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 17:17:54 +0000 (19:17 +0200)
commit1f7c31be1e04e6727d7a0bfc7d39f9ac8cc72572
tree78c41de92050ad9b7d10aa4060957916b80dfc25
parentde89ff6f167405a059b6e8b70f0a3ec486d1bc55
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>
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