Patch "Documentation: Document array_index_nospec" has been added to the 4.4-stable tree

[<gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled

    Documentation: Document array_index_nospec

to the 4.4-stable tree which can be found at:
    http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary

The filename of the patch is:
     documentation-document-array_index_nospec.patch
and it can be found in the queue-4.4 subdirectory.

If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree,
please let <stable@vger.kernel.org> know about it.


>From foo@baz Fri Feb 23 17:23:58 CET 2018
From: Jack Wang <jinpu.wang@profitbricks.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2018 11:41:59 +0100
Subject: Documentation: Document array_index_nospec
To: gregkh@linuxfoundation.org, stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>, Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>, Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>, linux-arch@vger.kernel.org, Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>, Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>, kernel-hardening@lists.openwall.com, torvalds@linux-foundation.org, alan@linux.intel.com, David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>, Jack Wang <jinpu.wang@profitbricks.com>
Message-ID: <1519382538-15143-11-git-send-email-jinpu.wangl@profitbricks.com>

From: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>

(cherry picked from commit f84a56f73dddaeac1dba8045b007f742f61cd2da)

Document the rationale and usage of the new array_index_nospec() helper.

Signed-off-by: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Cc: linux-arch@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: gregkh@linuxfoundation.org
Cc: kernel-hardening@lists.openwall.com
Cc: torvalds@linux-foundation.org
Cc: alan@linux.intel.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/151727413645.33451.15878817161436755393.stgit@dwillia2-desk3.amr.corp.intel.com
Signed-off-by: David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>
[jwang: cherry pick to 4.4]
Signed-off-by: Jack Wang <jinpu.wang@profitbricks.com>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
---
 Documentation/speculation.txt |   90 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 90 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/speculation.txt

--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/speculation.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+This document explains potential effects of speculation, and how undesirable
+effects can be mitigated portably using common APIs.
+
+===========
+Speculation
+===========
+
+To improve performance and minimize average latencies, many contemporary CPUs
+employ speculative execution techniques such as branch prediction, performing
+work which may be discarded at a later stage.
+
+Typically speculative execution cannot be observed from architectural state,
+such as the contents of registers. However, in some cases it is possible to
+observe its impact on microarchitectural state, such as the presence or
+absence of data in caches. Such state may form side-channels which can be
+observed to extract secret information.
+
+For example, in the presence of branch prediction, it is possible for bounds
+checks to be ignored by code which is speculatively executed. Consider the
+following code:
+
+	int load_array(int *array, unsigned int index)
+	{
+		if (index >= MAX_ARRAY_ELEMS)
+			return 0;
+		else
+			return array[index];
+	}
+
+Which, on arm64, may be compiled to an assembly sequence such as:
+
+	CMP	<index>, #MAX_ARRAY_ELEMS
+	B.LT	less
+	MOV	<returnval>, #0
+	RET
+  less:
+	LDR	<returnval>, [<array>, <index>]
+	RET
+
+It is possible that a CPU mis-predicts the conditional branch, and
+speculatively loads array[index], even if index >= MAX_ARRAY_ELEMS. This
+value will subsequently be discarded, but the speculated load may affect
+microarchitectural state which can be subsequently measured.
+
+More complex sequences involving multiple dependent memory accesses may
+result in sensitive information being leaked. Consider the following
+code, building on the prior example:
+
+	int load_dependent_arrays(int *arr1, int *arr2, int index)
+	{
+		int val1, val2,
+
+		val1 = load_array(arr1, index);
+		val2 = load_array(arr2, val1);
+
+		return val2;
+	}
+
+Under speculation, the first call to load_array() may return the value
+of an out-of-bounds address, while the second call will influence
+microarchitectural state dependent on this value. This may provide an
+arbitrary read primitive.
+
+====================================
+Mitigating speculation side-channels
+====================================
+
+The kernel provides a generic API to ensure that bounds checks are
+respected even under speculation. Architectures which are affected by
+speculation-based side-channels are expected to implement these
+primitives.
+
+The array_index_nospec() helper in <linux/nospec.h> can be used to
+prevent information from being leaked via side-channels.
+
+A call to array_index_nospec(index, size) returns a sanitized index
+value that is bounded to [0, size) even under cpu speculation
+conditions.
+
+This can be used to protect the earlier load_array() example:
+
+	int load_array(int *array, unsigned int index)
+	{
+		if (index >= MAX_ARRAY_ELEMS)
+			return 0;
+		else {
+			index = array_index_nospec(index, MAX_ARRAY_ELEMS);
+			return array[index];
+		}
+	}


Patches currently in stable-queue which might be from jinpu.wang@profitbricks.com are

queue-4.4/x86-paravirt-remove-noreplace-paravirt-cmdline-option.patch
queue-4.4/documentation-document-array_index_nospec.patch
queue-4.4/kvm-x86-make-indirect-calls-in-emulator-speculation-safe.patch
queue-4.4/x86-nospec-fix-header-guards-names.patch
queue-4.4/x86-retpoline-avoid-retpolines-for-built-in-__init-functions.patch
queue-4.4/vfs-fdtable-prevent-bounds-check-bypass-via-speculative-execution.patch
queue-4.4/kvm-nvmx-invvpid-handling-improvements.patch
queue-4.4/x86-cpu-bugs-make-retpoline-module-warning-conditional.patch
queue-4.4/x86-spectre-check-config_retpoline-in-command-line-parser.patch
queue-4.4/x86-implement-array_index_mask_nospec.patch
queue-4.4/array_index_nospec-sanitize-speculative-array-de-references.patch
queue-4.4/kvm-vmx-make-indirect-call-speculation-safe.patch
queue-4.4/x86-spectre-fix-spelling-mistake-vunerable-vulnerable.patch
queue-4.4/kvm-nvmx-fix-kernel-panics-induced-by-illegal-invept-invvpid-types.patch
queue-4.4/module-retpoline-warn-about-missing-retpoline-in-module.patch
queue-4.4/x86-kvm-update-spectre-v1-mitigation.patch
queue-4.4/x86-get_user-use-pointer-masking-to-limit-speculation.patch
queue-4.4/x86-syscall-sanitize-syscall-table-de-references-under-speculation.patch
queue-4.4/kvm-nvmx-vmx_complete_nested_posted_interrupt-can-t-fail.patch
queue-4.4/x86-spectre-simplify-spectre_v2-command-line-parsing.patch
queue-4.4/x86-speculation-fix-typo-ibrs_att-which-should-be-ibrs_all.patch
queue-4.4/x86-spectre-report-get_user-mitigation-for-spectre_v1.patch
queue-4.4/x86-introduce-barrier_nospec.patch
queue-4.4/kvm-async_pf-fix-df-due-to-inject-page-not-present-and-page-ready-exceptions-simultaneously.patch
queue-4.4/kvm-vmx-clean-up-declaration-of-vpid-ept-invalidation-types.patch
queue-4.4/x86-bugs-drop-one-mitigation-from-dmesg.patch
queue-4.4/x86-retpoline-remove-the-esp-rsp-thunk.patch
queue-4.4/nl80211-sanitize-array-index-in-parse_txq_params.patch
queue-4.4/kvm-nvmx-kmap-can-t-fail.patch