3.16.77-rc1 review patch. If anyone has any objections, please let me know.
------------------
From: Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxxx>
commit db616173d787395787ecc93eef075fa975227b10 upstream.
There is a general consensus that TSX usage is not largely spread while
the history shows there is a non trivial space for side channel attacks
possible. Therefore the tsx is disabled by default even on platforms
that might have a safe implementation of TSX according to the current
knowledge. This is a fair trade off to make.
There are, however, workloads that really do benefit from using TSX and
updating to a newer kernel with TSX disabled might introduce a
noticeable regressions. This would be especially a problem for Linux
distributions which will provide TAA mitigations.
Introduce config options X86_INTEL_TSX_MODE_OFF, X86_INTEL_TSX_MODE_ON
and X86_INTEL_TSX_MODE_AUTO to control the TSX feature. The config
setting can be overridden by the tsx cmdline options.
[ bp: Text cleanups from Josh. ]
Suggested-by: Borislav Petkov <bpetkov@xxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta <pawan.kumar.gupta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov <bp@xxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@xxxxxxxxxx>
[bwh: Backported to 3.16: adjust doc filename]
Signed-off-by: Ben Hutchings <ben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/Kconfig | 45 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
arch/x86/kernel/cpu/tsx.c | 22 +++++++++++++------
2 files changed, 61 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
--- a/arch/x86/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/x86/Kconfig
@@ -1531,6 +1531,51 @@ config X86_SMAP
If unsure, say Y.
+choice
+ prompt "TSX enable mode"
+ depends on CPU_SUP_INTEL
+ default X86_INTEL_TSX_MODE_OFF
+ help
+ Intel's TSX (Transactional Synchronization Extensions) feature
+ allows to optimize locking protocols through lock elision which
+ can lead to a noticeable performance boost.
+
+ On the other hand it has been shown that TSX can be exploited
+ to form side channel attacks (e.g. TAA) and chances are there
+ will be more of those attacks discovered in the future.
+
+ Therefore TSX is not enabled by default (aka tsx=off). An admin
+ might override this decision by tsx=on the command line parameter.
+ Even with TSX enabled, the kernel will attempt to enable the best
+ possible TAA mitigation setting depending on the microcode available
+ for the particular machine.
+
+ This option allows to set the default tsx mode between tsx=on, =off
+ and =auto. See Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt for more
+ details.
+
+ Say off if not sure, auto if TSX is in use but it should be used on safe
+ platforms or on if TSX is in use and the security aspect of tsx is not
+ relevant.
+
+config X86_INTEL_TSX_MODE_OFF
+ bool "off"
+ help
+ TSX is disabled if possible - equals to tsx=off command line parameter.
+
+config X86_INTEL_TSX_MODE_ON
+ bool "on"
+ help
+ TSX is always enabled on TSX capable HW - equals the tsx=on command
+ line parameter.
+
+config X86_INTEL_TSX_MODE_AUTO
+ bool "auto"
+ help
+ TSX is enabled on TSX capable HW that is believed to be safe against
+ side channel attacks- equals the tsx=auto command line parameter.
+endchoice
+
config EFI
bool "EFI runtime service support"
depends on ACPI
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/tsx.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/tsx.c
@@ -73,6 +73,14 @@ static bool __init tsx_ctrl_is_supported
return !!(ia32_cap & ARCH_CAP_TSX_CTRL_MSR);
}
+static enum tsx_ctrl_states x86_get_tsx_auto_mode(void)
+{
+ if (boot_cpu_has_bug(X86_BUG_TAA))
+ return TSX_CTRL_DISABLE;
+
+ return TSX_CTRL_ENABLE;
+}
+
void __init tsx_init(void)
{
char arg[5] = {};
@@ -88,17 +96,19 @@ void __init tsx_init(void)
} else if (!strcmp(arg, "off")) {
tsx_ctrl_state = TSX_CTRL_DISABLE;
} else if (!strcmp(arg, "auto")) {
- if (boot_cpu_has_bug(X86_BUG_TAA))
- tsx_ctrl_state = TSX_CTRL_DISABLE;
- else
- tsx_ctrl_state = TSX_CTRL_ENABLE;
+ tsx_ctrl_state = x86_get_tsx_auto_mode();
} else {
tsx_ctrl_state = TSX_CTRL_DISABLE;
pr_err("tsx: invalid option, defaulting to off\n");
}
} else {
- /* tsx= not provided, defaulting to off */
- tsx_ctrl_state = TSX_CTRL_DISABLE;
+ /* tsx= not provided */
+ if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_INTEL_TSX_MODE_AUTO))
+ tsx_ctrl_state = x86_get_tsx_auto_mode();
+ else if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_INTEL_TSX_MODE_OFF))
+ tsx_ctrl_state = TSX_CTRL_DISABLE;
+ else
+ tsx_ctrl_state = TSX_CTRL_ENABLE;
}
if (tsx_ctrl_state == TSX_CTRL_DISABLE) {
