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Message-ID: <20558f89-299b-472e-9a96-171403a83bd6@suse.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2024 00:20:03 +0200
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Subject: Re: [tip: x86/urgent] x86/bugs: Add asm helpers for executing VERW
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To: Pawan Gupta <pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-tip-commits@vger.kernel.org,
 Alyssa Milburn <alyssa.milburn@intel.com>,
 Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@citrix.com>,
 Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
 Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>, x86@kernel.org
References: <170839092792.398.3678407222202963581.tip-bot2@tip-bot2>
 <6380ba8d-4e99-46e6-8d92-911d10963ba7@suse.com>
 <20240226221059.mnuurhn6g3irys37@desk>
From: Nikolay Borisov <nik.borisov@suse.com>
In-Reply-To: <20240226221059.mnuurhn6g3irys37@desk>
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On 27.02.24 г. 0:10 ч., Pawan Gupta wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 26, 2024 at 09:17:30AM +0200, Nikolay Borisov wrote:
>>> diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h
>>> index 262e655..077083e 100644
>>> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h
>>> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h
>>> @@ -315,6 +315,17 @@
>>>    #endif
>>>    .endm
>>> +/*
>>> + * Macro to execute VERW instruction that mitigate transient data sampling
>>> + * attacks such as MDS. On affected systems a microcode update overloaded VERW
>>> + * instruction to also clear the CPU buffers. VERW clobbers CFLAGS.ZF.
>>> + *
>>> + * Note: Only the memory operand variant of VERW clears the CPU buffers.
>>> + */
>>> +.macro CLEAR_CPU_BUFFERS
>>> +	ALTERNATIVE "", __stringify(verw _ASM_RIP(mds_verw_sel)), X86_FEATURE_CLEAR_CPU_BUF
>>
>> Any particular reason why this uses RIP-relative vs an absolute address
>> mode?
> 
> Early versions of the series had the VERW arg pointing to the macro
> itself, that is why relative addressing was used. That got changed in a
> later version with all VERW sites pointing to a single memory location.
> 
>> I know in our private exchange you said there is no significance but
>> for example older kernels have a missing relocation support in alternatives.
>> This of course can be worked around by slightly changing the logic of the
>> macro which means different kernels will have slightly different macros.
> 
> Do you anticipate a problem with that? If yes, I can send a patch to use
> fixed addressing in upstream as well.

I experienced crashes on older kernels before realizing that the 
relocation wasn't resolved correctly by the alternative framework. 
Instead i simply changed the macro to jmp 1f, where the next instruction 
is the verw ( I did send a backport for 5.4) and it works. Recently 
there's been a push to make as much of the kernel assembly as possible 
PIC so having a rip-relative addressing helps. Whether that makes any 
material difference - I cannot say.

Here's my backport version for reference:

https://lore.kernel.org/stable/20240226122237.198921-3-nik.borisov@suse.com/