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This is the 4.4.202 stable release * tag 'v4.4.202': Linux 4.4.202 x86/bugs: Add ITLB_MULTIHIT bug infrastructure x86/speculation/taa: Fix printing of TAA_MSG_SMT on IBRS_ALL CPUs x86/tsx: Add config options to set tsx=on|off|auto x86/speculation/taa: Add documentation for TSX Async Abort x86/tsx: Add "auto" option to the tsx= cmdline parameter kvm/x86: Export MDS_NO=0 to guests when TSX is enabled x86/speculation/taa: Add sysfs reporting for TSX Async Abort x86/speculation/taa: Add mitigation for TSX Async Abort x86/cpu: Add a "tsx=" cmdline option with TSX disabled by default x86/cpu: Add a helper function x86_read_arch_cap_msr() x86/msr: Add the IA32_TSX_CTRL MSR KVM: x86: use Intel speculation bugs and features as derived in generic x86 code kvm: x86: IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES is always supported KVM: x86: Emulate MSR_IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES on AMD hosts KVM: Introduce kvm_get_arch_capabilities() powerpc/boot: Request no dynamic linker for boot wrapper powerpc: Fix compiling a BE kernel with a powerpc64le toolchain powerpc/Makefile: Use cflags-y/aflags-y for setting endian options MIPS: BCM63XX: fix switch core reset on BCM6368 kvm: mmu: Don't read PDPTEs when paging is not enabled
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@@ -279,6 +279,8 @@ What: /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities | |
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/spec_store_bypass | ||
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/l1tf | ||
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/mds | ||
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/tsx_async_abort | ||
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/itlb_multihit | ||
Date: January 2018 | ||
Contact: Linux kernel mailing list <[email protected]> | ||
Description: Information about CPU vulnerabilities | ||
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.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 | ||
TAA - TSX Asynchronous Abort | ||
====================================== | ||
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TAA is a hardware vulnerability that allows unprivileged speculative access to | ||
data which is available in various CPU internal buffers by using asynchronous | ||
aborts within an Intel TSX transactional region. | ||
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Affected processors | ||
------------------- | ||
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This vulnerability only affects Intel processors that support Intel | ||
Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX) when the TAA_NO bit (bit 8) | ||
is 0 in the IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR. On processors where the MDS_NO bit | ||
(bit 5) is 0 in the IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR, the existing MDS mitigations | ||
also mitigate against TAA. | ||
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Whether a processor is affected or not can be read out from the TAA | ||
vulnerability file in sysfs. See :ref:`tsx_async_abort_sys_info`. | ||
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Related CVEs | ||
------------ | ||
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The following CVE entry is related to this TAA issue: | ||
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============== ===== =================================================== | ||
CVE-2019-11135 TAA TSX Asynchronous Abort (TAA) condition on some | ||
microprocessors utilizing speculative execution may | ||
allow an authenticated user to potentially enable | ||
information disclosure via a side channel with | ||
local access. | ||
============== ===== =================================================== | ||
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Problem | ||
------- | ||
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When performing store, load or L1 refill operations, processors write | ||
data into temporary microarchitectural structures (buffers). The data in | ||
those buffers can be forwarded to load operations as an optimization. | ||
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Intel TSX is an extension to the x86 instruction set architecture that adds | ||
hardware transactional memory support to improve performance of multi-threaded | ||
software. TSX lets the processor expose and exploit concurrency hidden in an | ||
application due to dynamically avoiding unnecessary synchronization. | ||
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TSX supports atomic memory transactions that are either committed (success) or | ||
aborted. During an abort, operations that happened within the transactional region | ||
are rolled back. An asynchronous abort takes place, among other options, when a | ||
different thread accesses a cache line that is also used within the transactional | ||
region when that access might lead to a data race. | ||
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Immediately after an uncompleted asynchronous abort, certain speculatively | ||
executed loads may read data from those internal buffers and pass it to dependent | ||
operations. This can be then used to infer the value via a cache side channel | ||
attack. | ||
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Because the buffers are potentially shared between Hyper-Threads cross | ||
Hyper-Thread attacks are possible. | ||
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The victim of a malicious actor does not need to make use of TSX. Only the | ||
attacker needs to begin a TSX transaction and raise an asynchronous abort | ||
which in turn potenitally leaks data stored in the buffers. | ||
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More detailed technical information is available in the TAA specific x86 | ||
architecture section: :ref:`Documentation/x86/tsx_async_abort.rst <tsx_async_abort>`. | ||
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Attack scenarios | ||
---------------- | ||
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Attacks against the TAA vulnerability can be implemented from unprivileged | ||
applications running on hosts or guests. | ||
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As for MDS, the attacker has no control over the memory addresses that can | ||
be leaked. Only the victim is responsible for bringing data to the CPU. As | ||
a result, the malicious actor has to sample as much data as possible and | ||
then postprocess it to try to infer any useful information from it. | ||
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A potential attacker only has read access to the data. Also, there is no direct | ||
privilege escalation by using this technique. | ||
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.. _tsx_async_abort_sys_info: | ||
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TAA system information | ||
----------------------- | ||
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The Linux kernel provides a sysfs interface to enumerate the current TAA status | ||
of mitigated systems. The relevant sysfs file is: | ||
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/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/tsx_async_abort | ||
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The possible values in this file are: | ||
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.. list-table:: | ||
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* - 'Vulnerable' | ||
- The CPU is affected by this vulnerability and the microcode and kernel mitigation are not applied. | ||
* - 'Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode' | ||
- The system tries to clear the buffers but the microcode might not support the operation. | ||
* - 'Mitigation: Clear CPU buffers' | ||
- The microcode has been updated to clear the buffers. TSX is still enabled. | ||
* - 'Mitigation: TSX disabled' | ||
- TSX is disabled. | ||
* - 'Not affected' | ||
- The CPU is not affected by this issue. | ||
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.. _ucode_needed: | ||
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Best effort mitigation mode | ||
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | ||
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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. | ||
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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. | ||
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The state in the tsx_async_abort sysfs file reflects this situation | ||
accordingly. | ||
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Mitigation mechanism | ||
-------------------- | ||
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The kernel detects the affected CPUs and the presence of the microcode which is | ||
required. If a CPU is affected and the microcode is available, then the kernel | ||
enables the mitigation by default. | ||
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The mitigation can be controlled at boot time via a kernel command line option. | ||
See :ref:`taa_mitigation_control_command_line`. | ||
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.. _virt_mechanism: | ||
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Virtualization mitigation | ||
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | ||
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Affected systems where the host has TAA microcode and TAA is mitigated by | ||
having disabled TSX previously, are not vulnerable regardless of the status | ||
of the VMs. | ||
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In all other cases, if the host either does not have the TAA microcode or | ||
the kernel is not mitigated, the system might be vulnerable. | ||
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.. _taa_mitigation_control_command_line: | ||
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Mitigation control on the kernel command line | ||
--------------------------------------------- | ||
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The kernel command line allows to control the TAA mitigations at boot time with | ||
the option "tsx_async_abort=". The valid arguments for this option are: | ||
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============ ============================================================= | ||
off This option disables the TAA mitigation on affected platforms. | ||
If the system has TSX enabled (see next parameter) and the CPU | ||
is affected, the system is vulnerable. | ||
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full TAA mitigation is enabled. If TSX is enabled, on an affected | ||
system it will clear CPU buffers on ring transitions. On | ||
systems which are MDS-affected and deploy MDS mitigation, | ||
TAA is also mitigated. Specifying this option on those | ||
systems will have no effect. | ||
============ ============================================================= | ||
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Not specifying this option is equivalent to "tsx_async_abort=full". | ||
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The kernel command line also allows to control the TSX feature using the | ||
parameter "tsx=" on CPUs which support TSX control. MSR_IA32_TSX_CTRL is used | ||
to control the TSX feature and the enumeration of the TSX feature bits (RTM | ||
and HLE) in CPUID. | ||
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The valid options are: | ||
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============ ============================================================= | ||
off Disables TSX on the system. | ||
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Note that this option takes effect only on newer CPUs which are | ||
not vulnerable to MDS, i.e., have MSR_IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES.MDS_NO=1 | ||
and which get the new IA32_TSX_CTRL MSR through a microcode | ||
update. This new MSR allows for the reliable deactivation of | ||
the TSX functionality. | ||
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on Enables TSX. | ||
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Although there are mitigations for all known security | ||
vulnerabilities, TSX has been known to be an accelerator for | ||
several previous speculation-related CVEs, and so there may be | ||
unknown security risks associated with leaving it enabled. | ||
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auto Disables TSX if X86_BUG_TAA is present, otherwise enables TSX | ||
on the system. | ||
============ ============================================================= | ||
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Not specifying this option is equivalent to "tsx=off". | ||
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The following combinations of the "tsx_async_abort" and "tsx" are possible. For | ||
affected platforms tsx=auto is equivalent to tsx=off and the result will be: | ||
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========= ========================== ========================================= | ||
tsx=on tsx_async_abort=full The system will use VERW to clear CPU | ||
buffers. Cross-thread attacks are still | ||
possible on SMT machines. | ||
tsx=on tsx_async_abort=off The system is vulnerable. | ||
tsx=off tsx_async_abort=full TSX might be disabled if microcode | ||
provides a TSX control MSR. If so, | ||
system is not vulnerable. | ||
tsx=off tsx_async_abort=off ditto | ||
========= ========================== ========================================= | ||
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For unaffected platforms "tsx=on" and "tsx_async_abort=full" does not clear CPU | ||
buffers. For platforms without TSX control (MSR_IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES.MDS_NO=0) | ||
"tsx" command line argument has no effect. | ||
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For the affected platforms below table indicates the mitigation status for the | ||
combinations of CPUID bit MD_CLEAR and IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR bits MDS_NO | ||
and TSX_CTRL_MSR. | ||
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======= ========= ============= ======================================== | ||
MDS_NO MD_CLEAR TSX_CTRL_MSR Status | ||
======= ========= ============= ======================================== | ||
0 0 0 Vulnerable (needs microcode) | ||
0 1 0 MDS and TAA mitigated via VERW | ||
1 1 0 MDS fixed, TAA vulnerable if TSX enabled | ||
because MD_CLEAR has no meaning and | ||
VERW is not guaranteed to clear buffers | ||
1 X 1 MDS fixed, TAA can be mitigated by | ||
VERW or TSX_CTRL_MSR | ||
======= ========= ============= ======================================== | ||
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Mitigation selection guide | ||
-------------------------- | ||
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1. Trusted userspace and guests | ||
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | ||
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If all user space applications are from a trusted source and do not execute | ||
untrusted code which is supplied externally, then the mitigation can be | ||
disabled. The same applies to virtualized environments with trusted guests. | ||
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2. Untrusted userspace and guests | ||
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | ||
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If there are untrusted applications or guests on the system, enabling TSX | ||
might allow a malicious actor to leak data from the host or from other | ||
processes running on the same physical core. | ||
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If the microcode is available and the TSX is disabled on the host, attacks | ||
are prevented in a virtualized environment as well, even if the VMs do not | ||
explicitly enable the mitigation. | ||
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.. _taa_default_mitigations: | ||
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Default mitigations | ||
------------------- | ||
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The kernel's default action for vulnerable processors is: | ||
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- Deploy TSX disable mitigation (tsx_async_abort=full tsx=off). |
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