what does endbr64 instruction actually do?

Question

I've been trying to understand assembly language code generated by GCC and frequently encounter this instruction at start of many functions including _start(), but coudn't find any guide explaining it's purpose

31-0000000000001040 <_start>:
32:    1040:    f3 0f 1e fa             endbr64 
33-    1044:    31 ed                   xor    ebp,ebp

Answer 1

It stands for "End Branch 64 bit" -- or more precisely, Terminate Indirect Branch in 64 bit

Intel has a document about this instruction.

Here is the operation:

IF EndbranchEnabled(CPL) & EFER.LMA = 1 & CS.L = 1
  IF CPL = 3
  THEN
    IA32_U_CET.TRACKER = IDLE
    IA32_U_CET.SUPPRESS = 0
  ELSE
    IA32_S_CET.TRACKER = IDLE
    IA32_S_CET.SUPPRESS = 0
  FI
FI;

The instruction is otherwise considered a NOP.

The CET feature is used to make sure that your indirect branches actually go to a valid location. This allows for additional safety. Here is the paragraph from Intel about it:

The ENDBRANCH (see Section 73 for details) is a new instruction that is used to mark valid jump target addresses of indirect calls and jumps in the program. This instruction opcode is selected to be one that is a NOP on legacy machines such that programs compiled with ENDBRANCH new instruction continue to function on old machines without the CET enforcement. On processors that support CET the ENDBRANCH is still a NOP and is primarily used as a marker instruction by the processor pipeline to detect control flow violations. The CPU implements a state machine that tracks indirect jmp and call instructions. When one of these instructions is seen, the state machine moves from IDLE to WAIT_FOR_ENDBRANCH state. In WAIT_FOR_ENDBRANCH state the next instruction in the program stream must be an ENDBRANCH. If an ENDBRANCH is not seen the processor causes a control protection exception (#CP), else the state machine moves back to IDLE state.