Shadow memory
-------------
-The kernel maps memory in a number of different parts of the address
-space. This poses something of a problem for KASAN, which requires
-that all addresses accessed by instrumented code have a valid shadow
-region.
-
-The range of kernel virtual addresses is large: there is not enough
-real memory to support a real shadow region for every address that
-could be accessed by the kernel.
+The kernel maps memory in several different parts of the address space.
+The range of kernel virtual addresses is large: there is not enough real
+memory to support a real shadow region for every address that could be
+accessed by the kernel. Therefore, KASAN only maps real shadow for certain
+parts of the address space.
Default behaviour
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
declares all memory accesses as permitted.
This presents a problem for modules: they do not live in the linear
-mapping, but in a dedicated module space. By hooking in to the module
-allocator, KASAN can temporarily map real shadow memory to cover
-them. This allows detection of invalid accesses to module globals, for
-example.
+mapping but in a dedicated module space. By hooking into the module
+allocator, KASAN temporarily maps real shadow memory to cover them.
+This allows detection of invalid accesses to module globals, for example.
This also creates an incompatibility with ``VMAP_STACK``: if the stack
lives in vmalloc space, it will be shadowed by the read-only page, and
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With ``CONFIG_KASAN_VMALLOC``, KASAN can cover vmalloc space at the
-cost of greater memory usage. Currently this is only supported on x86.
+cost of greater memory usage. Currently, this is supported on x86,
+riscv, s390, and powerpc.
-This works by hooking into vmalloc and vmap, and dynamically
+This works by hooking into vmalloc and vmap and dynamically
allocating real shadow memory to back the mappings.
Most mappings in vmalloc space are small, requiring less than a full
To avoid the difficulties around swapping mappings around, KASAN expects
that the part of the shadow region that covers the vmalloc space will
-not be covered by the early shadow page, but will be left
-unmapped. This will require changes in arch-specific code.
+not be covered by the early shadow page but will be left unmapped.
+This will require changes in arch-specific code.
-This allows ``VMAP_STACK`` support on x86, and can simplify support of
+This allows ``VMAP_STACK`` support on x86 and can simplify support of
architectures that do not have a fixed module region.
For developers