Re: [PATCH v2 1/6] x86/bugs: Add asm helpers for executing VERW

Pawan Gupta
2023-10-24T16:35:28Z

On Tue, Oct 24, 2023 at 12:36:01PM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 24, 2023 at 01:08:21AM -0700, Pawan Gupta wrote:
>
> > +.macro CLEAR_CPU_BUFFERS
> > + ALTERNATIVE "jmp .Lskip_verw_\@;", "jmp .Ldo_verw_\@", X86_FEATURE_CLEAR_CPU_BUF
> > + /* nopl __KERNEL_DS(%rax) */
> > + .byte 0x0f, 0x1f, 0x80, 0x00, 0x00;
> > +.Lverw_arg_\@: .word __KERNEL_DS;
> > +.Ldo_verw_\@: verw _ASM_RIP(.Lverw_arg_\@);
> > +.Lskip_verw_\@:
> > +.endm
>
> Why can't this be:
>
> ALTERNATIVE "". "verw _ASM_RIP(mds_verw_sel)", X86_FEATURE_CLEAR_CPU_BUF
>
> And have that mds_verw_sel thing be out-of-line ?

I haven't done this way because its a tad bit fragile as it depends on
modules being within 4GB of kernel.

> That gives much better code for the case where we don't need this.

If this is the preferred way let me test this and roll a new revision.