Porting and Generalizing Dynamic Privilege in Linux

Explore the concept of Dynamic Privilege in Linux and its implementation across different architectures in this 26-minute conference talk from DevConf.US 2024. Delve into the ability of authorized processes to acquire and relinquish hardware privilege on demand, and understand the kernel mechanisms that enable this functionality. Learn about the initial x86_64 implementation and its subsequent port to ARM64, comparing the two approaches to differentiate between the functional goals and underlying architectural mechanisms. Gain insights into the process of generalizing Dynamic Privilege beyond a single architecture and discover how this work informs potential implementation on RISC-V. Understand the implications for system optimization and specialization, including the ability to shortcut long code paths by calling internal kernel routines.