bolt/docs/PointerAuthDesign.md

# Optimizing binaries with pac-ret hardening

This is a design document about processing the `DW_CFA_AARCH64_negate_ra_state`
DWARF instruction in BOLT. As it describes internal design decisions, the
intended audience is BOLT developers. The document is an updated version of the
[RFC posted on the LLVM Discourse](https://discourse.llvm.org/t/rfc-bolt-aarch64-handle-opnegaterastate-to-enable-optimizing-binaries-with-pac-ret-hardening/86594).


`DW_CFA_AARCH64_negate_ra_state` is also referred to as  `.cfi_negate_ra_state`
in assembly, or `OpNegateRAState` in BOLT sources. In this document, I will use
**negate-ra-state** as a shorthand.

Note: there are two resolutions for CFI:
- Call Frame Instruction: individual DWARF instruction, e.g. negate-ra-state
- Control Flow Integrity: a security mechanism, e.g. pointer authentication.

## Introduction

### Pointer Authentication

For more information, see the [pac-ret section of the BOLT-binary-analysis document](BinaryAnalysis.md#pac-ret-analysis).

### DW_CFA_AARCH64_negate_ra_state

The negate-ra-state CFI is a vendor-specific Call Frame Instruction defined in
the [Arm ABI](https://github.com/ARM-software/abi-aa/blob/main/aadwarf64/aadwarf64.rst#id1).

```
The DW_CFA_AARCH64_negate_ra_state operation negates bit[0] of the RA_SIGN_STATE pseudo-register.
```

This bit indicates to the unwinder whether the current return address is signed
or not (hence the name). The unwinder uses this information to authenticate the
pointer, and remove the Pointer Authentication Code (PAC) bits.
Incorrect placement of negate-ra-state CFIs causes the unwinder to either attempt
to authenticate an unsigned pointer (resulting in a segmentation fault), or skip
authentication on a signed pointer, which can also cause a fault.

Note: some unwinders use the `xpac` instruction to strip the PAC bits without
authenticating the pointer. This is an incorrect (incomplete) implementation,
as it allows control-flow modification in the case of unwinding.

There are no DWARF instructions to directly set or clear the RA State. However,
two other CFIs can also affect the RA state:
- `DW_CFA_remember_state`: this CFI stores register rules onto an implicit stack.
- `DW_CFA_restore_state`:  this CFI pops rules from this stack.

Example:

| CFI                            | Effect on RA state             |
| ------------------------------ | ------------------------------ |
| (default)                      | 0                              |
| DW_CFA_AARCH64_negate_ra_state | 0 -> 1                         |
| DW_CFA_remember_state          | 1 pushed to the stack          |
| DW_CFA_AARCH64_negate_ra_state | 1 -> 0                         |
| DW_CFA_restore_state           | 0 -> 1 (popped from the stack) |

The Arm ABI also defines the DW_CFA_AARCH64_negate_ra_state_with_pc CFI, but it
is not widely used, and is [likely to become deprecated](https://github.com/ARM-software/abi-aa/issues/327).

### Where are these CFIs needed?

Whenever two consecutive instructions have different RA states, the unwinder must
be informed of the change. This typically occurs during pointer signing or
authentication. If adjacent instructions differ in RA state but neither signs
nor authenticates the return address, they must belong to different control flow
paths. One is part of an execution path with signed RA, the other is part of a
path with an unsigned RA.

In the example below, the first BasicBlock ends in a conditional branch, and
jumps to two different BasicBlocks, each with their own authentication, and
return. The instructions on the border of the second and third BasicBlock have
different RA states. The `ret` at the end of the second BasicBlock is in unsigned
state. The start of the third BasicBlock is after the `paciasp` in the control
flow, but before the authentication. In this case, a negate-ra-state is needed
at the end of the second BasicBlock.

```
        +----------------+
        |     paciasp    |
        |                |
        |      b.cc      |
        +--------+-------+
                 |
+----------------+
|                |
|       +--------v-------+
|       |                |
|       |    autiasp     |
|       |      ret       |   // RA: unsigned
|       +----------------+
+----------------+
                 |
        +--------v-------+  // RA: signed
        |                |
        |     autiasp    |
        |      ret       |
        +----------------+
```

> [!important]
> The unwinder does not follow the control flow graph. It reads unwind
> information in the layout order.

Because these locations are dependent on how the function layout looks,
negate-ra-state CFIs will become invalid during BasicBlock reordering.

## Solution design

The implementation introduces two new passes:
1. `PointerAuthCFIAnalyzer`: assigns the RA state to each instruction based on
    the CFIs in the input binary
2. `PointerAuthCFIFixup`: reads those assigned instruction RA states after
    optimizations, and emits `DW_CFA_AARCH64_negate_ra_state` CFIs at the correct
    places: wherever there is a state change between two consecutive instructions
    in the layout order.

To track metadata on individual instructions, the `MCAnnotation` class was
extended. These also have helper functions in `MCPlusBuilder`.

### Saving annotations at CFI reading

CFIs are read and added to BinaryFunctions in `CFIReaderWriter::FillCFIInfoFor`.
At this point, we add MCAnnotations about negate-ra-state, remember-state and
restore-state CFIs to the instructions they refer to. This is to not interfere
with the CFI processing that already happens in BOLT (e.g. remember-state and
restore-state CFIs are removed in `normalizeCFIState` for reasons unrelated to PAC).

As we add the MCAnnotations *to instructions*, we have to account for the case
where the function starts with a CFI altering the RA state. As CFIs modify the RA
state of the instructions before them, we cannot add the annotation to the first
instruction.
This special case is handled by adding an `initialRAState` bool to each BinaryFunction.
If the `Offset` the CFI refers to is zero, we don't store an annotation, but set
the `initialRAState` in `FillCFIInfoFor`. This information is then used in
`PointerAuthCFIAnalyzer`.

### Binaries without DWARF info

In some cases, the DWARF tables are stripped from the binary. These programs
usually have some other unwind-mechanism.
These passes only run on functions that include at least one negate-ra-state CFI.
This avoids processing functions that do not use Pointer Authentication, or on
functions that use Pointer Authentication, but do not have DWARF info.

In summary:
- pointer auth is not used: no change, the new passes do not run.
- pointer auth is used, but DWARF info is stripped: no change, the new passes
  do not run.
- pointer auth is used, and we have DWARF CFIs: passes run, and rewrite the
  negate-ra-state CFI.

### PointerAuthCFIAnalyzer pass

This pass runs before optimizations reorder anything.

It processes MCAnnotations generated during the CFI reading stage to check if
instructions have either of the three CFIs that can modify RA state:
- negate-ra-state,
- remember-state,
- restore-state.

Then it adds new MCAnnotations to each instruction, indicating their RA state.
Those annotations are:
- Signed,
- Unsigned.

Below is a simple example, that shows the two different type of annotations:
what we have before the pass, and after it.

| Instruction                   | Before          |  After   |
| ----------------------------- | --------------- | -------- |
| paciasp                       | negate-ra-state | unsigned |
| stp	x29, x30, [sp, #-0x10]! |                 | signed   |
| mov	x29, sp                 |                 | signed   |
| ldp	x29, x30, [sp], #0x10   |                 | signed   |
| autiasp                       | negate-ra-state | signed   |
| ret                           |                 | unsigned |

##### Error handling in PointerAuthCFIAnalyzer pass:

Whenever the PointerAuthCFIAnalyzer pass finds inconsistencies in the current
BinaryFunction, it marks the function as ignored using `BF.setIgnored()`. BOLT
will not optimize this function but will emit it unchanged in the original section
(`.bolt.org.text`).

The inconsistencies are as follows:
- finding a `pac*` instruction when already in signed state
- finding an `aut*` instruction when already in unsigned state
- finding `pac*` and `aut*` instructions without `.cfi_negate_ra_state`.

Users will be informed about the number of ignored functions in the pass, the
exact functions ignored, and the found inconsistency.

### PointerAuthCFIFixup

This pass runs after optimizations. It performs the _inverse_ of PointerAuthCFIAnalyzer
pass:
1. it reads the RA state annotations attached to the instructions, and
2. whenever the state changes, it adds a PseudoInstruction that holds an
   OpNegateRAState CFI.

##### Covering newly generated instructions:

Some BOLT passes can add new Instructions. In PointerAuthCFIFixup, we have
to know what RA state these have.

> [!important]
> As issue #160989 explains, unwind info is missing from stubs.
> For this same reason, we cannot generate correct pac-specific unwind info: the
> signedness of the _incorrect_ return address is meaningless.

Assignment of RAStates to newly generated instructions is done in `inferUnknownStates`.
We have two different cases to cover:

1. If a BasicBlock has some instructions with known RA state, and some without, we
   can copy the RAState of known instructions to the unknown ones. As the control
   flow only changes between BasicBlocks, instructions in the same BasicBlock have
   the same return address. (The exception is noreturn calls, but these would only
   cause problems, if the newly inserted instruction is right after the call.)

2. If a BasicBlock has no instructions with known RAState, we have to copy the
   RAState of the previous BasicBlock in layout order.

### Optimizations requiring special attention

Marking states before optimizations ensure that instructions can be moved around
freely. The only special case is function splitting. When a function is split,
the split part becomes a new function in the emitted binary. For unwinding to
work, it needs to "replay" all CFIs that lead up to the split point. BOLT does
this for other CFIs. As negate-ra-state is not read (only stored as an Annotation),
we have to do this manually in PointerAuthCFIFixup. Here, if the split part
starts with an instruction that has Signed RA state, we add a negate-ra-state CFI
to indicate this.

## Option to disallow the feature

The feature can be guarded with the `--update-branch-prediction` flag, which is
on by default. If the flag is set to false, and a function
`containedNegateRAState()` after `FillCFIInfoFor()`, BOLT exits with an error.