]> git.itanic.dy.fi Git - linux-stable/commit
x86/speculation/mds: Add mds_clear_cpu_buffers()
authorThomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 22:13:06 +0000 (23:13 +0100)
committerGreg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Tue, 14 May 2019 17:19:40 +0000 (19:19 +0200)
commit96ef7afd8c38c88419d1bd85f6cc25c3aa403224
tree9dc12c2daec5001da5e1cd378eb9099d44575b52
parenteb2aa332cfe39e05585534017ad94b7717dbdf85
x86/speculation/mds: Add mds_clear_cpu_buffers()

commit 6a9e529272517755904b7afa639f6db59ddb793e upstream.

The Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) vulernabilities are mitigated by
clearing the affected CPU buffers. The mechanism for clearing the buffers
uses the unused and obsolete VERW instruction in combination with a
microcode update which triggers a CPU buffer clear when VERW is executed.

Provide a inline function with the assembly magic. The argument of the VERW
instruction must be a memory operand as documented:

  "MD_CLEAR enumerates that the memory-operand variant of VERW (for
   example, VERW m16) has been extended to also overwrite buffers affected
   by MDS. This buffer overwriting functionality is not guaranteed for the
   register operand variant of VERW."

Documentation also recommends to use a writable data segment selector:

  "The buffer overwriting occurs regardless of the result of the VERW
   permission check, as well as when the selector is null or causes a
   descriptor load segment violation. However, for lowest latency we
   recommend using a selector that indicates a valid writable data
   segment."

Add x86 specific documentation about MDS and the internal workings of the
mitigation.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Reviewed-by: Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de>
Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Reviewed-by: Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Jon Masters <jcm@redhat.com>
Tested-by: Jon Masters <jcm@redhat.com>
[bwh: Backported to 4.9: add the "Architecture-specific documentation"
 section to the index]
Signed-off-by: Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Documentation/index.rst
Documentation/x86/conf.py [new file with mode: 0644]
Documentation/x86/index.rst [new file with mode: 0644]
Documentation/x86/mds.rst [new file with mode: 0644]
arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h