diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/multihit.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/multihit.rst | 167 |
1 files changed, 167 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/multihit.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/multihit.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..140e4cec38 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/multihit.rst @@ -0,0 +1,167 @@ +iTLB multihit +============= + +iTLB multihit is an erratum where some processors may incur a machine check +error, possibly resulting in an unrecoverable CPU lockup, when an +instruction fetch hits multiple entries in the instruction TLB. This can +occur when the page size is changed along with either the physical address +or cache type. A malicious guest running on a virtualized system can +exploit this erratum to perform a denial of service attack. + + +Affected processors +------------------- + +Variations of this erratum are present on most Intel Core and Xeon processor +models. The erratum is not present on: + + - non-Intel processors + + - Some Atoms (Airmont, Bonnell, Goldmont, GoldmontPlus, Saltwell, Silvermont) + + - Intel processors that have the PSCHANGE_MC_NO bit set in the + IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR. + + +Related CVEs +------------ + +The following CVE entry is related to this issue: + + ============== ================================================= + CVE-2018-12207 Machine Check Error Avoidance on Page Size Change + ============== ================================================= + + +Problem +------- + +Privileged software, including OS and virtual machine managers (VMM), are in +charge of memory management. A key component in memory management is the control +of the page tables. Modern processors use virtual memory, a technique that creates +the illusion of a very large memory for processors. This virtual space is split +into pages of a given size. Page tables translate virtual addresses to physical +addresses. + +To reduce latency when performing a virtual to physical address translation, +processors include a structure, called TLB, that caches recent translations. +There are separate TLBs for instruction (iTLB) and data (dTLB). + +Under this errata, instructions are fetched from a linear address translated +using a 4 KB translation cached in the iTLB. Privileged software modifies the +paging structure so that the same linear address using large page size (2 MB, 4 +MB, 1 GB) with a different physical address or memory type. After the page +structure modification but before the software invalidates any iTLB entries for +the linear address, a code fetch that happens on the same linear address may +cause a machine-check error which can result in a system hang or shutdown. + + +Attack scenarios +---------------- + +Attacks against the iTLB multihit erratum can be mounted from malicious +guests in a virtualized system. + + +iTLB multihit system information +-------------------------------- + +The Linux kernel provides a sysfs interface to enumerate the current iTLB +multihit status of the system:whether the system is vulnerable and which +mitigations are active. The relevant sysfs file is: + +/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/itlb_multihit + +The possible values in this file are: + +.. list-table:: + + * - Not affected + - The processor is not vulnerable. + * - KVM: Mitigation: Split huge pages + - Software changes mitigate this issue. + * - KVM: Mitigation: VMX unsupported + - KVM is not vulnerable because Virtual Machine Extensions (VMX) is not supported. + * - KVM: Mitigation: VMX disabled + - KVM is not vulnerable because Virtual Machine Extensions (VMX) is disabled. + * - KVM: Vulnerable + - The processor is vulnerable, but no mitigation enabled + + +Enumeration of the erratum +-------------------------------- + +A new bit has been allocated in the IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES (PSCHANGE_MC_NO) msr +and will be set on CPU's which are mitigated against this issue. + + ======================================= =========== =============================== + IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR Not present Possibly vulnerable,check model + IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES[PSCHANGE_MC_NO] '0' Likely vulnerable,check model + IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES[PSCHANGE_MC_NO] '1' Not vulnerable + ======================================= =========== =============================== + + +Mitigation mechanism +------------------------- + +This erratum can be mitigated by restricting the use of large page sizes to +non-executable pages. This forces all iTLB entries to be 4K, and removes +the possibility of multiple hits. + +In order to mitigate the vulnerability, KVM initially marks all huge pages +as non-executable. If the guest attempts to execute in one of those pages, +the page is broken down into 4K pages, which are then marked executable. + +If EPT is disabled or not available on the host, KVM is in control of TLB +flushes and the problematic situation cannot happen. However, the shadow +EPT paging mechanism used by nested virtualization is vulnerable, because +the nested guest can trigger multiple iTLB hits by modifying its own +(non-nested) page tables. For simplicity, KVM will make large pages +non-executable in all shadow paging modes. + +Mitigation control on the kernel command line and KVM - module parameter +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The KVM hypervisor mitigation mechanism for marking huge pages as +non-executable can be controlled with a module parameter "nx_huge_pages=". +The kernel command line allows to control the iTLB multihit mitigations at +boot time with the option "kvm.nx_huge_pages=". + +The valid arguments for these options are: + + ========== ================================================================ + force Mitigation is enabled. In this case, the mitigation implements + non-executable huge pages in Linux kernel KVM module. All huge + pages in the EPT are marked as non-executable. + If a guest attempts to execute in one of those pages, the page is + broken down into 4K pages, which are then marked executable. + + off Mitigation is disabled. + + auto Enable mitigation only if the platform is affected and the kernel + was not booted with the "mitigations=off" command line parameter. + This is the default option. + ========== ================================================================ + + +Mitigation selection guide +-------------------------- + +1. No virtualization in use +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + + The system is protected by the kernel unconditionally and no further + action is required. + +2. Virtualization with trusted guests +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + + If the guest comes from a trusted source, you may assume that the guest will + not attempt to maliciously exploit these errata and no further action is + required. + +3. Virtualization with untrusted guests +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + If the guest comes from an untrusted source, the guest host kernel will need + to apply iTLB multihit mitigation via the kernel command line or kvm + module parameter. |