linux-kernel - [PATCH] cpu/speculation: Warn on unsupported mitigations= parameter

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Date:   Thu, 16 May 2019 09:09:35 +0200
From:   Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@...ux-m68k.org>
To:     Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@...hat.com>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Jiri Kosina <jkosina@...e.cz>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
        Ben Hutchings <ben@...adent.org.uk>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@...ux-m68k.org>,
        stable@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH] cpu/speculation: Warn on unsupported mitigations= parameter

Currently, if the user specifies an unsupported mitigation strategy on
the kernel command line, it will be ignored silently.  The code will
fall back to the default strategy, possibly leaving the system more
vulnerable than expected.

This may happen due to e.g. a simple typo, or, for a stable kernel
release, because not all mitigation strategies have been backported.

Inform the user by printing a message.

Fixes: 98af8452945c5565 ("cpu/speculation: Add 'mitigations=' cmdline option")
Cc: stable@...r.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@...ux-m68k.org>
---
 kernel/cpu.c | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/kernel/cpu.c b/kernel/cpu.c
index f2ef10460698e9ec..8458fda00e6ddb88 100644
--- a/kernel/cpu.c
+++ b/kernel/cpu.c
@@ -2339,6 +2339,9 @@ static int __init mitigations_parse_cmdline(char *arg)
 		cpu_mitigations = CPU_MITIGATIONS_AUTO;
 	else if (!strcmp(arg, "auto,nosmt"))
 		cpu_mitigations = CPU_MITIGATIONS_AUTO_NOSMT;
+	else
+		pr_crit("Unsupported mitigations=%s, system may still be vulnerable\n",
+			arg);
 
 	return 0;
 }
-- 
2.17.1