diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.rst | 34 |
1 files changed, 13 insertions, 21 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.rst index 48ca0bd85604..48c7b0b72aed 100644 --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.rst +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.rst @@ -102,9 +102,19 @@ The possible values in this file are: * - 'Vulnerable' - The processor is vulnerable, but no mitigation enabled * - 'Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode' - - The processor is vulnerable but microcode is not updated. - - The mitigation is enabled on a best effort basis. See :ref:`vmwerv` + - The processor is vulnerable but microcode is not updated. The + mitigation is enabled on a best effort basis. + + If the processor is vulnerable but the availability of the microcode + based mitigation mechanism is not advertised via CPUID, the kernel + selects a best effort mitigation mode. This mode invokes the mitigation + instructions without a guarantee that they clear the CPU buffers. + + This is done to address virtualization scenarios where the host has the + microcode update applied, but the hypervisor is not yet updated to + expose the CPUID to the guest. If the host has updated microcode the + protection takes effect; otherwise a few CPU cycles are wasted + pointlessly. * - 'Mitigation: Clear CPU buffers' - The processor is vulnerable and the CPU buffer clearing mitigation is enabled. @@ -119,24 +129,6 @@ to the above information: 'SMT Host state unknown' Kernel runs in a VM, Host SMT state unknown ======================== ============================================ -.. _vmwerv: - -Best effort mitigation mode -^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - - If the processor is vulnerable, but the availability of the microcode based - mitigation mechanism is not advertised via CPUID the kernel selects a best - effort mitigation mode. This mode invokes the mitigation instructions - without a guarantee that they clear the CPU buffers. - - This is done to address virtualization scenarios where the host has the - microcode update applied, but the hypervisor is not yet updated to expose - the CPUID to the guest. If the host has updated microcode the protection - takes effect otherwise a few cpu cycles are wasted pointlessly. - - The state in the mds sysfs file reflects this situation accordingly. - - Mitigation mechanism ------------------------- |