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+Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) mitigation
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+=================================================
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+
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+.. _mds:
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+
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+Overview
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+--------
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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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+
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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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+
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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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+
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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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+
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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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+
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+
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+Exposure assumptions
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+--------------------
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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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+
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+ - to control the load to trigger a fault or assist
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+
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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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+
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+ - to control the pointer through which the disclosure gadget exposes the
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+ data
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+
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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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+
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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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+
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+
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+Mitigation strategy
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+-------------------
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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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+
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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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+
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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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+
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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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+
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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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+
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+The kernel provides a function to invoke the buffer clearing:
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+
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+ mds_clear_cpu_buffers()
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+
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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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+
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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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