drivers/char: remove /dev/kmem for good

Patch series "drivers/char: remove /dev/kmem for good".

Exploring /dev/kmem and /dev/mem in the context of memory hot(un)plug and
memory ballooning, I started questioning the existence of /dev/kmem.

Comparing it with the /proc/kcore implementation, it does not seem to be
able to deal with things like

a) Pages unmapped from the direct mapping (e.g., to be used by secretmem)
  -> kern_addr_valid(). virt_addr_valid() is not sufficient.

b) Special cases like gart aperture memory that is not to be touched
  -> mem_pfn_is_ram()

Unless I am missing something, it's at least broken in some cases and might
fault/crash the machine.

Looks like its existence has been questioned before in 2005 and 2010 [1],
after ~11 additional years, it might make sense to revive the discussion.

CONFIG_DEVKMEM is only enabled in a single defconfig (on purpose or by
mistake?).  All distributions disable it: in Ubuntu it has been disabled
for more than 10 years, in Debian since 2.6.31, in Fedora at least
starting with FC3, in RHEL starting with RHEL4, in SUSE starting from
15sp2, and OpenSUSE has it disabled as well.

1) /dev/kmem was popular for rootkits [2] before it got disabled
   basically everywhere. Ubuntu documents [3] "There is no modern user of
   /dev/kmem any more beyond attackers using it to load kernel rootkits.".
   RHEL documents in a BZ [5] "it served no practical purpose other than to
   serve as a potential security problem or to enable binary module drivers
   to access structures/functions they shouldn't be touching"

2) /proc/kcore is a decent interface to have a controlled way to read
   kernel memory for debugging puposes. (will need some extensions to
   deal with memory offlining/unplug, memory ballooning, and poisoned
   pages, though)

3) It might be useful for corner case debugging [1]. KDB/KGDB might be a
   better fit, especially, to write random memory; harder to shoot
   yourself into the foot.

4) "Kernel Memory Editor" [4] hasn't seen any updates since 2000 and seems
   to be incompatible with 64bit [1]. For educational purposes,
   /proc/kcore might be used to monitor value updates -- or older
   kernels can be used.

5) It's broken on arm64, and therefore, completely disabled there.

Looks like it's essentially unused and has been replaced by better
suited interfaces for individual tasks (/proc/kcore, KDB/KGDB). Let's
just remove it.

[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/147901/
[2] https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10505
[3] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Features#A.2Fdev.2Fkmem_disabled
[4] https://sourceforge.net/projects/kme/
[5] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=154796

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20210324102351.6932-1-david@redhat.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20210324102351.6932-2-david@redhat.com
Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Acked-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Cc: "Alexander A. Klimov" <grandmaster@al2klimov.de>
Cc: Alexander Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: Alexandre Belloni <alexandre.belloni@bootlin.com>
Cc: Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>
Cc: Andrey Zhizhikin <andrey.zhizhikin@leica-geosystems.com>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Cc: Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>
Cc: Brian Cain <bcain@codeaurora.org>
Cc: Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@de.ibm.com>
Cc: Christophe Leroy <christophe.leroy@csgroup.eu>
Cc: Chris Zankel <chris@zankel.net>
Cc: Corentin Labbe <clabbe@baylibre.com>
Cc: "David S. Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>
Cc: "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@xmission.com>
Cc: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>
Cc: Gerald Schaefer <gerald.schaefer@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Greentime Hu <green.hu@gmail.com>
Cc: Gregory Clement <gregory.clement@bootlin.com>
Cc: Heiko Carstens <hca@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Helge Deller <deller@gmx.de>
Cc: Hillf Danton <hdanton@sina.com>
Cc: huang ying <huang.ying.caritas@gmail.com>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Cc: Ivan Kokshaysky <ink@jurassic.park.msu.ru>
Cc: "James E.J. Bottomley" <James.Bottomley@HansenPartnership.com>
Cc: James Troup <james.troup@canonical.com>
Cc: Jiaxun Yang <jiaxun.yang@flygoat.com>
Cc: Jonas Bonn <jonas@southpole.se>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Kairui Song <kasong@redhat.com>
Cc: Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk@kernel.org>
Cc: Kuninori Morimoto <kuninori.morimoto.gx@renesas.com>
Cc: Liviu Dudau <liviu.dudau@arm.com>
Cc: Lorenzo Pieralisi <lorenzo.pieralisi@arm.com>
Cc: Luc Van Oostenryck <luc.vanoostenryck@gmail.com>
Cc: Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@kernel.org>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
Cc: Matt Turner <mattst88@gmail.com>
Cc: Max Filippov <jcmvbkbc@gmail.com>
Cc: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
Cc: Mikulas Patocka <mpatocka@redhat.com>
Cc: Minchan Kim <minchan@kernel.org>
Cc: Niklas Schnelle <schnelle@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Oleksiy Avramchenko <oleksiy.avramchenko@sonymobile.com>
Cc: openrisc@lists.librecores.org
Cc: Palmer Dabbelt <palmerdabbelt@google.com>
Cc: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
Cc: "Pavel Machek (CIP)" <pavel@denx.de>
Cc: Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>
Cc: "Peter Zijlstra (Intel)" <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Pierre Morel <pmorel@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Cc: Richard Henderson <rth@twiddle.net>
Cc: Rich Felker <dalias@libc.org>
Cc: Robert Richter <rric@kernel.org>
Cc: Rob Herring <robh@kernel.org>
Cc: Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
Cc: Sam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org>
Cc: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de>
Cc: Sebastian Hesselbarth <sebastian.hesselbarth@gmail.com>
Cc: sparclinux@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Stafford Horne <shorne@gmail.com>
Cc: Stefan Kristiansson <stefan.kristiansson@saunalahti.fi>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Cc: Sudeep Holla <sudeep.holla@arm.com>
Cc: Theodore Dubois <tblodt@icloud.com>
Cc: Thomas Bogendoerfer <tsbogend@alpha.franken.de>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Vasily Gorbik <gor@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Viresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@linaro.org>
Cc: William Cohen <wcohen@redhat.com>
Cc: Xiaoming Ni <nixiaoming@huawei.com>
Cc: Yoshinori Sato <ysato@users.sourceforge.jp>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

6 files changed, 0 insertions, 6 deletions

diff --git a/arch/arm/configs/dove_defconfig b/arch/arm/configs/dove_defconfig
index e70c997d5f4c..b935162a8bba 100644
--- a/arch/arm/configs/dove_defconfig
+++ b/arch/arm/configs/dove_defconfig
@@ -63,7 +63,6 @@ CONFIG_INPUT_EVDEV=y
 # CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2 is not set
 # CONFIG_SERIO is not set
 CONFIG_LEGACY_PTY_COUNT=16
-# CONFIG_DEVKMEM is not set
 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250=y
 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_CONSOLE=y
 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_RUNTIME_UARTS=2
diff --git a/arch/arm/configs/magician_defconfig b/arch/arm/configs/magician_defconfig
index b4670d42f378..abde1fb23b20 100644
--- a/arch/arm/configs/magician_defconfig
+++ b/arch/arm/configs/magician_defconfig
@@ -72,7 +72,6 @@ CONFIG_INPUT_TOUCHSCREEN=y
 CONFIG_INPUT_MISC=y
 CONFIG_INPUT_UINPUT=m
 # CONFIG_SERIO is not set
-# CONFIG_DEVKMEM is not set
 CONFIG_SERIAL_PXA=y
 # CONFIG_LEGACY_PTYS is not set
 # CONFIG_HW_RANDOM is not set
diff --git a/arch/arm/configs/moxart_defconfig b/arch/arm/configs/moxart_defconfig
index 6834e97af348..eacc089d86c5 100644
--- a/arch/arm/configs/moxart_defconfig
+++ b/arch/arm/configs/moxart_defconfig
@@ -79,7 +79,6 @@ CONFIG_INPUT_EVBUG=y
 # CONFIG_SERIO is not set
 # CONFIG_VT is not set
 # CONFIG_LEGACY_PTYS is not set
-# CONFIG_DEVKMEM is not set
 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250=y
 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_CONSOLE=y
 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS=1
diff --git a/arch/arm/configs/mps2_defconfig b/arch/arm/configs/mps2_defconfig
index 1d923dbb9928..89f4a6ff30bd 100644
--- a/arch/arm/configs/mps2_defconfig
+++ b/arch/arm/configs/mps2_defconfig
@@ -69,7 +69,6 @@ CONFIG_SMSC911X=y
 # CONFIG_VT is not set
 # CONFIG_LEGACY_PTYS is not set
 CONFIG_SERIAL_NONSTANDARD=y
-# CONFIG_DEVKMEM is not set
 CONFIG_SERIAL_MPS2_UART_CONSOLE=y
 CONFIG_SERIAL_MPS2_UART=y
 # CONFIG_HW_RANDOM is not set
diff --git a/arch/arm/configs/mvebu_v5_defconfig b/arch/arm/configs/mvebu_v5_defconfig
index 4f16716bfc32..d57ff30dabff 100644
--- a/arch/arm/configs/mvebu_v5_defconfig
+++ b/arch/arm/configs/mvebu_v5_defconfig
@@ -100,7 +100,6 @@ CONFIG_INPUT_EVDEV=y
 CONFIG_KEYBOARD_GPIO=y
 # CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSE is not set
 CONFIG_LEGACY_PTY_COUNT=16
-# CONFIG_DEVKMEM is not set
 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250=y
 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_CONSOLE=y
 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_RUNTIME_UARTS=2
diff --git a/arch/arm/configs/xcep_defconfig b/arch/arm/configs/xcep_defconfig
index f1fbdfc5c8c6..4d8e7f2eaef7 100644
--- a/arch/arm/configs/xcep_defconfig
+++ b/arch/arm/configs/xcep_defconfig
@@ -53,7 +53,6 @@ CONFIG_NET_ETHERNET=y
 # CONFIG_INPUT_KEYBOARD is not set
 # CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSE is not set
 # CONFIG_SERIO is not set
-# CONFIG_DEVKMEM is not set
 CONFIG_SERIAL_PXA=y
 CONFIG_SERIAL_PXA_CONSOLE=y
 # CONFIG_LEGACY_PTYS is not set