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diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2d19c9f4c --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.rst @@ -0,0 +1,311 @@ +MDS - Microarchitectural Data Sampling +====================================== + +Microarchitectural Data Sampling is a hardware vulnerability which allows +unprivileged speculative access to data which is available in various CPU +internal buffers. + +Affected processors +------------------- + +This vulnerability affects a wide range of Intel processors. The +vulnerability is not present on: + + - Processors from AMD, Centaur and other non Intel vendors + + - Older processor models, where the CPU family is < 6 + + - Some Atoms (Bonnell, Saltwell, Goldmont, GoldmontPlus) + + - Intel processors which have the ARCH_CAP_MDS_NO bit set in the + IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR. + +Whether a processor is affected or not can be read out from the MDS +vulnerability file in sysfs. See :ref:`mds_sys_info`. + +Not all processors are affected by all variants of MDS, but the mitigation +is identical for all of them so the kernel treats them as a single +vulnerability. + +Related CVEs +------------ + +The following CVE entries are related to the MDS vulnerability: + + ============== ===== =================================================== + CVE-2018-12126 MSBDS Microarchitectural Store Buffer Data Sampling + CVE-2018-12130 MFBDS Microarchitectural Fill Buffer Data Sampling + CVE-2018-12127 MLPDS Microarchitectural Load Port Data Sampling + CVE-2019-11091 MDSUM Microarchitectural Data Sampling Uncacheable Memory + ============== ===== =================================================== + +Problem +------- + +When performing store, load, L1 refill operations, processors write data +into temporary microarchitectural structures (buffers). The data in the +buffer can be forwarded to load operations as an optimization. + +Under certain conditions, usually a fault/assist caused by a load +operation, data unrelated to the load memory address can be speculatively +forwarded from the buffers. Because the load operation causes a fault or +assist and its result will be discarded, the forwarded data will not cause +incorrect program execution or state changes. But a malicious operation +may be able to forward this speculative data to a disclosure gadget which +allows in turn to infer the value via a cache side channel attack. + +Because the buffers are potentially shared between Hyper-Threads cross +Hyper-Thread attacks are possible. + +Deeper technical information is available in the MDS specific x86 +architecture section: :ref:`Documentation/x86/mds.rst <mds>`. + + +Attack scenarios +---------------- + +Attacks against the MDS vulnerabilities can be mounted from malicious non +priviledged user space applications running on hosts or guest. Malicious +guest OSes can obviously mount attacks as well. + +Contrary to other speculation based vulnerabilities the MDS vulnerability +does not allow the attacker to control the memory target address. As a +consequence the attacks are purely sampling based, but as demonstrated with +the TLBleed attack samples can be postprocessed successfully. + +Web-Browsers +^^^^^^^^^^^^ + + It's unclear whether attacks through Web-Browsers are possible at + all. The exploitation through Java-Script is considered very unlikely, + but other widely used web technologies like Webassembly could possibly be + abused. + + +.. _mds_sys_info: + +MDS system information +----------------------- + +The Linux kernel provides a sysfs interface to enumerate the current MDS +status of the system: whether the system is vulnerable, and which +mitigations are active. The relevant sysfs file is: + +/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/mds + +The possible values in this file are: + + .. list-table:: + + * - 'Not affected' + - The processor is not vulnerable + * - 'Vulnerable' + - The processor is vulnerable, but no mitigation enabled + * - 'Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode' + - The processor is vulnerable but microcode is not updated. + + The mitigation is enabled on a best effort basis. See :ref:`vmwerv` + * - 'Mitigation: Clear CPU buffers' + - The processor is vulnerable and the CPU buffer clearing mitigation is + enabled. + +If the processor is vulnerable then the following information is appended +to the above information: + + ======================== ============================================ + 'SMT vulnerable' SMT is enabled + 'SMT mitigated' SMT is enabled and mitigated + 'SMT disabled' SMT is disabled + 'SMT Host state unknown' Kernel runs in a VM, Host SMT state unknown + ======================== ============================================ + +.. _vmwerv: + +Best effort mitigation mode +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + + If the processor is vulnerable, but the availability of the microcode based + mitigation mechanism is not advertised via CPUID the kernel selects a best + effort mitigation mode. This mode invokes the mitigation instructions + without a guarantee that they clear the CPU buffers. + + This is done to address virtualization scenarios where the host has the + microcode update applied, but the hypervisor is not yet updated to expose + the CPUID to the guest. If the host has updated microcode the protection + takes effect otherwise a few cpu cycles are wasted pointlessly. + + The state in the mds sysfs file reflects this situation accordingly. + + +Mitigation mechanism +------------------------- + +The kernel detects the affected CPUs and the presence of the microcode +which is required. + +If a CPU is affected and the microcode is available, then the kernel +enables the mitigation by default. The mitigation can be controlled at boot +time via a kernel command line option. See +:ref:`mds_mitigation_control_command_line`. + +.. _cpu_buffer_clear: + +CPU buffer clearing +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + + The mitigation for MDS clears the affected CPU buffers on return to user + space and when entering a guest. + + If SMT is enabled it also clears the buffers on idle entry when the CPU + is only affected by MSBDS and not any other MDS variant, because the + other variants cannot be protected against cross Hyper-Thread attacks. + + For CPUs which are only affected by MSBDS the user space, guest and idle + transition mitigations are sufficient and SMT is not affected. + +.. _virt_mechanism: + +Virtualization mitigation +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + + The protection for host to guest transition depends on the L1TF + vulnerability of the CPU: + + - CPU is affected by L1TF: + + If the L1D flush mitigation is enabled and up to date microcode is + available, the L1D flush mitigation is automatically protecting the + guest transition. + + If the L1D flush mitigation is disabled then the MDS mitigation is + invoked explicit when the host MDS mitigation is enabled. + + For details on L1TF and virtualization see: + :ref:`Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln//l1tf.rst <mitigation_control_kvm>`. + + - CPU is not affected by L1TF: + + CPU buffers are flushed before entering the guest when the host MDS + mitigation is enabled. + + The resulting MDS protection matrix for the host to guest transition: + + ============ ===== ============= ============ ================= + L1TF MDS VMX-L1FLUSH Host MDS MDS-State + + Don't care No Don't care N/A Not affected + + Yes Yes Disabled Off Vulnerable + + Yes Yes Disabled Full Mitigated + + Yes Yes Enabled Don't care Mitigated + + No Yes N/A Off Vulnerable + + No Yes N/A Full Mitigated + ============ ===== ============= ============ ================= + + This only covers the host to guest transition, i.e. prevents leakage from + host to guest, but does not protect the guest internally. Guests need to + have their own protections. + +.. _xeon_phi: + +XEON PHI specific considerations +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + + The XEON PHI processor family is affected by MSBDS which can be exploited + cross Hyper-Threads when entering idle states. Some XEON PHI variants allow + to use MWAIT in user space (Ring 3) which opens an potential attack vector + for malicious user space. The exposure can be disabled on the kernel + command line with the 'ring3mwait=disable' command line option. + + XEON PHI is not affected by the other MDS variants and MSBDS is mitigated + before the CPU enters a idle state. As XEON PHI is not affected by L1TF + either disabling SMT is not required for full protection. + +.. _mds_smt_control: + +SMT control +^^^^^^^^^^^ + + All MDS variants except MSBDS can be attacked cross Hyper-Threads. That + means on CPUs which are affected by MFBDS or MLPDS it is necessary to + disable SMT for full protection. These are most of the affected CPUs; the + exception is XEON PHI, see :ref:`xeon_phi`. + + Disabling SMT can have a significant performance impact, but the impact + depends on the type of workloads. + + See the relevant chapter in the L1TF mitigation documentation for details: + :ref:`Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/l1tf.rst <smt_control>`. + + +.. _mds_mitigation_control_command_line: + +Mitigation control on the kernel command line +--------------------------------------------- + +The kernel command line allows to control the MDS mitigations at boot +time with the option "mds=". The valid arguments for this option are: + + ============ ============================================================= + full If the CPU is vulnerable, enable all available mitigations + for the MDS vulnerability, CPU buffer clearing on exit to + userspace and when entering a VM. Idle transitions are + protected as well if SMT is enabled. + + It does not automatically disable SMT. + + full,nosmt The same as mds=full, with SMT disabled on vulnerable + CPUs. This is the complete mitigation. + + off Disables MDS mitigations completely. + + ============ ============================================================= + +Not specifying this option is equivalent to "mds=full". For processors +that are affected by both TAA (TSX Asynchronous Abort) and MDS, +specifying just "mds=off" without an accompanying "tsx_async_abort=off" +will have no effect as the same mitigation is used for both +vulnerabilities. + +Mitigation selection guide +-------------------------- + +1. Trusted userspace +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + + If all userspace applications are from a trusted source and do not + execute untrusted code which is supplied externally, then the mitigation + can be disabled. + + +2. Virtualization with trusted guests +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + + The same considerations as above versus trusted user space apply. + +3. Virtualization with untrusted guests +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + + The protection depends on the state of the L1TF mitigations. + See :ref:`virt_mechanism`. + + If the MDS mitigation is enabled and SMT is disabled, guest to host and + guest to guest attacks are prevented. + +.. _mds_default_mitigations: + +Default mitigations +------------------- + + The kernel default mitigations for vulnerable processors are: + + - Enable CPU buffer clearing + + The kernel does not by default enforce the disabling of SMT, which leaves + SMT systems vulnerable when running untrusted code. The same rationale as + for L1TF applies. + See :ref:`Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln//l1tf.rst <default_mitigations>`. |