Re: [PATCH v4 09/11] x86/vmscape: Deploy BHB clearing mitigation

Nikolay Borisov
2025-11-21T14:18:18Z

On 11/20/25 08:19, Pawan Gupta wrote:
> IBPB mitigation for VMSCAPE is an overkill on CPUs that are only affected
> by the BHI variant of VMSCAPE. On such CPUs, eIBRS already provides
> indirect branch isolation between guest and host userspace. However, branch
> history from guest may also influence the indirect branches in host
> userspace.
>
> To mitigate the BHI aspect, use clear_bhb_loop().
>
> Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta <pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com>

<snip>

> @@ -3278,6 +3290,9 @@ static void __init vmscape_apply_mitigation(void)
> {
> if (vmscape_mitigation == VMSCAPE_MITIGATION_IBPB_EXIT_TO_USER)
> static_call_update(vmscape_predictor_flush, write_ibpb);
> + else if (vmscape_mitigation == VMSCAPE_MITIGATION_BHB_CLEAR_EXIT_TO_USER &&
> + IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_64))

why the x86_64 dependency ?

> + static_call_update(vmscape_predictor_flush, clear_bhb_loop);
> }
>
> #undef pr_fmt
> @@ -3369,6 +3384,7 @@ void cpu_bugs_smt_update(void)
> break;
> case VMSCAPE_MITIGATION_IBPB_ON_VMEXIT:
> case VMSCAPE_MITIGATION_IBPB_EXIT_TO_USER:
> + case VMSCAPE_MITIGATION_BHB_CLEAR_EXIT_TO_USER:
> /*
> * Hypervisors can be attacked across-threads, warn for SMT when
> * STIBP is not already enabled system-wide.
>