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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+TAA - TSX Asynchronous Abort
+======================================
+
+TAA is a hardware vulnerability that allows unprivileged speculative access to
+data which is available in various CPU internal buffers by using asynchronous
+aborts within an Intel TSX transactional region.
+
+Affected processors
+-------------------
+
+This vulnerability only affects Intel processors that support Intel
+Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX) when the TAA_NO bit (bit 8)
+is 0 in the IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR. On processors where the MDS_NO bit
+(bit 5) is 0 in the IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR, the existing MDS mitigations
+also mitigate against TAA.
+
+Whether a processor is affected or not can be read out from the TAA
+vulnerability file in sysfs. See :ref:`tsx_async_abort_sys_info`.
+
+Related CVEs
+------------
+
+The following CVE entry is related to this TAA issue:
+
+ ============== ===== ===================================================
+ CVE-2019-11135 TAA TSX Asynchronous Abort (TAA) condition on some
+ microprocessors utilizing speculative execution may
+ allow an authenticated user to potentially enable
+ information disclosure via a side channel with
+ local access.
+ ============== ===== ===================================================
+
+Problem
+-------
+
+When performing store, load or L1 refill operations, processors write
+data into temporary microarchitectural structures (buffers). The data in
+those buffers can be forwarded to load operations as an optimization.
+
+Intel TSX is an extension to the x86 instruction set architecture that adds
+hardware transactional memory support to improve performance of multi-threaded
+software. TSX lets the processor expose and exploit concurrency hidden in an
+application due to dynamically avoiding unnecessary synchronization.
+
+TSX supports atomic memory transactions that are either committed (success) or
+aborted. During an abort, operations that happened within the transactional region
+are rolled back. An asynchronous abort takes place, among other options, when a
+different thread accesses a cache line that is also used within the transactional
+region when that access might lead to a data race.
+
+Immediately after an uncompleted asynchronous abort, certain speculatively
+executed loads may read data from those internal buffers and pass it to dependent
+operations. This can be then used to infer the value via a cache side channel
+attack.
+
+Because the buffers are potentially shared between Hyper-Threads cross
+Hyper-Thread attacks are possible.
+
+The victim of a malicious actor does not need to make use of TSX. Only the
+attacker needs to begin a TSX transaction and raise an asynchronous abort
+which in turn potenitally leaks data stored in the buffers.
+
+More detailed technical information is available in the TAA specific x86
+architecture section: :ref:`Documentation/x86/tsx_async_abort.rst <tsx_async_abort>`.
+
+
+Attack scenarios
+----------------
+
+Attacks against the TAA vulnerability can be implemented from unprivileged
+applications running on hosts or guests.
+
+As for MDS, the attacker has no control over the memory addresses that can
+be leaked. Only the victim is responsible for bringing data to the CPU. As
+a result, the malicious actor has to sample as much data as possible and
+then postprocess it to try to infer any useful information from it.
+
+A potential attacker only has read access to the data. Also, there is no direct
+privilege escalation by using this technique.
+
+
+.. _tsx_async_abort_sys_info:
+
+TAA system information
+-----------------------
+
+The Linux kernel provides a sysfs interface to enumerate the current TAA status
+of mitigated systems. The relevant sysfs file is:
+
+/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/tsx_async_abort
+
+The possible values in this file are:
+
+.. list-table::
+
+ * - 'Vulnerable'
+ - The CPU is affected by this vulnerability and the microcode and kernel mitigation are not applied.
+ * - 'Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode'
+ - The system tries to clear the buffers but the microcode might not support the operation.
+ * - 'Mitigation: Clear CPU buffers'
+ - The microcode has been updated to clear the buffers. TSX is still enabled.
+ * - 'Mitigation: TSX disabled'
+ - TSX is disabled.
+ * - 'Not affected'
+ - The CPU is not affected by this issue.
+
+.. _ucode_needed:
+
+Best effort mitigation mode
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+If the processor is vulnerable, but the availability of the microcode-based
+mitigation mechanism is not advertised via CPUID the kernel selects a best
+effort mitigation mode. This mode invokes the mitigation instructions
+without a guarantee that they clear the CPU buffers.
+
+This is done to address virtualization scenarios where the host has the
+microcode update applied, but the hypervisor is not yet updated to expose the
+CPUID to the guest. If the host has updated microcode the protection takes
+effect; otherwise a few CPU cycles are wasted pointlessly.
+
+The state in the tsx_async_abort sysfs file reflects this situation
+accordingly.
+
+
+Mitigation mechanism
+--------------------
+
+The kernel detects the affected CPUs and the presence of the microcode which is
+required. If a CPU is affected and the microcode is available, then the kernel
+enables the mitigation by default.
+
+
+The mitigation can be controlled at boot time via a kernel command line option.
+See :ref:`taa_mitigation_control_command_line`.
+
+.. _virt_mechanism:
+
+Virtualization mitigation
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Affected systems where the host has TAA microcode and TAA is mitigated by
+having disabled TSX previously, are not vulnerable regardless of the status
+of the VMs.
+
+In all other cases, if the host either does not have the TAA microcode or
+the kernel is not mitigated, the system might be vulnerable.
+
+
+.. _taa_mitigation_control_command_line:
+
+Mitigation control on the kernel command line
+---------------------------------------------
+
+The kernel command line allows to control the TAA mitigations at boot time with
+the option "tsx_async_abort=". The valid arguments for this option are:
+
+ ============ =============================================================
+ off This option disables the TAA mitigation on affected platforms.
+ If the system has TSX enabled (see next parameter) and the CPU
+ is affected, the system is vulnerable.
+
+ full TAA mitigation is enabled. If TSX is enabled, on an affected
+ system it will clear CPU buffers on ring transitions. On
+ systems which are MDS-affected and deploy MDS mitigation,
+ TAA is also mitigated. Specifying this option on those
+ systems will have no effect.
+
+ full,nosmt The same as tsx_async_abort=full, with SMT disabled on
+ vulnerable CPUs that have TSX enabled. This is the complete
+ mitigation. When TSX is disabled, SMT is not disabled because
+ CPU is not vulnerable to cross-thread TAA attacks.
+ ============ =============================================================
+
+Not specifying this option is equivalent to "tsx_async_abort=full". For
+processors that are affected by both TAA and MDS, specifying just
+"tsx_async_abort=off" without an accompanying "mds=off" will have no
+effect as the same mitigation is used for both vulnerabilities.
+
+The kernel command line also allows to control the TSX feature using the
+parameter "tsx=" on CPUs which support TSX control. MSR_IA32_TSX_CTRL is used
+to control the TSX feature and the enumeration of the TSX feature bits (RTM
+and HLE) in CPUID.
+
+The valid options are:
+
+ ============ =============================================================
+ off Disables TSX on the system.
+
+ Note that this option takes effect only on newer CPUs which are
+ not vulnerable to MDS, i.e., have MSR_IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES.MDS_NO=1
+ and which get the new IA32_TSX_CTRL MSR through a microcode
+ update. This new MSR allows for the reliable deactivation of
+ the TSX functionality.
+
+ on Enables TSX.
+
+ Although there are mitigations for all known security
+ vulnerabilities, TSX has been known to be an accelerator for
+ several previous speculation-related CVEs, and so there may be
+ unknown security risks associated with leaving it enabled.
+
+ auto Disables TSX if X86_BUG_TAA is present, otherwise enables TSX
+ on the system.
+ ============ =============================================================
+
+Not specifying this option is equivalent to "tsx=off".
+
+The following combinations of the "tsx_async_abort" and "tsx" are possible. For
+affected platforms tsx=auto is equivalent to tsx=off and the result will be:
+
+ ========= ========================== =========================================
+ tsx=on tsx_async_abort=full The system will use VERW to clear CPU
+ buffers. Cross-thread attacks are still
+ possible on SMT machines.
+ tsx=on tsx_async_abort=full,nosmt As above, cross-thread attacks on SMT
+ mitigated.
+ tsx=on tsx_async_abort=off The system is vulnerable.
+ tsx=off tsx_async_abort=full TSX might be disabled if microcode
+ provides a TSX control MSR. If so,
+ system is not vulnerable.
+ tsx=off tsx_async_abort=full,nosmt Ditto
+ tsx=off tsx_async_abort=off ditto
+ ========= ========================== =========================================
+
+
+For unaffected platforms "tsx=on" and "tsx_async_abort=full" does not clear CPU
+buffers. For platforms without TSX control (MSR_IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES.MDS_NO=0)
+"tsx" command line argument has no effect.
+
+For the affected platforms below table indicates the mitigation status for the
+combinations of CPUID bit MD_CLEAR and IA32_ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR bits MDS_NO
+and TSX_CTRL_MSR.
+
+ ======= ========= ============= ========================================
+ MDS_NO MD_CLEAR TSX_CTRL_MSR Status
+ ======= ========= ============= ========================================
+ 0 0 0 Vulnerable (needs microcode)
+ 0 1 0 MDS and TAA mitigated via VERW
+ 1 1 0 MDS fixed, TAA vulnerable if TSX enabled
+ because MD_CLEAR has no meaning and
+ VERW is not guaranteed to clear buffers
+ 1 X 1 MDS fixed, TAA can be mitigated by
+ VERW or TSX_CTRL_MSR
+ ======= ========= ============= ========================================
+
+Mitigation selection guide
+--------------------------
+
+1. Trusted userspace and guests
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+If all user space applications are from a trusted source and do not execute
+untrusted code which is supplied externally, then the mitigation can be
+disabled. The same applies to virtualized environments with trusted guests.
+
+
+2. Untrusted userspace and guests
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+If there are untrusted applications or guests on the system, enabling TSX
+might allow a malicious actor to leak data from the host or from other
+processes running on the same physical core.
+
+If the microcode is available and the TSX is disabled on the host, attacks
+are prevented in a virtualized environment as well, even if the VMs do not
+explicitly enable the mitigation.
+
+
+.. _taa_default_mitigations:
+
+Default mitigations
+-------------------
+
+The kernel's default action for vulnerable processors is:
+
+ - Deploy TSX disable mitigation (tsx_async_abort=full tsx=off).