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From: Kees Cook <kees.cook@canonical.com>
To: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Cc: x86@kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [Security] [PATCH v3 0/4] x86: clear XD_DISABLED flag on Intel to regain NX
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2010 10:56:04 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20101109185604.GK5876@outflux.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20101109183142.4ebfa737@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>

On Tue, Nov 09, 2010 at 06:31:42PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
> > In a review[1] of reported hardware being used by Ubuntu bug reporters,
> > almost 10% of systems had an incorrectly configured BIOS, leaving their
> > systems unable to use the NX features of their CPU.
> 
> Ouch

Yeah :(

> > This change will clear the MSR_IA32_MISC_ENABLE_XD_DISABLE bit so that NX
> > cannot be inappropriately controlled by the BIOS on Intel CPUs.  If, under
> > very strange hardware configurations, NX actually needs to be disabled,
> > "noexec=off" can be used to restore the prior behavior.
> 
> Have you done an audit of CPU errata to ensure that none of these cases
> are ones where the BIOS has disabled it to avoid an erratum. I'd hate to
> turn it on and find out the BIOS actually turned it off for good reason !

Where can I find those details?

-Kees

-- 
Kees Cook
Ubuntu Security Team

  reply	other threads:[~2010-11-09 18:56 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 31+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2010-11-09 18:11 [Security] [PATCH v3 0/4] x86: clear XD_DISABLED flag on Intel to regain NX Kees Cook
2010-11-09 18:14 ` [PATCH 1/4] x86: rename verify_cpu_64.S to verify_cpu.S Kees Cook
2010-11-09 18:46   ` Pekka Enberg
2010-11-09 19:00     ` Kees Cook
2010-11-09 19:59       ` Pekka Enberg
2010-11-09 19:02     ` Kees Cook
2010-11-09 19:11       ` Pekka Enberg
2010-11-09 18:15 ` [PATCH 2/4] x86: clear XD_DISABLED flag on Intel to regain NX Kees Cook
2010-11-10 16:11   ` Andi Kleen
2010-11-10 16:47     ` Kees Cook
2010-11-10 17:42       ` Andi Kleen
2010-11-10 18:15         ` Kees Cook
2010-11-09 18:15 ` [PATCH 3/4] x86: call verify_cpu during 32bit CPU startup Kees Cook
2010-11-09 19:09   ` Pekka Enberg
2010-11-09 19:19     ` Kees Cook
2010-11-09 19:46       ` Pekka Enberg
2010-11-09 19:56         ` Kees Cook
2010-11-09 20:28           ` Pekka Enberg
2010-11-09 20:48             ` Kees Cook
2010-11-09 20:50               ` Pekka Enberg
2010-11-09 18:15 ` [PATCH 4/4] x86: only CPU features determine NX capabilities Kees Cook
2010-11-09 18:31 ` [Security] [PATCH v3 0/4] x86: clear XD_DISABLED flag on Intel to regain NX Alan Cox
2010-11-09 18:56   ` Kees Cook [this message]
2010-11-09 22:50     ` Alan Cox
2010-11-09 23:53       ` Kees Cook
2010-11-10  0:21         ` Alan Cox
2010-11-10  0:43           ` Kees Cook
2010-11-10  1:10             ` Kees Cook
2010-11-10 11:11               ` Alan Cox
2010-11-10 11:15                 ` Ingo Molnar
2010-11-11 15:15               ` Rogier Wolff

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