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hardware-memory-isolation/README.md

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+# Hardware Memory Isolation
+
+## Table of Contents
+
+## Prerequisites
+
+## Introduction
+
+Besides computing, anotherrole of the hardware is to provide isolation, mainly between the operating system and the user applications.
+You have encountered (hopefully) the main protection mechanism that the hardware uses to ensure memory isolation: pages.
+There are other less-known mechanisms for ensuring memory isolation, through which we will go during this session: segments, privilege rings, memory protection keys.
+We will also dive into virtualization, focusing on the hardware-assisted one.
+
+## Memory Isolation
+
+### Pages and Segments
+
+The system needs a way to enforce ownership and permissons on the memory zones.
+For example, it needs to enforce that a certain memory zone cand only be read and executed, not written.
+How can this be achieved?
+The first answer that the CPU designers came up with is called **segmentation**.
+
+#### Segmentation
+
+Segmentation is the x86 CPU feature that allows assigning permissions and ownership to a certain memory zone, using segments.
+Segments differ from pages through their size and their organization, as you will see next.
+Today, the modern systems don't use segmentation anymore, when performing usual operations.
+Segmentation is only required at the early stages of booting, when pages cannot be used.
+But segmentation is still there, and it is tied to many other components of the system, so knowledge of how segmentation works is useful.
+Let's start at the beginning of time, with something called the **Real mode**.
+
+##### Real Mode Memory Addressing
+
+At the beginning of time, x86 CPUs only had 16-bit registers.
+This meant that the maximum memory size that could be used, with **flat memory addressing** model, was 64KB (2^16).
+It was thought that this amount of memory is enough, until it wasn't enough.
+Instead of expanding the registers, the CPU manufacturers came up with the **segment memory addressing** model.
+This meant that each memory address, instead of using one register, used 2: a normal register and a segment register, each fitting 16 bits.
+The way the addresses were calculated was the following:
+
+```
+addrress = SEGMENT_REGISTER * 0x10 + OFFSET_REGISTER
+```
+
+This led to a new memory maximum of almost 1MB, which was tought to be enough.
+Notice that, at that time, a segment was just a number.
+It didn't enforce any permissions on the memory zone, or ownership, because there was no user-kernel separation.
+The operating system had absolute power, and there was nothing but the operating system.
+Then came 32-bit registers, the need for applications, the need for isolation.
+The **protected mode** was born.
+
+Note: real mode still exists.
+Every x86 CPU starts in real mode, and must be switched to other modes, like the **Protected Mode**.
+
+##### Protected Mode Memory Addressing
+
+Well, all those things didn't appear at the same time.
+First, the registers were extended to 32 bits.
+Using the segmentation model, each segment would now fit 4GB of memory.
+This meant that a system could use 68GB of memory.
+But that memory wasn't available.
+You could barely reach 4GB of RAM.
+So, the addressing model was switched to the flat one: a memory address would be composed of only one register.
+
+The segments got another role: enforce isolation (pages still weren't a thing).
+A segment would not be a value used to compute an address, but an index in a table, the **GDT** (Global Descriptor Table).
+
+###### The GDT
+
+The GDT is a system table, that contains descriptors of memory zones: where they start, where they end, how they grow, whether they are readable, writeable, executable, who can access them.
+Each entry in the GDT has 8 bytes in size, and it looks like this:
+
+TODO: insert GDT entry diagram
+
+Let's break each field down:
+  * **Base**: the address at which the segment begins
+  * **Limit**: the first wacky one; how many bytes or pages are contained in the segment
+  * **Access**:
+    TODO: insert Access Byte diagram  
+    * **P**: Present - 1 if the segment is valid
+    * **DPL**: Descriptor privilege level, where 0 is the highest privilege level, and 3 the lowest
+    * **S**: Descriptor type; not interesting for us today
+    * **E**: Executable; if 0, the segment is a data one; if 1, the segment is a code one
+    * **D/C**: its significance depends on the **E** bit
+      * if **E** is 0, the field is Direction; not interesting for today
+      * if **E** is 1, the field is Conforming;
+        * if the Conforming bit is 1, the code in this segment can be executed by equal or lower privilege level code;
+          for example, code in a segment with **DPL** equal to 3, with **C** equal to 1, can be executed by code from a segment with **DPL** equal to 1
+        * if the **C** bit is 0, the code in this segment can be executed only by code from segments with the same **DPL**
+    * **R/W**: another field depending on **E**
+      * if **E** is 0, the field is Writeable; data segments are always readable
+      * if **E** is 1, the field is Readable; code semgments are never writeable
+    * **A**: Accessed; not interesting
+  * Flags:
+    * **G** - Granularity: the **Limit** field is in bytes (0), or pages (1)?
+    * **DB** - Size: if 1, the segment is a 32-bit one, else it is a 16-bit one
+    * **L** - Long-mode code: if 1, the segment is a 64-bit code one
+    TODO: insert Flags diagram
+
+As complicated as it looks, The GDT did its job of enforcing some memory protection, hence a CPU with a GDT and 32-bit addresses is operating in the **Protected Mode**.
+This came at the cost of the programmer's sanity.
+If you are wondering what the designers of this model were smoking, you are not alone.
+
+Fortunately, in modern systems, **Base** and **Limit** are ignored.
+A segment always covers the entire address space.
+Does that mean that the entire address space is in both the code and data segments?
+Yes.
+Then how do we ensure separation between executable and writeable memory zones?
+Also, the entire memory is accesible by all privilege levels?
+This doesn't seem right.
+Enter pages.
+But first, something about privilege levels, also known as **privilege rings**.
+
+##### Privilege Rings
+
+You should have heard about kernel-space and user-space.
+How do we know if a memory zone belongs to the kernel-space, or the user-space?
+That memory zone is part of a segment / a page, as we will see later, that belongs to either the kernel or the user.
+The kernel-space is, in fact, any memory zone that belongs to **ring 0**, or DPL 0, and the user-space belongs to **ring 3**, or DPL 3.
+What about the other rings, 1 and 2?
+They can be used, but almost no one does it.
+Some drivers use those rings, but it's not a common practice.
+
+At this point, things get weird.
+What if you want software with higher privileges than the kernel, like a hypervisor?
+You get ring -1.
+But what if you want a piece of code that is run by the hardware in critical moments?
+You get ring -2.
+Ring -3?
+Someone got there.
+Fear not, we will explore these weird notions later.
+For now, let's do something practical.
+
+##### Tutorial: Reading the GDT of the Linux Kernel
+
+Go to the [`read-gdt`](./activities/read-gdt/) folder.
+There you have a simple kernel module that reads the GDT of the operating system, then prints each field.
+Run `make` to build the module, then `sudo insmod read_gdt.ko` to insert the module.
+By running `sudo dmesg` you should see 16 GDT entries listed, the total size of the GDT and the virtual address where it is placed.
+Only 16 entries are listed, because the ones after that are null.
+Take a look at the entries, and figure out what entries 1 to 6 represent.
+You should find 3 kernel entries, and 3 user ones.
+Notice that entries 0 and 7 are null.
+Entry 0 should always be null.
+Entries from 8 onward are TSS and LDT entries, which won't be detailed in today's session.
+
+Note that a special instruction, `sgdt` is used to retrieve the GDT pointer descriptor.
+The opposite instruction is `lgdt`.
+
+#### Paging
+
+Soon enough, people got tired of dealing with segmentation;
+a new method to divide the memory was needed.
+Pages were born.
+Unlike segments, that can be of any size, pages have fixed sizes: the standard one is 4KB, but it can also be of other sizes.
+There are also the huge pages, that usually have 2MB, 4MB or 1GB.
+Pages are organised hierarchically, in a tree-like structure.
+A hardware component, called the MMU (Memory Management Unit) manages this structure.
+We won't go into details about how that structure is organised, as to not transform this session into a Operating Systems design session.
+What is important to know is that each page has permissions, that are checked by the MMU at every access.
+The hardware doesn't, however, check if a memory page is accessed by the process that should be able to access it.
+That is the role of the OS.
+
+TODO: develop paging - at least MMU and TLB
+
+#### Memory Protection Keys
+
+Let's consider the following scenario:
+an application wants to change an area of its memory from read-write to read-only, for reasons.
+To do this it will call `mprotect()` on that area.
+What will happen behind the scenes will be that the OS will change permissions for each page that is part of the memory area, then it will flush the TLB.
+This is costly time-wise.
+As a solution, Intel proposed the `MPK` set of instructions, that can quickly change permissions for an area of memory of any size.
+How does this work?
+Up to the moment when MPK was proposed, page-table entries had 4 bits that weren't used.
+These 4 bits are tranformed into 16 possible `keys`.
+Furthermore, a register, `PKRU`, is added to hold the permissions for each of those keys, local to each thread.
+This allows an application to allocate its pages to a _protection domain_.
+When accessing a page, instead of checking only the page permissions, the MMU will also check the protection domain permissions.
+
+Let's take a practical example:
+Application A has a page with read-write permissions.
+It allocates a `protection domain` with read permissions, then adds the page to that protection domain.
+When performing a write on that page, a Segmentation Fault will be received, because, even though the page has the right permissions, the protection domain does not.
+
+Everything sounds nice, doesn't it?
+Well, it is not.
+The reason for this is that the instruction used to modify `PKRU` is unprivileged.
+So, if an attacker gains the ability to execute arbitrary code, the whole mechanism can be bypassed.
+Another problem is, as detailed by [this paper](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1811.07276v1.pdf), the fact that, after an application frees a protection domain, the key isn't deleted from the page-table entries.
+So, if the same key is allocated again, it will still cover the previous pages, that should no longer be under a protection domain.
+A classic example of `use-after-free`.
+The final problem is that there are only 16 possible keys.
+For the whole system.
+A system that can run hundreds, if not thousands of processes, with many more threads.
+You can see how this can go wrong.
+
+##### Tutorial: MPK Basics
+
+TODO: code where the students use `pkey_mprotect`
+
+##### Activity: I Do This For Your Own Good
+
+TODO: one program tries to read from a non-readable zone, enforced through PKU. The students must write a program to change the permissions of the `pkey`
+
+### Control-Flow Enforcement
+
+Don't you hate it when someone exploits your binary, using methods like `Return Oriented Programming` (ROP)?
+(By the way, we have 2 sessions dedicated to ROP, [here]() and [here]()).
+Well, other people hate it too, so they searched for a solution.
+Intel's solution was adding control-flow enforcement in hardware, with the new `Control-Flow Enforcement Technology` instructions.
+Those instructions are split in 2 parts:
+* `Indirect Branch Tracking`, which checks if a `jmp` or `call` instruction targets a valid code address, marked accordingly by the programmer / compiler.
+* `Shadow Stack`, which checks if the return address was altered in any way.
+
+But wait, don't we have the `Stack Canary` for the last one?
+The main problem with that solution is that the canary is placed on the same memory zone as the return address.
+If we can modify the return address, what is stopping someone from reading the canary first, then modifying the return address, while keeping the canary intact?
+The shadow stack places a copy of the return address in a separate memory zone, that can be accessed using only some special instructions.
+
+#### Indirect Branch Tracking
+
+The main idea behind some attacks is to chain small pieces of code (gadgets), in order to call a system function, usually, in a certain way.
+Those gadgets aren't real functions that should be normally called, but rather pieces of a normal function, that end with `jmp` (Jump-Oriented Programming) or `call` (Call-Oriented Programming).
+What if we say that the program can use `jmp` / `call` only to certain instructions?
+That's what `Indirect Branch Tracking` does:
+a new instruction is added, `endbr`.
+Every time a `jmp` or `call` instruction is used, the CPU expects the next instruction that is executed to be `endbr`.
+Otherwise, an exception is raised, and the program is terminated.
+
+TODO: it only works for indirect branching - edit is needed
+
+#### Hardware Shadow Stack
+
+
+
+### Intel MPX ?

hardware-memory-isolation/activities/mpk-basics/Makefile

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+
+
+main: main.c
+
+clean:
+	rm main

hardware-memory-isolation/activities/mpk-basics/main.c

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+#include <sys/mman.h>
+
+#include <string.h>
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+
+#define STRING "Hello MPK\0"
+#define STRING_LEN 10
+
+#define PKEY_DISABLE_ACCESS    0x1
+#define PKEY_DISABLE_WRITE     0x2
+
+int main()
+{
+    int ret, pkey;
+    char *string = mmap(0, STRING_LEN, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANON, 0, 0);
+
+    if(!string)
+    {
+        fprintf(stderr, "mmap failed: %s\n", strerror(errno));
+        return 1;
+    }
+    memcpy(string, STRING, STRING_LEN);
+
+    printf("%s\n", string);
+
+    ret = mprotect(string, STRING_LEN, PROT_READ);
+    if(ret != 0)
+    {
+        fprintf(stderr, "mprotect failed: %s\n", strerror(errno));
+        return 1;
+    }
+
+    // segfault 
+    // printf("%s\n", string);
+
+    pkey = pkey_alloc(0, PKEY_DISABLE_ACCESS);
+    if(pkey == -1)
+    {
+        fprintf(stderr, "pkey_alloc failed: %s\n", strerror(errno));
+        return 1;
+    }
+
+    printf("pkey: %d\n", pkey);
+
+    ret = pkey_mprotect(string, STRING_LEN, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, pkey);
+    if(ret != 0)
+    {
+        fprintf(stderr, "pkey_mprotect failed: %s\n", strerror(errno));
+        return 1;
+    }
+
+    printf("%s\n", string);
+
+    munmap(string, STRING_LEN);
+    pkey_free(pkey);
+
+    return 0;
+}
+

hardware-memory-isolation/activities/read-gdt/Makefile

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+obj-m += read_gdt.o
+
+all:
+	make -C /home/cristi/WSL2-Linux-Kernel M=$(shell pwd) modules
+
+clean:
+	make -C /home/cristi/WSL2-Linux-Kernel M=$(shell pwd) clean