x86/speculation/mds: Add mds_clear_cpu_buffers()

The Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) vulernabilities are mitigated by
clearing the affected CPU buffers. The mechanism for clearing the buffers
uses the unused and obsolete VERW instruction in combination with a
microcode update which triggers a CPU buffer clear when VERW is executed.

Provide a inline function with the assembly magic. The argument of the VERW
instruction must be a memory operand as documented:

  "MD_CLEAR enumerates that the memory-operand variant of VERW (for
   example, VERW m16) has been extended to also overwrite buffers affected
   by MDS. This buffer overwriting functionality is not guaranteed for the
   register operand variant of VERW."

Documentation also recommends to use a writable data segment selector:

  "The buffer overwriting occurs regardless of the result of the VERW
   permission check, as well as when the selector is null or causes a
   descriptor load segment violation. However, for lowest latency we
   recommend using a selector that indicates a valid writable data
   segment."

Add x86 specific documentation about MDS and the internal workings of the
mitigation.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Reviewed-by: Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de>
Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Reviewed-by: Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Jon Masters <jcm@redhat.com>
Tested-by: Jon Masters <jcm@redhat.com>

1 files changed, 25 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h
index dad12b767ba0..67cb9b2082b1 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/nospec-branch.h
@@ -318,6 +318,31 @@ DECLARE_STATIC_KEY_FALSE(switch_to_cond_stibp);
 DECLARE_STATIC_KEY_FALSE(switch_mm_cond_ibpb);
 DECLARE_STATIC_KEY_FALSE(switch_mm_always_ibpb);
 
+#include <asm/segment.h>
+
+/**
+ * mds_clear_cpu_buffers - Mitigation for MDS vulnerability
+ *
+ * This uses the otherwise unused and obsolete VERW instruction in
+ * combination with microcode which triggers a CPU buffer flush when the
+ * instruction is executed.
+ */
+static inline void mds_clear_cpu_buffers(void)
+{
+	static const u16 ds = __KERNEL_DS;
+
+	/*
+	 * Has to be the memory-operand variant because only that
+	 * guarantees the CPU buffer flush functionality according to
+	 * documentation. The register-operand variant does not.
+	 * Works with any segment selector, but a valid writable
+	 * data segment is the fastest variant.
+	 *
+	 * "cc" clobber is required because VERW modifies ZF.
+	 */
+	asm volatile("verw %[ds]" : : [ds] "m" (ds) : "cc");
+}
+
 #endif /* __ASSEMBLY__ */
 
 /*