linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH RESEND] x86/speculation: Fix user-mode spectre-v2 protection with KERNEL

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Message-ID: <CACYkzJ71xqzY6-wL+YShcL+d6ugzcdFHr6tbYWWE_ep52+RBZQ@mail.gmail.com>
Date:   Mon, 20 Feb 2023 10:01:57 -0800
From:   KP Singh <kpsingh@...nel.org>
To:     Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@...nel.org>
Cc:     Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        pjt@...gle.com, evn@...gle.com, tglx@...utronix.de,
        mingo@...hat.com, dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com, x86@...nel.org,
        hpa@...or.com, peterz@...radead.org,
        pawan.kumar.gupta@...ux.intel.com, kim.phillips@....com,
        alexandre.chartre@...cle.com, daniel.sneddon@...ux.intel.com,
        José Oliveira <joseloliveira11@...il.com>,
        Rodrigo Branco <rodrigo@...nelhacking.com>,
        Alexandra Sandulescu <aesa@...gle.com>,
        Jim Mattson <jmattson@...gle.com>, stable@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH RESEND] x86/speculation: Fix user-mode spectre-v2
 protection with KERNEL_IBRS

On Mon, Feb 20, 2023 at 9:59 AM Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@...nel.org> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Feb 20, 2023 at 06:46:04PM +0100, Borislav Petkov wrote:
> > On Mon, Feb 20, 2023 at 08:34:42AM -0800, Josh Poimboeuf wrote:
> > > We will never enable IBRS in user space.  We tried that years ago and it
> > > was very slow.
> >
> > Then I don't know what this is trying to fix.
> >
> > We'd need a proper bug statement in the commit message what the problem
> > is. As folks have established, the hw vuln mess is a whole universe of
> > crazy. So without proper documenting, this spaghetti madness will be
> > completely unreadable.
>
> Agreed, and there seems to be a lot of confusion around this patch.  I
> think I understand the issue, let me write up a new patch which is
> hopefully clearer.

Feel free to write a patch, but I don't get the confusion.

Well, we disable IBRS userspace (this is KENREL_IBRS), because it is
slow. Now if a user space process wants to protect itself from cross
thread training, it should be able to do it, either by turning STIBP
always on or using a prctl to enable. With the current logic, it's
unable to do so. All of this is mentioned in the commit message.

>
> --
> Josh