linux/Documentation/userspace-api/spec_ctrl.rst
Waiman Long 71368af902 x86/speculation: Add PR_SPEC_DISABLE_NOEXEC
With the default SPEC_STORE_BYPASS_SECCOMP/SPEC_STORE_BYPASS_PRCTL mode,
the TIF_SSBD bit will be inherited when a new task is fork'ed or cloned.
It will also remain when a new program is execve'ed.

Only certain class of applications (like Java) that can run on behalf of
multiple users on a single thread will require disabling speculative store
bypass for security purposes. Those applications will call prctl(2) at
startup time to disable SSB. They won't rely on the fact the SSB might have
been disabled. Other applications that don't need SSBD will just move on
without checking if SSBD has been turned on or not.

The fact that the TIF_SSBD is inherited across execve(2) boundary will
cause performance of applications that don't need SSBD but their
predecessors have SSBD on to be unwittingly impacted especially if they
write to memory a lot.

To remedy this problem, a new PR_SPEC_DISABLE_NOEXEC argument for the
PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL option of prctl(2) is added to allow applications
to specify that the SSBD feature bit on the task structure should be
cleared whenever a new program is being execve'ed.

Suggested-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Signed-off-by: Waiman Long <longman@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
Cc: Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>
Cc: David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>
Cc: Jiri Kosina <jikos@kernel.org>
Cc: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@redhat.com>
Cc: Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com>
Cc: KarimAllah Ahmed <karahmed@amazon.de>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@oracle.com>
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/1547676096-3281-1-git-send-email-longman@redhat.com
2019-01-29 22:11:49 +01:00

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===================
Speculation Control
===================
Quite some CPUs have speculation-related misfeatures which are in
fact vulnerabilities causing data leaks in various forms even across
privilege domains.
The kernel provides mitigation for such vulnerabilities in various
forms. Some of these mitigations are compile-time configurable and some
can be supplied on the kernel command line.
There is also a class of mitigations which are very expensive, but they can
be restricted to a certain set of processes or tasks in controlled
environments. The mechanism to control these mitigations is via
:manpage:`prctl(2)`.
There are two prctl options which are related to this:
* PR_GET_SPECULATION_CTRL
* PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL
PR_GET_SPECULATION_CTRL
-----------------------
PR_GET_SPECULATION_CTRL returns the state of the speculation misfeature
which is selected with arg2 of prctl(2). The return value uses bits 0-3 with
the following meaning:
==== ====================== ==================================================
Bit Define Description
==== ====================== ==================================================
0 PR_SPEC_PRCTL Mitigation can be controlled per task by
PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL.
1 PR_SPEC_ENABLE The speculation feature is enabled, mitigation is
disabled.
2 PR_SPEC_DISABLE The speculation feature is disabled, mitigation is
enabled.
3 PR_SPEC_FORCE_DISABLE Same as PR_SPEC_DISABLE, but cannot be undone. A
subsequent prctl(..., PR_SPEC_ENABLE) will fail.
4 PR_SPEC_DISABLE_NOEXEC Same as PR_SPEC_DISABLE, but the state will be
cleared on :manpage:`execve(2)`.
==== ====================== ==================================================
If all bits are 0 the CPU is not affected by the speculation misfeature.
If PR_SPEC_PRCTL is set, then the per-task control of the mitigation is
available. If not set, prctl(PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL) for the speculation
misfeature will fail.
PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL
-----------------------
PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL allows to control the speculation misfeature, which
is selected by arg2 of :manpage:`prctl(2)` per task. arg3 is used to hand
in the control value, i.e. either PR_SPEC_ENABLE or PR_SPEC_DISABLE or
PR_SPEC_FORCE_DISABLE.
Common error codes
------------------
======= =================================================================
Value Meaning
======= =================================================================
EINVAL The prctl is not implemented by the architecture or unused
prctl(2) arguments are not 0.
ENODEV arg2 is selecting a not supported speculation misfeature.
======= =================================================================
PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL error codes
-----------------------------------
======= =================================================================
Value Meaning
======= =================================================================
0 Success
ERANGE arg3 is incorrect, i.e. it's neither PR_SPEC_ENABLE nor
PR_SPEC_DISABLE nor PR_SPEC_FORCE_DISABLE.
ENXIO Control of the selected speculation misfeature is not possible.
See PR_GET_SPECULATION_CTRL.
EPERM Speculation was disabled with PR_SPEC_FORCE_DISABLE and caller
tried to enable it again.
======= =================================================================
Speculation misfeature controls
-------------------------------
- PR_SPEC_STORE_BYPASS: Speculative Store Bypass
Invocations:
* prctl(PR_GET_SPECULATION_CTRL, PR_SPEC_STORE_BYPASS, 0, 0, 0);
* prctl(PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL, PR_SPEC_STORE_BYPASS, PR_SPEC_ENABLE, 0, 0);
* prctl(PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL, PR_SPEC_STORE_BYPASS, PR_SPEC_DISABLE, 0, 0);
* prctl(PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL, PR_SPEC_STORE_BYPASS, PR_SPEC_FORCE_DISABLE, 0, 0);
* prctl(PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL, PR_SPEC_STORE_BYPASS, PR_SPEC_DISABLE_NOEXEC, 0, 0);
- PR_SPEC_INDIR_BRANCH: Indirect Branch Speculation in User Processes
(Mitigate Spectre V2 style attacks against user processes)
Invocations:
* prctl(PR_GET_SPECULATION_CTRL, PR_SPEC_INDIRECT_BRANCH, 0, 0, 0);
* prctl(PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL, PR_SPEC_INDIRECT_BRANCH, PR_SPEC_ENABLE, 0, 0);
* prctl(PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL, PR_SPEC_INDIRECT_BRANCH, PR_SPEC_DISABLE, 0, 0);
* prctl(PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL, PR_SPEC_INDIRECT_BRANCH, PR_SPEC_FORCE_DISABLE, 0, 0);