linux-kernel - Re: [RFC 09/10] x86/enter: Create macros to restrict/unrestrict Indirect Branch Speculation

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Date:   Tue, 23 Jan 2018 11:44:20 +0100
From:   Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>
To:     David Woodhouse <dwmw2@...radead.org>
Cc:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        KarimAllah Ahmed <karahmed@...zon.de>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Andi Kleen <ak@...ux.intel.com>,
        Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@...hat.com>,
        Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>,
        Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...ux.intel.com>,
        Ashok Raj <ashok.raj@...el.com>,
        Asit Mallick <asit.k.mallick@...el.com>,
        Borislav Petkov <bp@...e.de>,
        Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@...el.com>,
        Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...el.com>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
        "H . Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
        Janakarajan Natarajan <Janakarajan.Natarajan@....com>,
        Joerg Roedel <joro@...tes.org>,
        Jun Nakajima <jun.nakajima@...el.com>,
        Laura Abbott <labbott@...hat.com>,
        Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@...nel.org>,
        Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Radim Krčmář <rkrcmar@...hat.com>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@...ux.intel.com>,
        Tom Lendacky <thomas.lendacky@....com>,
        KVM list <kvm@...r.kernel.org>,
        the arch/x86 maintainers <x86@...nel.org>,
        Arjan Van De Ven <arjan.van.de.ven@...el.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC 09/10] x86/enter: Create macros to restrict/unrestrict
 Indirect Branch Speculation


* David Woodhouse <dwmw2@...radead.org> wrote:

> On Tue, 2018-01-23 at 11:15 +0100, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> > 
> > BTW., the reason this is enabled on all distro kernels is because the overhead 
> > is  a single patched-in NOP instruction in the function epilogue, when tracing 
> > is  disabled. So it's not even a CALL+RET - it's a patched in NOP.
> 
> Hm? We still have GCC emitting 'call __fentry__' don't we? Would be nice to get 
> to the point where we can patch *that* out into a NOP... or are you saying we 
> already can?

Yes, we already can and do patch the 'call __fentry__/ mcount' call site into a 
NOP today - all 50,000+ call sites on a typical distro kernel.

We did so for a long time - this is all a well established, working mechanism.

> But this is a digression. I was being pedantic about the "0 cycles" but sure, 
> this would be perfectly tolerable.

It's not a digression in two ways:

- I wanted to make it clear that for distro kernels it _is_ a zero cycles overhead
  mechanism for non-SkyLake CPUs, literally.

- I noticed that Meltdown and the CR3 writes for PTI appears to have established a
  kind of ... insensitivity and numbness to kernel micro-costs, which peaked with
  the per-syscall MSR write nonsense patch of the SkyLake workaround.
  That attitude is totally unacceptable to me as x86 maintainer and yes, still
  every cycle counts.

Thanks,

	Ingo