Re: [tip:x86/pti] x86/speculation: Use Indirect Branch Prediction Barrier in context switch

From: Josh Poimboeuf
Date: Wed Jan 31 2018 - 08:24:55 EST


On Wed, Jan 31, 2018 at 08:03:00AM +0100, Dominik Brodowski wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 30, 2018 at 02:39:45PM -0800, tip-bot for Tim Chen wrote:
> > Commit-ID: 18bf3c3ea8ece8f03b6fc58508f2dfd23c7711c7
> > Gitweb: https://git.kernel.org/tip/18bf3c3ea8ece8f03b6fc58508f2dfd23c7711c7
> > Author: Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > AuthorDate: Mon, 29 Jan 2018 22:04:47 +0000
> > Committer: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > CommitDate: Tue, 30 Jan 2018 23:09:21 +0100
> >
> > x86/speculation: Use Indirect Branch Prediction Barrier in context switch
> >
> > Flush indirect branches when switching into a process that marked itself
> > non dumpable. This protects high value processes like gpg better,
> > without having too high performance overhead.
>
> For the record, I am still opposed to limit this to non-dumpable processes.
> Whether a process needs protection by IBPB on context switches is a
> different question to whether a process should be allowed to be dumped,
> though the former may be a superset of the latter. In my opinion, IBPB
> should be enabled on all context switches to userspace processes, until we
> have a clear mitigation strategy for userspace against Spectre-v2 designed
> and implemented.
>
> Thanks,
> Dominik
>
> --------------------------
> From: Dominik Brodowski <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2018 07:43:12 +0100
> Subject: [PATCH] x86/speculation: Do not limit Indirect Branch Prediction Barrier to non-dumpable processes
>
> Whether a process needs protection by IBPB on context switches is a
> different question to whether a process should be allowed to be dumped,
> though the former may be a superset of the latter. Enable IBPB on all
> context switches to a different userspace process, until we have a clear
> mitigation strategy for userspace against Spectre-v2 designed and
> implemented.
>
> Signed-off-by: Dominik Brodowski <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@xxxxxxxxxx>

--
Josh