Re: [RFC PATCH v2 2/6] x86/arch_prctl: add ARCH_GET_NOPTI and ARCH_SET_NOPTI to enable/disable PTI

From: Borislav Petkov
Date: Wed Jan 10 2018 - 09:45:23 EST


On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 08:25:08AM +0100, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> We could taint the kernel and warn prominently in the syslog when PTI is disabled
> globally on the boot line though, if running on affected CPUs.
>
> Something like:
>
> "x86/intel: Page Table Isolation (PTI) is disabled globally. This allows unprivileged, untrusted code to exploit the Meltdown CPU bug to read kernel data."
>

I think we should warn in the per-mm disabling case too. Not the same
text but a similar blurb about the trusted process becoming a high-value
target.

--
Regards/Gruss,
Boris.

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