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Re: bswap,xadd and cmpxchg emulation on 386



On Mon, Apr 04, 2005 at 05:35:26PM -0700, Steve Langasek wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 04, 2005 at 05:11:20PM +0200, Peter 'p2' De Schrijver wrote:
> > http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/205839 has the patch. Note
> > that 486 stepping A processors have a wrong opcode for cmpxchg. This
> > means emulation of cmpxchg is necessary for 486 stepping A as well. As
> > to the security hole, either the patch needs some fixes (ie using get_user etc.)
> > or a userland emulation hooking SIGILL needs to be implemented.
> 
> Yes, I think everyone involved is aware of that.  Are you volunteering to
> implement this?
> 

I got from Andreas that not everyone was aware 486 stepping A CPUs are
affected as well. But 486 stepping A CPUs actually do have cmpxchg, but
with other opcodes if I get it correctly. So the emulation could be much
simpeler here. As to implementing this, not in the first weeks and I
don't have any of the affected CPUs. I guess one hacking weekend with a
few knowledgeable people and a crate of club-mate should do though.

Cheers,

Peter (p2).

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