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Introduction To The x86 Microprocessor

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Introduction to The x86 Microprocessor

Prof. V. Kamakoti Digital Circuits And VLSI Laboratory Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Chennai - 600 036. http://vlsi.cs.iitm.ernet.in

Protected Mode
Memory Segmentation and Privilege Levels Definition of a segment Segment selectors Local Descriptor Tables Segment Aliasing, Overlapping Privilege protection Defining Privilege Levels Changing Privilege levels

Organization
Basic Introduction Structured Computer Organization Memory Management Architectural Support to Operating Systems and users Process Management Architectural Support to Operating Systems
Task Switching and Interrupt/Exception Handling

Legacy Management Instruction set compatibility across evolving processor Architectures Evolution of Instruction Sets MMX Instructions

Intel Processor operation modes


Intel processor runs in five modes of operations Real Mode Protected Mode Virtual 8086 mode IA 32e Extended Memory model for 64-bits Compatibility mode execute 32 bit code in 64-bit mode without recompilation. No access to 64-bit address space 64-bit mode 64-bit OS accessing 64-bit address space and 64-bit registers System Management mode Real mode is equivalent to 8086 mode of operation with some extensions Protected Mode is what is commonly used Virtual 8086 mode is used to run 8086 compatible programs concurrently with other protected mode programs

Structured Computer Organization

Compilers ask for features from the Architecture to induce more sophistication in the Programming Languages Compiled code/ Assembly code Advanced Addressing modes Sophisticated Instruction set

Programming Language level


Assembly Language level

Support for Memory Management and Task Management Multiuser OS - Protection, Virtual Memory, Context Switching

Operating Systems level


Understanding How I manage these demands makes my biography interesting

Computer Architecture

Microprogramming level
Intel

Digital Logic level

Memory Management
Multi User Operating Systems

Ease of Programming Process Mobility in the Address Space Multiprocess Context switching Protection across Processes
Inter process protection

Ensured by Segmenta tion

Ensured by Intra process protection: Separation of Code, Paging Data and Stack

Virtual Memory

4GB address space for every process

Main Memory if (j>k) max = j else max = k Code_Segment: mov EAX, [0] mov EBX, [4] cmp EAX,EBX jle 0x7 //Label_1 mov [8], EAX jmp 0x5 //Label_2 Label_1: mov [8], EBX Label_2: .
Every Memory Data Access should add the value stored in Data Segment Register By default.

Code and Data segments are separate and both assumed to start from 0

0000

Operating System (Kernel)


0700

Other User Process


0900

Our Code Segment


1900

Segment Register (Data) 2100

Data Segment:
0: // Allocated for j
Address of j: 2100 Address of k: 2104 Address of max: 2108

Vacant Space
2100

4: // Allocated for k 8: // Allocated for max


2300

Our Data Segment Vacant Space

Ease Of Programming

2500

Main Memory if (j>k) max = j else max = k Code_Segment: mov EAX, [0] mov EBX, [4] cmp EAX,EBX jle 0x7 //Label_1 mov [8], EAX jmp 0x5 //Label_2 Label_1: mov [8], EBX Label_2: .
A new process needs a segment of size 260 The space is available but not contiguous

0000

Operating System (Kernel)


0700

Other User Process


0900

Our Code Segment


1900

Segment Register (Data) 2100 2300

Data Segment:
0: // Allocated for j
Address Address of of j: j: 2300 2100 Address Address of of k: k: 2304 2104 Address of max: 2308 2108

2100
2160

New User Space Process


Our Vacant Data Segment Space Vacant Space Our Vacant Data Segment Space

Vacant

4: // Allocated for k 8: // Allocated for max

2300

Process Mobility

2500

General Purpose Registers

64-bit and above Registers


RAX, RBX, RCX, RDX, RSI, RSP, RDI, RBP 64 bit General purpose registers sharing space with its corresponding 32-bit registers R8-R15, additional general purpose registers

R8D R15D (32 bit counter part) R8W R15W (16 bit counter part)

ST0-ST7, 80 bit floating point MMX0-MMX7, 64-bit multi media XMM0-XMM7, 128-bit registers used for floating point and packed integer arithmetic

Segment Registers

Multiple Segments
The segment register can change its values to point to different segments at different times. X86 architecture provides additional segment registers to access multi data segments at the same time. DS, ES, FS and GS X86 supports a separate Stack Segment Register (SS) and a Code segment Register (CS) in addition. By default a segment register is fixed for every instruction, for all the memory access performed by it. For eg. all data accessed by MOV instruction take DS as the default segment register. An segment override prefix is attached to an instruction to change the segment register it uses for memory data access.

0000
mov [10], eax - this will move the contents of eax register to memory location 0510 Opcode: 0x89 0x05 0x10 mov [ES:10], eax -this will move the contents of eax register to memory location 3510 Opcode 0x26 0x89 0x05 0x10

DS 0500 C S

1500 2500

SS

0x26 is the segment override prefix.

E S

3500

Multiple Segments

C S Process 1 in Execution Process 2 D S S S

Process 1 CS

Process 1 DS
Process 2 CS Process 2 SS Process 2 DS Process 1 SS

in
Execution

Multiprocess Context switching

Other Registers
EFLAGS 32 Bit Register
VM RF NT IO IO OF DF IF TF SF ZF AF PF CF

PL PL

Bits 1,3,5,15,22-31 are RESERVED. 18: AC, 19:VIF, 20: VIP, 21:ID

Details of the flags


CF Carry Flag

Set by arithmetic instructions that generate a carry or borrow. Also can be set, inverted and cleared with the STC, CLC or CMC instructions respectively. Set by most instructions if the least significant eight bits of the destination operand contain an even number of 1 bits.

PF Parity Flag

Details of the flags


AF Auxiliary Flag

If a carry or borrow from the most significant nibble of the least significant byte Aids BCD arithmetic Set by most instructions if the result of the arithmetic operation is zero

ZF Zero Flag

Details of the flags


SF Sign Flag

On signed operands, this tells whether the result is positive or negative

TF Trace Flag

On being set it allows single-step through programs. Executes exactly one instruction and generates an internal exception 1 (debug fault)

Details of the flags


IF Interrupt Flag

When set, the processor recognizes the external hardware interrupts on INTR pin. On clearing, anyway has not effect on NMI (external non maskable interrupt) pin or internally generated faults, exceptions, traps etc. This flag can be set and cleared using the STI and CLI instructions respectively Specifically for string instructions. DF = 1 increments ESI and EDI, while DF = 0 decrements the same. Set and cleared by STD and CLD instructions

DF Direction Flag

Details of the flags


OF Overflow Flag

Most arithmetic instructions set this flag to indicate that the result was at least 1 bit too large to fit in the destination

IOPL Input Output Privilege Level flags

For protected mode operations indicates the privilege level, 0 to 3, at which your code must be running in order to execute any I/O-related instructions

Details of the flags


NT Nested Task Flag

When set, it indicates that one system task has invoked another through a CALL instruction as opposed to a JMP. For multitasking this can be manipulated to our advantage It is related to Debug registers DR6 and DR7. By setting this, you can selectively mask some exceptions while you are debugging code

RF Resume Flag

Details of the flags


VM Virtual 8086 mode flag

When it is set, the x86 processor is basically converted into a highspeed 8086 processor.

AC (bit 18) Alignment check flag Set this flag and the AM bit in the CR0 register to

enable alignment checking of memory references; clear the AC flag and/or the AM bit to disable alignment checking.

VIF (bit 19) Virtual interrupt flag Virtual image of the IF flag. Used in conjunction

with the VIP flag. (To use this flag and the VIP flag the virtual mode extensions are enabled by setting the VME flag in control register CR4.)

Details of the flags


VIP (bit 20) Virtual interrupt pending flag Set to indicate that an interrupt is pending;

clear when no interrupt is pending. (Software sets and clears this flag; the processor only reads it.) Used in conjunction with the VIF flag.

ID (bit 21) Identification flag The ability of a program to set or clear this flag indicates

support for the CPUID instruction.

Protected Mode Registers


LDTR Local Descriptor Table Register 16 bits GDTR Global Descriptor Table Register 48 bits IDTR Interrupt Descriptor Table Register 48 bits TR Task register 16 bits

Other System Registers


Control CR0, CR2, CR3 (each 32-bits)

CR0 is very important


Bit 0 PE bit when set processor in protected mode else real mode Bit 3 TS bit The processor sets this bit automatically every time it performs a task switch. This can be cleared using a CLTS instruction Bit 31 PG bit when set paging MMU is enabled else it is disabled

Other System Registers


Control CR0, CR2, CR3 (each 32-bits)

CR2 Read only register deposits the last 32bit linear address that caused a page-fault CR3 Stores the physical address of the PDB Page Directory Base register. The paging tables are to be 4KB aligned and hence the 12 least significant bits are not stored and ignored

Other System Registers


Debug Registers

DR0, DR1, DR2, DR3, DR6, DR7 DR0-DR3 can hold four linear address breakpoints so that of the processor generates these addresses a debug exception (Interrupt 1) is caused DR6 Debug status register indicating the circumstances that may have caused the last debug fault DR7 Debug control register. By filling in the various fields of this register, you can control the operation of the four linear address breakpoints

Other System Registers


Test Registers TR6 and TR7

Used to perform confidence checking on the paging MMUs Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB).

Test Your Understanding


There are ------- GPRs in the x86 The x86 system in protected mode has ------- enabled by default Three salient features of using Segmentation

Answers
1. Eight GPRs 2. Segmentation 3. Three Features

Code Mobility Logically every segment can start with zero Inter and Intra process protection ensuring data integrity.

Learnt so far Intel Memory Management fundamentals Motivation from a Computer Organization standpoint Intel Register set General Purpose Registers, Segment registers and system registers x86 modes of operations

x86 Memory Management


To Learn Real and protected mode addressing in x86 Virtual Memory and paging Addressing Task switching and Interrupt handling Legacy issues

Real Mode - Memory Addressing


Segment << 4 + offset = 20 bit EA
Segment size is a fixed 64K
DS = 0x1004 mov [0x1000], EAX

The mov will store the content of EAX in 0x10040 + 0x1000 = 0x11040

Why this stuff? - To get 1 MB addressing using 16bit Segment Registers

Protected Mode Addressing


mov [DS:1000], EAX Let value of DS be 0x10. This is used to select a segment descriptor in a descriptor table. The segment descriptor contains information about the base address of the segment, to which 1000 is added to get the effective address. The value stored in DS is called a selector. Henceforth we discuss protected mode.

Protected Mode Addressing


Logical Address

SELECTOR

OFFSET

Descriptor Table

Segment Descriptor

Base Address

Linear Address

A process always executes from Code segment. It should not execute by accessing from adjoining Data or stack area or any other code area too. A stack should not overgrow into adjoining segments

C S
ES SS

500
1000 1500 2000

Every segment is specified a start address and limit. Architecture checks if limit is not exceeded.

jmp mov PUSH CS:501 POP PUSH [ES:498], mov POP EAX EAX AX [ES:498], AX //This //Let //Let //Let EAX is SP a SP SP AX //This violation be be be //This 2, 498, 2, 498, is Violation!!! it a as is it violation!!! violation is fine limit fineis 500 jmp CS:250 //This is fine

Intra and Inter process Protection

Process 1 should be prevented from loading CS, such that it can access the code of Process 2 Similarly for the DS,SS, ES, FS and GS

C S D S S S

Process 1 CS

Process 1 DS
Process 2 CS Process 2 SS Process 2 DS Process 1 SS

Privilege levels: [0-3] assigned to each segment. 0: Highest privilege

3: Lowest privilege

Interprocess Protection

Privilege levels and Protection


Every segment has an associated privilege level and hence any code segment will have an associated privilege level. The CPL (Current Privilege Level) of a process is the privilege level of the code segment, the code stored in which, it is executing. A process can access segments that have privilege levels numerically greater than or equal to (less privileged than) its CPL.

Protection Implementation
Every segment is associated with a descriptor stored in a descriptor table. The privilege level of any segment is stored in its descriptor. The descriptor table is maintained in memory and the starting location of the table is pointed to by a Descriptor Table Register (DTR). The segment register stores an offset into this table.

Structure of a Descriptor

Updating Segment registers


Segment registers (DS, ES, SS, GS and FS) are updated by normal MOV instructions.

MOV AX, 0x10 ; MOV DS, AX

The above command is successful if and only if the descriptor stored at the offset 0x10 in the descriptor table has a privilege level numerically greater than or equal to the CPL. A process with CPL = 3 cannot load the segment descriptor of CPL <= 2, and hence cannot access the segments.

Updating segment registers


The code segment register is updated by normal jump/call operations.

jmp 0x20:0x1000 This updates the CS by 0x20, provided the descriptor stored at offset 0x20 has a privilege level numerically greater than or equal to CPL
Numerically higher to lower Privilege Levels using CALL gates useful for system calls. Any privilege level to any other privilege level using task switch.

Other modes of updating CS register

Descriptor Tables
There are two descriptor tables

Global Descriptor Tables Local Descriptor Tables

The global descriptor tables base address is stored in GDTR The local descriptor tables base address is stored in LDTR The two privileged instructions LGDT and LLDT loads the GDTR and LDTR.

Structure of a Selector
15 2 0

Index T1 = 0 GDT = 1 LDT

T1

Since segment descriptors are each 8 bytes, the last three bits of the selector is zero, in which one of them is used for LDT/GDT access.

Two process each of PL = 3 should be allotted segments such that one should not access the segments of other.

GDT R

GDT
All descriptors in GDT have PL = 0,1,2

LDTR

LDTR

Per process

Per process

If at all each process should access memory, it has to use the descriptors in its LDTR only and it cannot change the LDTR/LDT/GDTR/GDT contents as they would be maintained in a higher privileged memory area.

Did You Note!!


There is an 100 % degradation in Memory access time because every memory access is two accesses now, one for getting the base address and another for actually accessing the data. A solution indeed: Along with the segment registers, keep a shadow registers which stores additional necessary information.

Visible part

Hidden part

Segment selector

Base Address, Limit, DPL.

CS SS DS ES FS GS

Be Careful
Logical Address

add [DS:20],eax

0x10

20

Descriptor Table

Linear address will still be 120 Have to execute mov DS,0x10 again to get the answer as 220, as this would update the hidden part

Base = 200 Base = 100

Base Address

Linear Address

120

Changing Base

Virtual Memory and Paging


It is always enough if the next instruction to be executed and the data needed to execute the same are available in the memory. The complete code and data segment need not be available. Use of paging to realize the stuff! By using segmentation the processor calculates an 32-bit effective address.

Paging fundamentals
Each page is 4096 bytes Physical RAM has page frames like photo frames, which is also 4096 bytes. A page is copied into the page frame, if needed and removed to accommodate some other page. By this, a 4 GB code can run on a 128MB physical memory This is also called demand paging.

Protected Mode Addressing with paging


10
DIR

10
TABLE

12
OFFSET PAGE FRAME

PAGE DIRECTORY

PAGE TABLE 4KB entries with 4 bytes per entry PG TBL ENTRY

PHYS ADDRS

4KB entries with 4 bytes per entry

DIR ENTRY

If 20 bytes are used as a single level paging then page table alone is 4 MB which is inefficient. So two level paging. Develop the page table on demand TLBs used to improve performance Dirty bit accommodated in each page entry

CR3 REG

Protected Mode Addressing - Paging entries

Task Switching
There are different types of descriptors in a Descriptor table. One of them is a task state segment descriptor. jmp 0x10:<dontcare> and that 0x10 points to a TGD, then the current process context is saved and the new process pointed out by the task state segment descriptor is loaded. A perfect context switch. TSS descriptor only in a GDT.

Task State Segment

Task Switching
Every process has an associated Task State Segment, whose starting point is stored in the Task register. A task switch happens due to a jmp or call instruction whose segment selector points to a Task state segment descriptor, which in turn points to the base of a new task state segment

Task Switching process

Interrupt Handling
Processor generates interrupts that index into a Interrupt Descriptor Table, whose base is stored in IDTR and loaded using the privileged instruction LIDT. The descriptors in IDT can be

Interrupt gate: ISR handled as a normal call subroutine uses the interrupted processor stack to save EIP,CS, (SS, ESP in case of stack switch new stack got from TSS). Task gate: ISR handled as a task switch
Needed for stack fault in CPL = 0 and double faults.

Interrupt Handling
Processor handles a total of 255 interrupts 0-31 are used by machine or reserved 32-255 are user definable 0 Divide error, goes to first descriptor in IDT 1 Debug 8 Double Fault 12 Stack Segment fault 13 General Protection Fault 14 Page Fault

Instruction Set Architecture

Legacy Issues
16-bit code in 32-bit architecture Address override prefix 16-bit or 32-bit addresses in a 32-bit or 16-bit code segment Operand override prefix

Same opcode for say, add EAX,EBX and add AX,BX Distinguished by the operand override prefix 16-bit or 32-bit operands in a 32-bit ot 16-bit code segment

D flag in the code segment descriptor tells the size of the code segment, which is used above.

Effective Address Calculation

Legacy Issues
mod r/m: says if it is a memory or register access sib: says if it is memory then what addressing is issued for effective address calculation.

Evolving Instruction Sets


The Multimedia Instruction set (MMX) First Major Extension to x86 since 1985 57 new instructions Audio Video Speech Recognition and synthesis Data communication Two byte Opcode with 0F prefix Use of Data parallelism at the instruction opcode level to speedup computation.

x86 Memory Management


To learn

Segmentation details Privilege levels and switching

Memory Segmentation
Segment Descriptors

80886 to 80386+
In 8086, the program is not expected to generate a non-existent memory address. If it does, then the processor shall try to access the same and read bogus data, or crash In 80386+ (and above) the segment attributes (base, limit, privilege etc) are programmable and no matter how privileged the code may be, it cannot access an area of memory unless that area is described to it.

Insight into 80386+ segments


Segments are

Areas of memory Defined by the programmer Used for different purposes, such as code, data and stack All the same size Necessarily paragraph aligned Limited to 64KB

Segments are not


Segment Descriptors
Describes a segment using 64-bits (0-63) Must be created for every segment Is created by the programmer Determines a segments base address (32bits) (Bits 16-39, 56-63) Determines a segments size (20-bits) (Bits 0-15, 48-51)

Segment Descriptors (Contd)


Defines whether a segment is a system segment (=0) or non-system (=1) (code, data or stack) segment (System bit) (Bit 44) Determines a segments use/type (3-bits) (Bits 41-43) after the above classification Determines a segments privilege level (2 bits) (Bits 45-46) DPL (Descriptor Privilege Level) Bits

Segment Descriptor (Contd)


Accessed (A)-bit: Bit 40, automatically set and not cleared by the processor when a memory reference is made to the segment described by this descriptor. Present (P)-bit: Bit 47, indicates whether the segment described by this descriptor is currently available in physical memory or not. Bits 40-47 of the descriptor is called the Access Right Byte of the descriptor. User (U)-bit and X bit: Bit 52 (U-bit) not used and Bit 53 (X-bit) reserved by Intel

Segment Descriptor (Contd)


Default size (D)-bit: Bit 54, when this bit is cleared, operands contained within this segment are assumed to be 16 bits in size. When it is set, operands are assumed to be 32-bits. Granularity (G)-bit: Bit 55, when this bit is cleared the 20-bit limit field is assumed to be measured in units of 1byte. If it is set, the limit field is in units of 4096 bytes.

Types of non-system segment descriptors


System bit S = 1

000 Data, Read only 001 Data, Read/Write 010 expand down, Read only 011 expand down, Read/Write 100 Code, Execute only 101 Code, Execute/Read 110 Conforming Code, Execute only 111 - Conforming Code, Execute/Read

D-bit for different descriptors


Code segment

D = 0 then 16-bit 80286 code D = 1 then 32-bit 80386+ code D = 0 then stack operations are 16-bit wide, SP is used as a stack pointer, maximum stack size is FFFF (64 KB) D = 1 then stack operations are 32-bit wide, ESP is used as a stack pointer, maximum stack size is FFFFFFFF (4 GB)

Stack Segment

G-bit for descriptors

G = 0 then a limit field in descriptor of value p indicates we can access p-1 bytes from base G = 1 then a limit field in descriptor of value p indicates we can access (p * 4096) - 1 bytes from base

Stack/expand down segments


All offsets must be greater than limit. In stack descriptor, D and G bits are to be the same, else contradiction.
FFFF
Limit Addressa ble area

FFFF
Limit

Addressa ble area

Base

Non-stack

Base

Stack/expanddown

Descriptor Tables
Descriptors are stored in three tables:

Global descriptor table (GDT)


Maintains a list of most segments May contain special system descriptors The first descriptor is a null descriptor

Interrupt descriptor table (IDT)


Maintains a list of interrupt service routines

Local descriptor table (LDT)


Is optional Extends range of GDT Is allocated to each task when multitasking is enabled The first descriptor is a null descriptor

Locations of the tables


In Memory Pointed out by GDTR, LDTR and IDTR for the GDT, LDT and IDT respectively. The GDTR and IDTR are 48-bits in length, the first 16-bits (least significant) storing the size (limit) of the table and the remaining storing a 32bit address pointing to the base of the tables Limit = (no. of descriptors * 8) - 1 LLDT stores a 16-bit selector pointing to an entry in the GDT.

Segment Selectors
Out of several segments described in your GDT and LDT, which of the segment(s) that are currently being used are pointed to by the 16-bit CS,DS,ES,FS,GS and SS registers. Each store a selector Since descriptors are at 8-byte boundaries, the 16-bit selectors store the first most significant 13 bits to point to the corresponding descriptor. The bit 2 is the T1 bit, which when 0 (1) implies the selector is pointing to a descriptor in GDT (LDT). The bits (0-1) are the Request Privilege Level (RPL) bits used for privilege assignments.

Loading Segment Selectors into segment registers


Whenever segment registers are loaded, the following rules are checked by the processor and if violated an exception is raised thus giving high degree of memory protection Rule 1: Index field of the selector within limits of the GDT/LDT to be accessed else raise a General Protection Fault exception.

Loading Segment Selectors into segment registers


Rule 2: Loading a selector into DS,ES,FS or GS that points to a non-readable segment results in an exception Rule 3: For loading into SS, the segment pointed to should be readable and writable Rule 4: For loading into CS, the segment should be executable type Rule 5: Privilege level check rules to be described later

Loading segment selectors


All segment registers except CS may be loaded using MOV, LDS, LES, LFS, LGS and LSS. The CS is loaded using a JMP or a CALL instruction discussed later

Local Descriptor Table


Is defined by a system descriptor (S=0) in GDT which is pointed to by the LDT.
The 64-bit descriptor in GDT
Base Address 31-24 0000

Limit 19-16

0000010

Base Address 23-0

Limit 15-0

Privilege levels
The need is to prevent

Users from interfering with one another Users from examining secure data Program bugs from damaging other programs Program bugs from damaging data Malicious attempts to compromise system integrity Accidental damage to data

Privilege Protection
Continuous checking by the processor on whether the application is privileged enough to

Type 1: Execute certain instructions Type 2: Reference data other than its own Type 3: Transfer control to code other than its own

To manage this every segment has a privilege level called the DPL (Descriptor Privilege Level) Bits 45,46

Descriptor Privilege Level


Privilege levels apply to entire segments The privilege level is defined in the segment descriptor The privilege level of the code segment determines the Current Privilege Level (CPL)

Type 1: Privilege Checking

1.

Privileged Instructions
Segmentation and Protection Based (HLT, CLTS, LGDT, LIDT, LLDT, LTR, moving data to Control, Debug and Test registers) Interrupt flag based (CLI, STI, IN, INS, OUT, OUTS) Peripheral IO based

2.

3.

First two types of privileged instructions can be executed only when CPL = 0, that is, these instructions can be in code segment with DPL = 0.

I/O instructions
The I/O based privileged instructions are executed only if CPL <= IOPL in EFLAGS register. To add to the security the POPF/POPFD instructions which load values into the EFLAGS shall not touch the IOPL bit or IF bit if CPL > 0.

Type 2: Privilege Checking


Reference data other than its own Load a selector into a DS, ES, FS and GS iff max(RPL,CPL) <= DPL RPL may weaken your privilege level Decreasing RPL will not strengthen your privilege level Why? Why to decrease RPL will discuss later Load a descriptor into a stack iff DPL = CPL All these are in addition to the rules for loading segment selector, that were stated in Slides 87 and 88.

Type 3: Privilege Checking


Transfer control to code other than its own. Essentially load a new selector into CS register jmp across code segments with same DPL

jmp <selector>:<offset of instruction from start of the new segment> call <selector>:<offset of instruction from start of the new segment>

Type 3: Privilege Checking


The above jmp, call and ret may be used To move between code segments provided the destination segment is

A code segment (executable permission) Defined with the same privilege level Marked present

Changing Privilege levels


Control transfer from a code of some PL to another code with some other different PL. Using conforming code segments or a special segment descriptor called call gates. Conforming code segments confirms with the privilege level of the calling code. So if a control transfer happens from segment S to a confirming segment T, the privilege of T would be the privilege of S.

Conforming Code Segment


The DPL of conforming code segment descriptor <= CPL of invoking code. Therefore, CPL = 2 can invoke DPL = 1. CPL = 2 cannot invoke code with DPL = 3. Why?

If not, you JMP back or RET to the source code segment after executing the conforming code segment. This should permit return from a numerically low privilege code to a numerically high privilege code, without check.

CALL GATE descriptor


Is defined by a system descriptor (S=0) in GDT which is used by the JMP or CALL.
The 64-bit descriptor in GDT
Destination offset 31-16 P, DPL

01100

000

WC

Destination Selector (16 bits)

Destination Offset

15-0

Not only the selector for the target code segment, but also the offset in the code segment from which you should start executing is specified. The source code segment can only use it like a black-box

Calling Higher privileged code


Code Seg Code Seg

Code Desc
CALL CALL SEG OFFSET SEG OFFSET

Gate Sel + offset

Code Desc

Correct

Incorrect

Call Gates
Are defined like segment descriptors Occupy a slot in the descriptor tables Provide the only means to alter the current privilege level Define entry points to other privilege levels Must be invoked using a CALL Instruction

Call Gate accessibility


Target DPL <= Max (RPL, CPL) <= Gate DPL For eg. CPL = 2 and the target PL = 0, you should use a Gate with PL = 2 or 3

Privilege levels and Stacks


The stack PL = CPL always When changing the CPL, the processor automatically changes the stack!!! How using the Task State Segment (TSS) The base of the TSS is stored in a Task register (TR) which is updated by the privileged instruction LTR The TSS associates a stack for each code for each of the privilege levels 0, 1 and 2

Task Switching process

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