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-rw-r--r--Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/spectre.rst118
1 files changed, 42 insertions, 76 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/spectre.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/spectre.rst
index 32a8893e5617..4bb8549bee82 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/spectre.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/spectre.rst
@@ -138,11 +138,10 @@ associated with the source address of the indirect branch. Specifically,
the BHB might be shared across privilege levels even in the presence of
Enhanced IBRS.
-Currently the only known real-world BHB attack vector is via
-unprivileged eBPF. Therefore, it's highly recommended to not enable
-unprivileged eBPF, especially when eIBRS is used (without retpolines).
-For a full mitigation against BHB attacks, it's recommended to use
-retpolines (or eIBRS combined with retpolines).
+Previously the only known real-world BHB attack vector was via unprivileged
+eBPF. Further research has found attacks that don't require unprivileged eBPF.
+For a full mitigation against BHB attacks it is recommended to set BHI_DIS_S or
+use the BHB clearing sequence.
Attack scenarios
----------------
@@ -407,7 +406,7 @@ The possible values in this file are:
- Single threaded indirect branch prediction (STIBP) status for protection
between different hyper threads. This feature can be controlled through
- prctl per process, or through kernel command line options. This is x86
+ prctl per process, or through kernel command line options. This is an x86
only feature. For more details see below.
==================== ========================================================
@@ -430,6 +429,23 @@ The possible values in this file are:
'PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected' CPU is not affected by PBRSB
=========================== =======================================================
+ - Branch History Injection (BHI) protection status:
+
+.. list-table::
+
+ * - BHI: Not affected
+ - System is not affected
+ * - BHI: Retpoline
+ - System is protected by retpoline
+ * - BHI: BHI_DIS_S
+ - System is protected by BHI_DIS_S
+ * - BHI: SW loop, KVM SW loop
+ - System is protected by software clearing sequence
+ * - BHI: Vulnerable
+ - System is vulnerable to BHI
+ * - BHI: Vulnerable, KVM: SW loop
+ - System is vulnerable; KVM is protected by software clearing sequence
+
Full mitigation might require a microcode update from the CPU
vendor. When the necessary microcode is not available, the kernel will
report vulnerability.
@@ -473,8 +489,8 @@ Spectre variant 2
-mindirect-branch=thunk-extern -mindirect-branch-register options.
If the kernel is compiled with a Clang compiler, the compiler needs
to support -mretpoline-external-thunk option. The kernel config
- CONFIG_RETPOLINE needs to be turned on, and the CPU needs to run with
- the latest updated microcode.
+ CONFIG_MITIGATION_RETPOLINE needs to be turned on, and the CPU needs
+ to run with the latest updated microcode.
On Intel Skylake-era systems the mitigation covers most, but not all,
cases. See :ref:`[3] <spec_ref3>` for more details.
@@ -484,7 +500,11 @@ Spectre variant 2
Systems which support enhanced IBRS (eIBRS) enable IBRS protection once at
boot, by setting the IBRS bit, and they're automatically protected against
- Spectre v2 variant attacks.
+ some Spectre v2 variant attacks. The BHB can still influence the choice of
+ indirect branch predictor entry, and although branch predictor entries are
+ isolated between modes when eIBRS is enabled, the BHB itself is not isolated
+ between modes. Systems which support BHI_DIS_S will set it to protect against
+ BHI attacks.
On Intel's enhanced IBRS systems, this includes cross-thread branch target
injections on SMT systems (STIBP). In other words, Intel eIBRS enables
@@ -572,73 +592,19 @@ Spectre variant 2
Mitigation control on the kernel command line
---------------------------------------------
-Spectre variant 2 mitigation can be disabled or force enabled at the
-kernel command line.
-
- nospectre_v1
-
- [X86,PPC] Disable mitigations for Spectre Variant 1
- (bounds check bypass). With this option data leaks are
- possible in the system.
-
- nospectre_v2
-
- [X86] Disable all mitigations for the Spectre variant 2
- (indirect branch prediction) vulnerability. System may
- allow data leaks with this option, which is equivalent
- to spectre_v2=off.
-
-
- spectre_v2=
-
- [X86] Control mitigation of Spectre variant 2
- (indirect branch speculation) vulnerability.
- The default operation protects the kernel from
- user space attacks.
-
- on
- unconditionally enable, implies
- spectre_v2_user=on
- off
- unconditionally disable, implies
- spectre_v2_user=off
- auto
- kernel detects whether your CPU model is
- vulnerable
-
- Selecting 'on' will, and 'auto' may, choose a
- mitigation method at run time according to the
- CPU, the available microcode, the setting of the
- CONFIG_RETPOLINE configuration option, and the
- compiler with which the kernel was built.
-
- Selecting 'on' will also enable the mitigation
- against user space to user space task attacks.
-
- Selecting 'off' will disable both the kernel and
- the user space protections.
-
- Specific mitigations can also be selected manually:
-
- retpoline auto pick between generic,lfence
- retpoline,generic Retpolines
- retpoline,lfence LFENCE; indirect branch
- retpoline,amd alias for retpoline,lfence
- eibrs Enhanced/Auto IBRS
- eibrs,retpoline Enhanced/Auto IBRS + Retpolines
- eibrs,lfence Enhanced/Auto IBRS + LFENCE
- ibrs use IBRS to protect kernel
+In general the kernel selects reasonable default mitigations for the
+current CPU.
- Not specifying this option is equivalent to
- spectre_v2=auto.
+Spectre default mitigations can be disabled or changed at the kernel
+command line with the following options:
- In general the kernel by default selects
- reasonable mitigations for the current CPU. To
- disable Spectre variant 2 mitigations, boot with
- spectre_v2=off. Spectre variant 1 mitigations
- cannot be disabled.
+ - nospectre_v1
+ - nospectre_v2
+ - spectre_v2={option}
+ - spectre_v2_user={option}
+ - spectre_bhi={option}
-For spectre_v2_user see Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
+For more details on the available options, refer to Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
Mitigation selection guide
--------------------------
@@ -698,7 +664,7 @@ Intel white papers:
.. _spec_ref1:
-[1] `Intel analysis of speculative execution side channels <https://newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/01/Intel-Analysis-of-Speculative-Execution-Side-Channels.pdf>`_.
+[1] `Intel analysis of speculative execution side channels <https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/white-papers/analysis-of-speculative-execution-side-channels-white-paper.pdf>`_.
.. _spec_ref2:
@@ -716,7 +682,7 @@ AMD white papers:
.. _spec_ref5:
-[5] `AMD64 technology indirect branch control extension <https://developer.amd.com/wp-content/resources/Architecture_Guidelines_Update_Indirect_Branch_Control.pdf>`_.
+[5] `AMD64 technology indirect branch control extension <https://www.amd.com/content/dam/amd/en/documents/processor-tech-docs/white-papers/111006-architecture-guidelines-update-amd64-technology-indirect-branch-control-extension.pdf>`_.
.. _spec_ref6:
@@ -742,7 +708,7 @@ MIPS white paper:
.. _spec_ref10:
-[10] `MIPS: response on speculative execution and side channel vulnerabilities <https://www.mips.com/blog/mips-response-on-speculative-execution-and-side-channel-vulnerabilities/>`_.
+[10] `MIPS: response on speculative execution and side channel vulnerabilities <https://web.archive.org/web/20220512003005if_/https://www.mips.com/blog/mips-response-on-speculative-execution-and-side-channel-vulnerabilities/>`_.
Academic papers: