RE: [RFC PATCH v3 06/10] x86/sgx: Forced EPC page zapping for EUPDATESVN

["Zhang, Cathy" <cathy.zhang@intel.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko@kernel.org>
> Sent: Sunday, April 3, 2022 6:21 PM
> To: Zhang, Cathy <cathy.zhang@intel.com>
> Cc: linux-sgx@vger.kernel.org; x86@kernel.org; Chatre, Reinette
> <reinette.chatre@intel.com>; Hansen, Dave <dave.hansen@intel.com>; Raj,
> Ashok <ashok.raj@intel.com>
> Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v3 06/10] x86/sgx: Forced EPC page zapping for
> EUPDATESVN
> 
> On Fri, Apr 01, 2022 at 10:24:05PM +0800, Cathy Zhang wrote:
> > Before an EUPDATESVN instruction can be successful, all enclave pages
> > (EPC) must be marked as unused in the SGX hardware metadata (EPCM).
> >
> > A page becomes unused when an issued EREMOVE instruction succeeds.
> > To prepare for EUPDATESVN, loop over all SGX pages and attempt to
> > EREMOVE them. This is fatal to running enclaves and destroys all
> > enclave state and memory contents. This destruction is by design and
> > mitigates any compromise of enclaves or the SGX hardware itself which
> > occurred before the microcode update.
> >
> > An EREMOVE operation on a page may fail for a few reasons. Each has
> > its own mitigations.
> >
> > First, EREMOVE will fail if an enclave that uses the page is
> > executing. Send an IPI to all CPUs that might be running the enclave
> > to force it out of the enclave long enough to EREMOVE the page. Other
> > CPUs might enter the enclave in the meantime, so this is not a
> > rock-solid guarantee.
> >
> > Second, EREMOVE can fail on special SGX metadata pages, such as SECS
> > and VA. EREMOVE will work on them only after the normal SGX
> 
> Ignoring concurrency rules that apply to any type of EPC page, VA page can
> be removed at any point of time, i.e. the first sentence in this paragraph is
> not factually true.

Yes, the SGX metadata pages failed to be EREMOVEd and be tracked for a later
retry is SECS pages.

Removed "VA" from the sentence Jarkko mentioned, Thanks for pointing out!

> 
> BR, Jarkko