194 lines
8.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
Executable file
194 lines
8.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
Executable file
Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) mitigation
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=================================================
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.. _mds:
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Overview
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--------
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Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) is a family of side channel attacks
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on internal buffers in Intel CPUs. The variants are:
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- Microarchitectural Store Buffer Data Sampling (MSBDS) (CVE-2018-12126)
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- Microarchitectural Fill Buffer Data Sampling (MFBDS) (CVE-2018-12130)
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- Microarchitectural Load Port Data Sampling (MLPDS) (CVE-2018-12127)
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- Microarchitectural Data Sampling Uncacheable Memory (MDSUM) (CVE-2019-11091)
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MSBDS leaks Store Buffer Entries which can be speculatively forwarded to a
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dependent load (store-to-load forwarding) as an optimization. The forward
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can also happen to a faulting or assisting load operation for a different
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memory address, which can be exploited under certain conditions. Store
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buffers are partitioned between Hyper-Threads so cross thread forwarding is
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not possible. But if a thread enters or exits a sleep state the store
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buffer is repartitioned which can expose data from one thread to the other.
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MFBDS leaks Fill Buffer Entries. Fill buffers are used internally to manage
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L1 miss situations and to hold data which is returned or sent in response
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to a memory or I/O operation. Fill buffers can forward data to a load
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operation and also write data to the cache. When the fill buffer is
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deallocated it can retain the stale data of the preceding operations which
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can then be forwarded to a faulting or assisting load operation, which can
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be exploited under certain conditions. Fill buffers are shared between
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Hyper-Threads so cross thread leakage is possible.
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MLPDS leaks Load Port Data. Load ports are used to perform load operations
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from memory or I/O. The received data is then forwarded to the register
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file or a subsequent operation. In some implementations the Load Port can
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contain stale data from a previous operation which can be forwarded to
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faulting or assisting loads under certain conditions, which again can be
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exploited eventually. Load ports are shared between Hyper-Threads so cross
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thread leakage is possible.
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MDSUM is a special case of MSBDS, MFBDS and MLPDS. An uncacheable load from
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memory that takes a fault or assist can leave data in a microarchitectural
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structure that may later be observed using one of the same methods used by
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MSBDS, MFBDS or MLPDS.
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Exposure assumptions
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--------------------
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It is assumed that attack code resides in user space or in a guest with one
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exception. The rationale behind this assumption is that the code construct
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needed for exploiting MDS requires:
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- to control the load to trigger a fault or assist
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- to have a disclosure gadget which exposes the speculatively accessed
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data for consumption through a side channel.
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- to control the pointer through which the disclosure gadget exposes the
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data
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The existence of such a construct in the kernel cannot be excluded with
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100% certainty, but the complexity involved makes it extremly unlikely.
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There is one exception, which is untrusted BPF. The functionality of
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untrusted BPF is limited, but it needs to be thoroughly investigated
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whether it can be used to create such a construct.
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Mitigation strategy
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-------------------
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All variants have the same mitigation strategy at least for the single CPU
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thread case (SMT off): Force the CPU to clear the affected buffers.
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This is achieved by using the otherwise unused and obsolete VERW
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instruction in combination with a microcode update. The microcode clears
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the affected CPU buffers when the VERW instruction is executed.
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For virtualization there are two ways to achieve CPU buffer
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clearing. Either the modified VERW instruction or via the L1D Flush
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command. The latter is issued when L1TF mitigation is enabled so the extra
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VERW can be avoided. If the CPU is not affected by L1TF then VERW needs to
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be issued.
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If the VERW instruction with the supplied segment selector argument is
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executed on a CPU without the microcode update there is no side effect
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other than a small number of pointlessly wasted CPU cycles.
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This does not protect against cross Hyper-Thread attacks except for MSBDS
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which is only exploitable cross Hyper-thread when one of the Hyper-Threads
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enters a C-state.
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The kernel provides a function to invoke the buffer clearing:
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mds_clear_cpu_buffers()
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The mitigation is invoked on kernel/userspace, hypervisor/guest and C-state
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(idle) transitions.
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As a special quirk to address virtualization scenarios where the host has
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the microcode updated, but the hypervisor does not (yet) expose the
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MD_CLEAR CPUID bit to guests, the kernel issues the VERW instruction in the
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hope that it might actually clear the buffers. The state is reflected
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accordingly.
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According to current knowledge additional mitigations inside the kernel
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itself are not required because the necessary gadgets to expose the leaked
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data cannot be controlled in a way which allows exploitation from malicious
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user space or VM guests.
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Kernel internal mitigation modes
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--------------------------------
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======= ============================================================
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off Mitigation is disabled. Either the CPU is not affected or
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mds=off is supplied on the kernel command line
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full Mitigation is enabled. CPU is affected and MD_CLEAR is
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advertised in CPUID.
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vmwerv Mitigation is enabled. CPU is affected and MD_CLEAR is not
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advertised in CPUID. That is mainly for virtualization
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scenarios where the host has the updated microcode but the
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hypervisor does not expose MD_CLEAR in CPUID. It's a best
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effort approach without guarantee.
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======= ============================================================
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If the CPU is affected and mds=off is not supplied on the kernel command
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line then the kernel selects the appropriate mitigation mode depending on
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the availability of the MD_CLEAR CPUID bit.
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Mitigation points
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-----------------
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1. Return to user space
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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When transitioning from kernel to user space the CPU buffers are flushed
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on affected CPUs when the mitigation is not disabled on the kernel
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command line. The migitation is enabled through the static key
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mds_user_clear.
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The mitigation is invoked in prepare_exit_to_usermode() which covers
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all but one of the kernel to user space transitions. The exception
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is when we return from a Non Maskable Interrupt (NMI), which is
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handled directly in do_nmi().
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(The reason that NMI is special is that prepare_exit_to_usermode() can
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enable IRQs. In NMI context, NMIs are blocked, and we don't want to
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enable IRQs with NMIs blocked.)
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2. C-State transition
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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When a CPU goes idle and enters a C-State the CPU buffers need to be
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cleared on affected CPUs when SMT is active. This addresses the
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repartitioning of the store buffer when one of the Hyper-Threads enters
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a C-State.
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When SMT is inactive, i.e. either the CPU does not support it or all
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sibling threads are offline CPU buffer clearing is not required.
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The idle clearing is enabled on CPUs which are only affected by MSBDS
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and not by any other MDS variant. The other MDS variants cannot be
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protected against cross Hyper-Thread attacks because the Fill Buffer and
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the Load Ports are shared. So on CPUs affected by other variants, the
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idle clearing would be a window dressing exercise and is therefore not
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activated.
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The invocation is controlled by the static key mds_idle_clear which is
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switched depending on the chosen mitigation mode and the SMT state of
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the system.
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The buffer clear is only invoked before entering the C-State to prevent
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that stale data from the idling CPU from spilling to the Hyper-Thread
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sibling after the store buffer got repartitioned and all entries are
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available to the non idle sibling.
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When coming out of idle the store buffer is partitioned again so each
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sibling has half of it available. The back from idle CPU could be then
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speculatively exposed to contents of the sibling. The buffers are
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flushed either on exit to user space or on VMENTER so malicious code
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in user space or the guest cannot speculatively access them.
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The mitigation is hooked into all variants of halt()/mwait(), but does
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not cover the legacy ACPI IO-Port mechanism because the ACPI idle driver
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has been superseded by the intel_idle driver around 2010 and is
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preferred on all affected CPUs which are expected to gain the MD_CLEAR
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functionality in microcode. Aside of that the IO-Port mechanism is a
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legacy interface which is only used on older systems which are either
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not affected or do not receive microcode updates anymore.
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