://www.felixcloutier.com/x86/RDFSBASE:RDGSBASE.html
[2] http://www.felixcloutier.com/x86/WRFSBASE:WRGSBASE.html