Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S933547AbaDVRaL (ORCPT ); Tue, 22 Apr 2014 13:30:11 -0400 Received: from mail-vc0-f181.google.com ([209.85.220.181]:49728 "EHLO mail-vc0-f181.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S933273AbaDVRaG (ORCPT ); Tue, 22 Apr 2014 13:30:06 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20140422172630.GG15882@pd.tnic> References: <20140422112312.GB15882@pd.tnic> <20140422144659.GF15882@pd.tnic> <53569467.1030809@zytor.com> <5356A2BF.2060609@zytor.com> <20140422172630.GG15882@pd.tnic> From: Andrew Lutomirski Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 10:29:45 -0700 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [PATCH] x86-64: espfix for 64-bit mode *PROTOTYPE* To: Borislav Petkov Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" , Linus Torvalds , "H. Peter Anvin" , Linux Kernel Mailing List , Ingo Molnar , Alexander van Heukelum , Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk , Boris Ostrovsky , Arjan van de Ven , Brian Gerst , Alexandre Julliard , Andi Kleen , Thomas Gleixner Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 10:26 AM, Borislav Petkov wrote: > On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 10:11:27AM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote: >> The fastpath interference is: >> >> 1. Testing for an LDT SS selector before IRET. This is actually easier >> than on 32 bits, because on 64 bits the SS:RSP on the stack is always valid. >> >> 2. Testing for an RSP inside the espfix region on exception entry, so we >> can switch back the stack. This has to be done very early in the >> exception entry since the espfix stack is so small. If NMI and #MC >> didn't use IST it wouldn't work at all (but neither would SYSCALL). >> >> #2 currently saves/restores %rdi, which is also saved further down. >> This is obviously wasteful. > > Btw, can we runtime-patch the fastpath interference chunk the moment we > see a 16-bit segment? I.e., connect it to the write_idt() path, i.e. in > the hunk you've removed in there and enable the espfix checks there the > moment we load a 16-bit segment. > > I know, I know, this is not so important right now but let me put it out > there just the same. Or we could add a TIF_NEEDS_ESPFIX that gets set once you have a 16-bit LDT entry. But I think it makes sense to nail down everything else first. I suspect that a single test-and-branch in the iret path will be lost in the noise from iret itself. --Andy -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/