Re: [Patch v3 10/13] x86/speculation: Add per thread STIBP flag

From: Thomas Gleixner
Date: Thu Oct 18 2018 - 09:54:21 EST


On Wed, 17 Oct 2018, Tim Chen wrote:

Again the subject is misleading, It's suggesting that it adds a per thread
flag. But the patch does way more than that.

> Add per thread STIBP flag. When context switching to a process thread that
> has the STIBP flag, the STIBP bit in the SPEC_CTRL MSR will be turned
> on to guard against application to application Spectre v2 attack. When
> switching to a non-security sensitive thread that doesn't have STIBP flag,
> the STIBP bit in the SPEC_CTRL MSR is turned off.

I think I gave you quite some examples how such a changelog should look like.

> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/thread_info.h
> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/thread_info.h
> @@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ struct thread_info {
> #define TIF_SYSCALL_EMU 6 /* syscall emulation active */
> #define TIF_SYSCALL_AUDIT 7 /* syscall auditing active */
> #define TIF_SECCOMP 8 /* secure computing */
> +#define TIF_STIBP 9 /* Single threaded indirect branch predict */
> #define TIF_USER_RETURN_NOTIFY 11 /* notify kernel of userspace return */
> #define TIF_UPROBE 12 /* breakpointed or singlestepping */
> #define TIF_PATCH_PENDING 13 /* pending live patching update */
> @@ -110,6 +111,7 @@ struct thread_info {
> #define _TIF_SYSCALL_EMU (1 << TIF_SYSCALL_EMU)
> #define _TIF_SYSCALL_AUDIT (1 << TIF_SYSCALL_AUDIT)
> #define _TIF_SECCOMP (1 << TIF_SECCOMP)
> +#define _TIF_STIBP (1 << TIF_STIBP)
> #define _TIF_USER_RETURN_NOTIFY (1 << TIF_USER_RETURN_NOTIFY)
> #define _TIF_UPROBE (1 << TIF_UPROBE)
> #define _TIF_PATCH_PENDING (1 << TIF_PATCH_PENDING)
> @@ -146,7 +148,8 @@ struct thread_info {
>
> /* flags to check in __switch_to() */
> #define _TIF_WORK_CTXSW \
> - (_TIF_IO_BITMAP|_TIF_NOCPUID|_TIF_NOTSC|_TIF_BLOCKSTEP|_TIF_SSBD)
> + (_TIF_IO_BITMAP|_TIF_NOCPUID|_TIF_NOTSC|_TIF_BLOCKSTEP| \
> + _TIF_SSBD|_TIF_STIBP)

These flags are at random locations. I wonder whether they should be
grouped together. Might not influence code generation, but at least worth
to have a look.

> + /*
> + * Need STIBP defense against Spectre v2 attack
> + * if SMT is in use and we don't have enhanced IBRS.

and enhanced IBRS is not supported.

> + */
> + if (static_branch_likely(&cpu_smt_enabled) &&
> + !static_branch_unlikely(&spectre_v2_enhanced_ibrs))
> + msr |= stibp_tif_to_spec_ctrl(tifn);
> +
> wrmsrl(MSR_IA32_SPEC_CTRL, msr);
> }

Thanks,

tglx