[PATCH v2 1/5] cpu/speculation: Add 'mitigations=' cmdline option

Josh Poimboeuf
2019-04-12T20:39:28Z

Keeping track of the number of mitigations for all the CPU speculation
bugs has become overwhelming for many users. It's getting more and more
complicated to decide which mitigations are needed for a given
architecture. Complicating matters is the fact that each arch tends to
have its own custom way to mitigate the same vulnerability.

Most users fall into a few basic categories:

a) they want all mitigations off;

b) they want all reasonable mitigations on, with SMT enabled even if
it's vulnerable; or

c) they want all reasonable mitigations on, with SMT disabled if
vulnerable.

Define a set of curated, arch-independent options, each of which is an
aggregation of existing options:

- mitigations=off: Disable all mitigations.

- mitigations=auto: [default] Enable all the default mitigations, but
leave SMT enabled, even if it's vulnerable.

- mitigations=auto,nosmt: Enable all the default mitigations, disabling
SMT if needed by a mitigation.

Currently, these options are placeholders which don't actually do
anything. They will be fleshed out in upcoming patches.

Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@redhat.com>
---
.../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt | 24 +++++++++++++++++++
include/linux/cpu.h | 24 +++++++++++++++++++
kernel/cpu.c | 15 ++++++++++++
3 files changed, 63 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
index faafdc59104a..3ea92e075c64 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -2544,6 +2544,30 @@
in the "bleeding edge" mini2440 support kernel at
http://repo.or.cz/w/linux-2.6/mini2440.git

+ mitigations=
+ Control optional mitigations for CPU vulnerabilities.
+ This is a set of curated, arch-independent options, each
+ of which is an aggregation of existing arch-specific
+ options.
+
+ off
+ Disable all optional CPU mitigations. This
+ improves system performance, but it may also
+ expose users to several CPU vulnerabilities.
+
+ auto (default)
+ Mitigate all CPU vulnerabilities, but leave SMT
+ enabled, even if it's vulnerable. This is for
+ users who don't want to be surprised by SMT
+ getting disabled across kernel upgrades, or who
+ have other ways of avoiding SMT-based attacks.
+ This is the default behavior.
+
+ auto,nosmt
+ Mitigate all CPU vulnerabilities, disabling SMT
+ if needed. This is for users who always want to
+ be fully mitigated, even if it means losing SMT.
+
mminit_loglevel=
[KNL] When CONFIG_DEBUG_MEMORY_INIT is set, this
parameter allows control of the logging verbosity for
diff --git a/include/linux/cpu.h b/include/linux/cpu.h
index ae99dde02320..5350357dfbdb 100644
--- a/include/linux/cpu.h
+++ b/include/linux/cpu.h
@@ -188,4 +188,28 @@ static inline void cpu_smt_disable(bool force) { }
static inline void cpu_smt_check_topology(void) { }
#endif

+/*
+ * These are used for a global "mitigations=" cmdline option for toggling
+ * optional CPU mitigations.
+ */
+enum cpu_mitigations {
+ CPU_MITIGATIONS_OFF,
+ CPU_MITIGATIONS_AUTO,
+ CPU_MITIGATIONS_AUTO_NOSMT,
+};
+
+extern enum cpu_mitigations cpu_mitigations;
+
+/* mitigations=off */
+static inline bool cpu_mitigations_off(void)
+{
+ return cpu_mitigations == CPU_MITIGATIONS_OFF;
+}
+
+/* mitigations=auto,nosmt */
+static inline bool cpu_mitigations_auto_nosmt(void)
+{
+ return cpu_mitigations == CPU_MITIGATIONS_AUTO_NOSMT;
+}
+
#endif /* _LINUX_CPU_H_ */
diff --git a/kernel/cpu.c b/kernel/cpu.c
index 38890f62f9a8..aed9083f8eac 100644
--- a/kernel/cpu.c
+++ b/kernel/cpu.c
@@ -2320,3 +2320,18 @@ void __init boot_cpu_hotplug_init(void)
#endif
this_cpu_write(cpuhp_state.state, CPUHP_ONLINE);
}
+
+enum cpu_mitigations cpu_mitigations __ro_after_init = CPU_MITIGATIONS_AUTO;
+
+static int __init mitigations_cmdline(char *arg)
+{
+ if (!strcmp(arg, "off"))
+ cpu_mitigations = CPU_MITIGATIONS_OFF;
+ else if (!strcmp(arg, "auto"))
+ cpu_mitigations = CPU_MITIGATIONS_AUTO;
+ else if (!strcmp(arg, "auto,nosmt"))
+ cpu_mitigations = CPU_MITIGATIONS_AUTO_NOSMT;
+
+ return 0;
+}
+early_param("mitigations", mitigations_cmdline);
--
2.17.2