qemu-cpu-models.rst: Document -noTSX, mds-no, taa-no, and tsx-ctrl

- Add the '-noTSX' variants for CascadeLake and SkyLake.

- Document the three MSR bits: 'mds-no', 'taa-no', and 'tsx-ctrl'

  Two confusing things about 'mds-no' (and the first point applies to
  the other two MSRs too):

  (1) The 'mds-no' bit will _not_ show up in the guest's /proc/cpuinfo.
      Rather it is used to fill in the guest's sysfs:

        /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/mds:Not affected

      Paolo confirmed on IRC as such.

  (2) There are _three_ variants[+] of CascadeLake CPUs, with different
      stepping levels: 5, 6, and 7.  To quote wikichip.org[*]:

        "note that while steppings 6 & 7 are fully mitigated, earlier
        stepping 5 is not protected against MSBDS, MLPDS, nor MDSUM"

      The above is also indicated in the Intel's document[+], as
      indicated by "No" under the three columns of MFBDS, MSBDS, and
      MLPDS.

  I've expressed this in the docs without belabouring the details.

      [+] https://software.intel.com/security-software-guidance/insights/processors-affected-microarchitectural-data-sampling
      [*] https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/cascade_lake#Key_changes_from_Skylake

Signed-off-by: Kashyap Chamarthy <kchamart@redhat.com>
Message-Id: <20200225165618.6571-3-kchamart@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
This commit is contained in:
Kashyap Chamarthy 2020-02-25 17:56:18 +01:00 committed by Paolo Bonzini
parent 76c51fc3af
commit 3b2c52c017
1 changed files with 55 additions and 2 deletions

View File

@ -49,10 +49,15 @@ mixture of host CPU models between machines, if live migration
compatibility is required, use the newest CPU model that is compatible
across all desired hosts.
``Skylake-Server``, ``Skylake-Server-IBRS``
``Cascadelake-Server``, ``Cascadelake-Server-noTSX``
Intel Xeon Processor (Cascade Lake, 2019), with "stepping" levels 6
or 7 only. (The Cascade Lake Xeon processor with *stepping 5 is
vulnerable to MDS variants*.)
``Skylake-Server``, ``Skylake-Server-IBRS``, ``Skylake-Server-IBRS-noTSX``
Intel Xeon Processor (Skylake, 2016)
``Skylake-Client``, ``Skylake-Client-IBRS``
``Skylake-Client``, ``Skylake-Client-IBRS``, ``Skylake-Client-noTSX-IBRS}``
Intel Core Processor (Skylake, 2015)
``Broadwell``, ``Broadwell-IBRS``, ``Broadwell-noTSX``, ``Broadwell-noTSX-IBRS``
@ -148,6 +153,54 @@ features are included if using "Host passthrough" or "Host model".
Requires the host CPU microcode to support this feature before it
can be used for guest CPUs.
``mds-no``
Recommended to inform the guest OS that the host is *not* vulnerable
to any of the MDS variants ([MFBDS] CVE-2018-12130, [MLPDS]
CVE-2018-12127, [MSBDS] CVE-2018-12126).
This is an MSR (Model-Specific Register) feature rather than a CPUID feature,
so it will not appear in the Linux ``/proc/cpuinfo`` in the host or
guest. Instead, the host kernel uses it to populate the MDS
vulnerability file in ``sysfs``.
So it should only be enabled for VMs if the host reports @code{Not
affected} in the ``/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/mds`` file.
``taa-no``
Recommended to inform that the guest that the host is ``not``
vulnerable to CVE-2019-11135, TSX Asynchronous Abort (TAA).
This too is an MSR feature, so it does not show up in the Linux
``/proc/cpuinfo`` in the host or guest.
It should only be enabled for VMs if the host reports ``Not affected``
in the ``/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/tsx_async_abort``
file.
``tsx-ctrl``
Recommended to inform the guest that it can disable the Intel TSX
(Transactional Synchronization Extensions) feature; or, if the
processor is vulnerable, use the Intel VERW instruction (a
processor-level instruction that performs checks on memory access) as
a mitigation for the TAA vulnerability. (For details, refer to
Intel's `deep dive into MDS
<https://software.intel.com/security-software-guidance/insights/deep-dive-intel-analysis-microarchitectural-data-sampling>`_.)
Expose this to the guest OS if and only if: (a) the host has TSX
enabled; *and* (b) the guest has ``rtm`` CPU flag enabled.
By disabling TSX, KVM-based guests can avoid paying the price of
mitigating TSX-based attacks.
Note that ``tsx-ctrl`` too is an MSR feature, so it does not show
up in the Linux ``/proc/cpuinfo`` in the host or guest.
To validate that Intel TSX is indeed disabled for the guest, there are
two ways: (a) check for the *absence* of ``rtm`` in the guest's
``/proc/cpuinfo``; or (b) the
``/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/tsx_async_abort`` file in
the guest should report ``Mitigation: TSX disabled``.
Preferred CPU models for AMD x86 hosts
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^