Re: Hyper-Threading Vulnerability

Andi Kleen
2005-05-13T18:04:05Z

Gabor MICSKO <gmicsko@szintezis.hu> writes:

> Hi!
>
> From http://kerneltrap.org/node/5103
>
> ``Hyper-Threading, as currently implemented on Intel Pentium Extreme
> Edition, Pentium 4, Mobile Pentium 4, and Xeon processors, suffers from
> a serious security flaw," Colin explains. "This flaw permits local
> information disclosure, including allowing an unprivileged user to steal
> an RSA private key being used on the same machine. Administrators of
> multi-user systems are strongly advised to take action to disable
> Hyper-Threading immediately."
>
> ``More'' info here:
> http://www.daemonology.net/hyperthreading-considered-harmful/
>
> Is this flaw affects the current stable Linux kernels? Workaround?
> Patch?

This is not a kernel problem, but a user space problem. The fix
is to change the user space crypto code to need the same number of cache line
accesses on all keys.

Disabling HT for this would the totally wrong approach, like throwing
out the baby with the bath water.

-Andi