--- /dev/null
+===============
+ShadowCallStack
+===============
+
+.. contents::
+ :local:
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+ShadowCallStack is an **experimental** instrumentation pass, currently only
+implemented for x86_64, that protects programs against return address
+overwrites (e.g. stack buffer overflows.) It works by saving a function's return
+address to a separately allocated 'shadow call stack' in the function prolog and
+checking the return address on the stack against the shadow call stack in the
+function epilog.
+
+Comparison
+----------
+
+To optimize for memory consumption and cache locality, the shadow call stack
+stores an index followed by an array of return addresses. This is in contrast
+to other schemes, like :doc:`SafeStack`, that mirror the entire stack and
+trade-off consuming more memory for shorter function prologs and epilogs with
+fewer memory accesses. Similarly, `Return Flow Guard`_ consumes more memory with
+shorter function prologs and epilogs than ShadowCallStack but suffers from the
+same race conditions (see `Security`_). Intel `Control-flow Enforcement Technology`_
+(CET) is a proposed hardware extension that would add native support to
+use a shadow stack to store/check return addresses at call/return time. It
+would not suffer from race conditions at calls and returns and not incur the
+overhead of function instrumentation, but it does require operating system
+support.
+
+.. _`Return Flow Guard`: https://xlab.tencent.com/en/2016/11/02/return-flow-guard/
+.. _`Control-flow Enforcement Technology`: https://software.intel.com/sites/default/files/managed/4d/2a/control-flow-enforcement-technology-preview.pdf
+
+Compatibility
+-------------
+
+ShadowCallStack currently only supports x86_64. A runtime is not currently
+provided in compiler-rt so one must be provided by the compiled application.
+
+Security
+========
+
+ShadowCallStack is intended to be a stronger alternative to
+``-fstack-protector``. It protects from non-linear overflows and arbitrary
+memory writes to the return address slot; however, similarly to
+``-fstack-protector`` this protection suffers from race conditions because of
+the call-return semantics on x86_64. There is a short race between the call
+instruction and the first instruction in the function that reads the return
+address where an attacker could overwrite the return address and bypass
+ShadowCallStack. Similarly, there is a time-of-check-to-time-of-use race in the
+function epilog where an attacker could overwrite the return address after it
+has been checked and before it has been returned to. Modifying the call-return
+semantics to fix this on x86_64 would incur an unacceptable performance overhead
+due to return branch prediction.
+
+The instrumentation makes use of the ``gs`` segment register to reference the
+shadow call stack meaning that references to the shadow call stack do not have
+to be stored in memory. This makes it possible to implement a runtime that
+avoids exposing the address of the shadow call stack to attackers that can read
+arbitrary memory. However, attackers could still try to exploit side channels
+exposed by the operating system `[1]`_ `[2]`_ or processor `[3]`_ to discover
+the address of the shadow call stack.
+
+.. _`[1]`: https://eyalitkin.wordpress.com/2017/09/01/cartography-lighting-up-the-shadows/
+.. _`[2]`: https://www.blackhat.com/docs/eu-16/materials/eu-16-Goktas-Bypassing-Clangs-SafeStack.pdf
+.. _`[3]`: https://www.vusec.net/projects/anc/
+
+Leaf functions are optimized to store the return address in a free register
+and avoid writing to the shadow call stack if a register is available. Very
+short leaf functions are uninstrumented if their execution is judged to be
+shorter than the race condition window intrinsic to the instrumentation.
+
+Usage
+=====
+
+To enable ShadowCallStack, just pass the ``-fsanitize=shadow-call-stack`` flag
+to both compile and link command lines.
+
+Low-level API
+-------------
+
+``__has_feature(shadow_call_stack)``
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+In some cases one may need to execute different code depending on whether
+ShadowCallStack is enabled. The macro ``__has_feature(shadow_call_stack)`` can
+be used for this purpose.
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ #if defined(__has_feature)
+ # if __has_feature(shadow_call_stack)
+ // code that builds only under ShadowCallStack
+ # endif
+ #endif
+
+``__attribute__((no_sanitize("shadow-call-stack")))``
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Use ``__attribute__((no_sanitize("shadow-call-stack")))`` on a function
+declaration to specify that the shadow call stack instrumentation should not be
+applied to that function, even if enabled globally.
+
+Example
+=======
+
+The following example code:
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+ int foo() {
+ return bar() + 1;
+ }
+
+Generates the following x86_64 assembly when compiled with ``-O2``:
+
+.. code-block:: gas
+
+ push %rax
+ callq foo
+ add $0x1,%eax
+ pop %rcx
+ retq
+
+Adding ``-fsanitize=shadow-call-stack`` would output the following:
+
+.. code-block:: gas
+
+ mov (%rsp),%r10
+ xor %r11,%r11
+ addq $0x8,%gs:(%r11)
+ mov %gs:(%r11),%r11
+ mov %r10,%gs:(%r11)
+ push %rax
+ callq foo
+ add $0x1,%eax
+ pop %rcx
+ xor %r11,%r11
+ mov %gs:(%r11),%r10
+ mov %gs:(%r10),%r10
+ subq $0x8,%gs:(%r11)
+ cmp %r10,(%rsp)
+ jne trap
+ retq
+
+ trap:
+ ud2
// CHECK-SAFESTACK-LINUX: "-lpthread"
// CHECK-SAFESTACK-LINUX: "-ldl"
+// RUN: %clang -fsanitize=shadow-call-stack %s -### -o %t.o 2>&1 \
+// RUN: -target x86_64-unknown-linux -fuse-ld=ld \
+// RUN: | FileCheck --check-prefix=CHECK-SHADOWCALLSTACK-LINUX-X86-64 %s
+// CHECK-SHADOWCALLSTACK-LINUX-X86-64-NOT: error:
+
+// RUN: %clang -fsanitize=shadow-call-stack %s -### -o %t.o 2>&1 \
+// RUN: -target x86-unknown-linux -fuse-ld=ld \
+// RUN: | FileCheck --check-prefix=CHECK-SHADOWCALLSTACK-LINUX-X86 %s
+// CHECK-SHADOWCALLSTACK-LINUX-X86: error: unsupported option '-fsanitize=shadow-call-stack' for target 'x86-unknown-linux'
+
+// RUN: %clang -fsanitize=shadow-call-stack %s -### -o %t.o 2>&1 \
+// RUN: -fsanitize=safe-stack -target x86_64-unknown-linux -fuse-ld=ld \
+// RUN: | FileCheck --check-prefix=CHECK-SHADOWCALLSTACK-SAFESTACK %s
+// CHECK-SHADOWCALLSTACK-SAFESTACK: error: invalid argument '-fsanitize=shadow-call-stack' not allowed with '-fsanitize=safe-stack'
+
// RUN: %clang -fsanitize=cfi -fsanitize-stats %s -### -o %t.o 2>&1 \
// RUN: -target x86_64-unknown-linux -fuse-ld=ld \
// RUN: --sysroot=%S/Inputs/basic_linux_tree \