[PATCH] cmd: sf: prevent overwriting the reserved memory

Simon Glass sjg at chromium.org
Fri Aug 9 16:44:06 CEST 2024


Hi Michal,

On Thu, 8 Aug 2024 at 23:39, Michal Simek <michal.simek at amd.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Simon,
>
> On 8/8/24 16:28, Simon Glass wrote:
> > Hi Michal,
> >
> > On Wed, 7 Aug 2024 at 23:31, Michal Simek <michal.simek at amd.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On 8/7/24 16:36, Simon Glass wrote:
> >>> Hi Prasad,
> >>>
> >>> On Tue, 6 Aug 2024 at 23:05, Kummari, Prasad <Prasad.Kummari at amd.com> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Hi Glass,
> >>>>
> >>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>> From: Simon Glass <sjg at chromium.org>
> >>>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 7, 2024 3:21 AM
> >>>>> To: Kummari, Prasad <Prasad.Kummari at amd.com>
> >>>>> Cc: u-boot at lists.denx.de; git (AMD-Xilinx) <git at amd.com>; Simek, Michal
> >>>>> <michal.simek at amd.com>; Abbarapu, Venkatesh
> >>>>> <venkatesh.abbarapu at amd.com>; git at xilinx.com;
> >>>>> jagan at amarulasolutions.com; n-francis at ti.com; d-gole at ti.com
> >>>>> Subject: Re: [PATCH] cmd: sf: prevent overwriting the reserved memory
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Caution: This message originated from an External Source. Use proper
> >>>>> caution when opening attachments, clicking links, or responding.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Hi Prasad,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Tue, 6 Aug 2024 at 06:08, Prasad Kummari <prasad.kummari at amd.com> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Added LMB API to prevent SF command from overwriting reserved memory
> >>>>>> areas. The current SPI code does not use LMB APIs for loading data
> >>>>>> into memory addresses. To resolve this, LMB APIs were added to check
> >>>>>> the load address of an SF command and ensure it does not overwrite
> >>>>>> reserved memory addresses. Similar checks are used in TFTP, serial
> >>>>>> load, and boot code to prevent overwriting reserved memory.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> The SPI flash may be used to load other things, not just an OS. What is your
> >>>>> use case or problem here?
> >>>>
> >>>> [Prasad]:  We have observed that SF command can overwrite the reserved area without throwing any errors or warnings.
> >>>>    This issue was noticed when the TF-A area is reserved in the Device Tree at address 0xf000000. The sf command is
> >>>>    corrupting the reserved area,  and U-Boot relocation address too.
> >>>>
> >>>> EX: TF-A reserved at ddr address 0xf000000
> >>>>
> >>>>         Versal NET> sf read 0x0f000000 0x0 0x100     ----> Overwriting reserved area.
> >>>>         device 0 offset 0x0, size 0x100
> >>>>         SF: 256 bytes @ 0x0 Read: OK
> >>>>
> >>>>        U-boot relocation address relocaddr   = 0x000000007fec2000
> >>>>
> >>>>         Versal NET> sf write 0x0000000077ec2000 0x0 0x100   --> Overwriting reserved area.
> >>>>         device 0 offset 0x0, size 0x100
> >>>>         SF: 256 bytes @ 0x0 Written: OK
> >>>
> >>> Yes. There are many things which can overwrite memory, e.g. the mw
> >>> command. It is a boot loader so this is normal.
> >>>
> >>> What image are you loading here?
> >>
> >> In spi boot it can be Kernel/rootfs but at the end of day it doesn't really matter.
> >
> > OK, in that case yes it should use lmb. That was the question I was
> > trying to understand.
> >
> >>
> >> We have protection for srec, fs load, tftp and wget already.
> >>
> >> c6855195e4b4 ("loads: Block writes into LMB reserved areas of U-Boot")
> >> aa3c609e2be5 ("fs: prevent overwriting reserved memory")
> >> a156c47e39ad ("tftp: prevent overwriting reserved memory")
> >> 04592adbdb99 ("net: wget: prevent overwriting reserved memory")
> >>
> >> And this is just +1 patch to protect sf command that it doesn't touch reserved
> >> location.
> >> The same code should be used for other commands(nand, usb, etc) which loading
> >> block of data to memory because all of them shouldn't rewrite reserved memory.
> >>
> >> In connection to mw/mtest/etc command protection can be also done but not sure
> >> if this is useful because you normally not using them for booting.
> >
> > Exactly.
> >
> > I am hoping that we can pull SPI flash into bootstd...has anyone
> > looked at that? Are you using scripts or is there a special bootmeth?
>
> We didn't find this issue in connection to boot. As I wrote in another reply we
> found it via spi testcases where TF-A was placed lower in DDR and test overwrite
> it without any other evidence. Part of the reason is that protection units are
> not enabled to protect secure FW.

Do you mean the sandbox test test/dm/sf.c ? Or something else? If the
former, then we could mark dm_test_spi_flash() with CONFIG_SANDBOX

Regards,
Simon


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