<feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'>
<title>linux-stable.git/Documentation/admin-guide, branch linux-6.15.y</title>
<subtitle>Linux kernel stable tree</subtitle>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/'/>
<entry>
<title>x86/bugs: Add a Transient Scheduler Attacks mitigation</title>
<updated>2025-07-10T14:08:54+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Borislav Petkov (AMD)</name>
<email>bp@alien8.de</email>
</author>
<published>2024-09-11T08:53:08+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=ab0f6573b2113647915923b5adeb4f6ebc83f271'/>
<id>ab0f6573b2113647915923b5adeb4f6ebc83f271</id>
<content type='text'>
Commit d8010d4ba43e9f790925375a7de100604a5e2dba upstream.

Add the required features detection glue to bugs.c et all in order to
support the TSA mitigation.

Co-developed-by: Kim Phillips &lt;kim.phillips@amd.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Kim Phillips &lt;kim.phillips@amd.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) &lt;bp@alien8.de&gt;
Reviewed-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Commit d8010d4ba43e9f790925375a7de100604a5e2dba upstream.

Add the required features detection glue to bugs.c et all in order to
support the TSA mitigation.

Co-developed-by: Kim Phillips &lt;kim.phillips@amd.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Kim Phillips &lt;kim.phillips@amd.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) &lt;bp@alien8.de&gt;
Reviewed-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>x86/bugs: Rename MDS machinery to something more generic</title>
<updated>2025-07-10T14:08:54+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Borislav Petkov (AMD)</name>
<email>bp@alien8.de</email>
</author>
<published>2024-09-11T03:13:46+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=27abf1da6cade3a221537ef95c7f6c56c8838e37'/>
<id>27abf1da6cade3a221537ef95c7f6c56c8838e37</id>
<content type='text'>
Commit f9af88a3d384c8b55beb5dc5483e5da0135fadbd upstream.

It will be used by other x86 mitigations.

No functional changes.

Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) &lt;bp@alien8.de&gt;
Reviewed-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Commit f9af88a3d384c8b55beb5dc5483e5da0135fadbd upstream.

It will be used by other x86 mitigations.

No functional changes.

Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) &lt;bp@alien8.de&gt;
Reviewed-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>x86/its: Add support for RSB stuffing mitigation</title>
<updated>2025-05-09T20:22:05+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Pawan Gupta</name>
<email>pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com</email>
</author>
<published>2024-12-02T20:07:08+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=facd226f7e0c8ca936ac114aba43cb3e8b94e41e'/>
<id>facd226f7e0c8ca936ac114aba43cb3e8b94e41e</id>
<content type='text'>
When retpoline mitigation is enabled for spectre-v2, enabling
call-depth-tracking and RSB stuffing also mitigates ITS. Add cmdline option
indirect_target_selection=stuff to allow enabling RSB stuffing mitigation.

When retpoline mitigation is not enabled, =stuff option is ignored, and
default mitigation for ITS is deployed.

Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf &lt;jpoimboe@kernel.org&gt;
Reviewed-by: Alexandre Chartre &lt;alexandre.chartre@oracle.com&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
When retpoline mitigation is enabled for spectre-v2, enabling
call-depth-tracking and RSB stuffing also mitigates ITS. Add cmdline option
indirect_target_selection=stuff to allow enabling RSB stuffing mitigation.

When retpoline mitigation is not enabled, =stuff option is ignored, and
default mitigation for ITS is deployed.

Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf &lt;jpoimboe@kernel.org&gt;
Reviewed-by: Alexandre Chartre &lt;alexandre.chartre@oracle.com&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>x86/its: Add "vmexit" option to skip mitigation on some CPUs</title>
<updated>2025-05-09T20:22:05+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Pawan Gupta</name>
<email>pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com</email>
</author>
<published>2024-11-18T17:53:12+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=2665281a07e19550944e8354a2024635a7b2714a'/>
<id>2665281a07e19550944e8354a2024635a7b2714a</id>
<content type='text'>
Ice Lake generation CPUs are not affected by guest/host isolation part of
ITS. If a user is only concerned about KVM guests, they can now choose a
new cmdline option "vmexit" that will not deploy the ITS mitigation when
CPU is not affected by guest/host isolation. This saves the performance
overhead of ITS mitigation on Ice Lake gen CPUs.

When "vmexit" option selected, if the CPU is affected by ITS guest/host
isolation, the default ITS mitigation is deployed.

Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf &lt;jpoimboe@kernel.org&gt;
Reviewed-by: Alexandre Chartre &lt;alexandre.chartre@oracle.com&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Ice Lake generation CPUs are not affected by guest/host isolation part of
ITS. If a user is only concerned about KVM guests, they can now choose a
new cmdline option "vmexit" that will not deploy the ITS mitigation when
CPU is not affected by guest/host isolation. This saves the performance
overhead of ITS mitigation on Ice Lake gen CPUs.

When "vmexit" option selected, if the CPU is affected by ITS guest/host
isolation, the default ITS mitigation is deployed.

Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf &lt;jpoimboe@kernel.org&gt;
Reviewed-by: Alexandre Chartre &lt;alexandre.chartre@oracle.com&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>x86/its: Enable Indirect Target Selection mitigation</title>
<updated>2025-05-09T20:22:05+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Pawan Gupta</name>
<email>pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com</email>
</author>
<published>2024-06-22T03:23:23+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=f4818881c47fd91fcb6d62373c57c7844e3de1c0'/>
<id>f4818881c47fd91fcb6d62373c57c7844e3de1c0</id>
<content type='text'>
Indirect Target Selection (ITS) is a bug in some pre-ADL Intel CPUs with
eIBRS. It affects prediction of indirect branch and RETs in the
lower half of cacheline. Due to ITS such branches may get wrongly predicted
to a target of (direct or indirect) branch that is located in the upper
half of the cacheline.

Scope of impact
===============

Guest/host isolation
--------------------
When eIBRS is used for guest/host isolation, the indirect branches in the
VMM may still be predicted with targets corresponding to branches in the
guest.

Intra-mode
----------
cBPF or other native gadgets can be used for intra-mode training and
disclosure using ITS.

User/kernel isolation
---------------------
When eIBRS is enabled user/kernel isolation is not impacted.

Indirect Branch Prediction Barrier (IBPB)
-----------------------------------------
After an IBPB, indirect branches may be predicted with targets
corresponding to direct branches which were executed prior to IBPB. This is
mitigated by a microcode update.

Add cmdline parameter indirect_target_selection=off|on|force to control the
mitigation to relocate the affected branches to an ITS-safe thunk i.e.
located in the upper half of cacheline. Also add the sysfs reporting.

When retpoline mitigation is deployed, ITS safe-thunks are not needed,
because retpoline sequence is already ITS-safe. Similarly, when call depth
tracking (CDT) mitigation is deployed (retbleed=stuff), ITS safe return
thunk is not used, as CDT prevents RSB-underflow.

To not overcomplicate things, ITS mitigation is not supported with
spectre-v2 lfence;jmp mitigation. Moreover, it is less practical to deploy
lfence;jmp mitigation on ITS affected parts anyways.

Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf &lt;jpoimboe@kernel.org&gt;
Reviewed-by: Alexandre Chartre &lt;alexandre.chartre@oracle.com&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Indirect Target Selection (ITS) is a bug in some pre-ADL Intel CPUs with
eIBRS. It affects prediction of indirect branch and RETs in the
lower half of cacheline. Due to ITS such branches may get wrongly predicted
to a target of (direct or indirect) branch that is located in the upper
half of the cacheline.

Scope of impact
===============

Guest/host isolation
--------------------
When eIBRS is used for guest/host isolation, the indirect branches in the
VMM may still be predicted with targets corresponding to branches in the
guest.

Intra-mode
----------
cBPF or other native gadgets can be used for intra-mode training and
disclosure using ITS.

User/kernel isolation
---------------------
When eIBRS is enabled user/kernel isolation is not impacted.

Indirect Branch Prediction Barrier (IBPB)
-----------------------------------------
After an IBPB, indirect branches may be predicted with targets
corresponding to direct branches which were executed prior to IBPB. This is
mitigated by a microcode update.

Add cmdline parameter indirect_target_selection=off|on|force to control the
mitigation to relocate the affected branches to an ITS-safe thunk i.e.
located in the upper half of cacheline. Also add the sysfs reporting.

When retpoline mitigation is deployed, ITS safe-thunks are not needed,
because retpoline sequence is already ITS-safe. Similarly, when call depth
tracking (CDT) mitigation is deployed (retbleed=stuff), ITS safe return
thunk is not used, as CDT prevents RSB-underflow.

To not overcomplicate things, ITS mitigation is not supported with
spectre-v2 lfence;jmp mitigation. Moreover, it is less practical to deploy
lfence;jmp mitigation on ITS affected parts anyways.

Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf &lt;jpoimboe@kernel.org&gt;
Reviewed-by: Alexandre Chartre &lt;alexandre.chartre@oracle.com&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Documentation: x86/bugs/its: Add ITS documentation</title>
<updated>2025-05-09T20:22:04+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Pawan Gupta</name>
<email>pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com</email>
</author>
<published>2025-04-11T22:36:38+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=1ac116ce6468670eeda39345a5585df308243dca'/>
<id>1ac116ce6468670eeda39345a5585df308243dca</id>
<content type='text'>
Add the admin-guide for Indirect Target Selection (ITS).

Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf &lt;jpoimboe@kernel.org&gt;
Reviewed-by: Alexandre Chartre &lt;alexandre.chartre@oracle.com&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Add the admin-guide for Indirect Target Selection (ITS).

Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta &lt;pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf &lt;jpoimboe@kernel.org&gt;
Reviewed-by: Alexandre Chartre &lt;alexandre.chartre@oracle.com&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>xfs: remove duplicate Zoned Filesystems sections in admin-guide</title>
<updated>2025-04-22T14:05:24+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Hans Holmberg</name>
<email>Hans.Holmberg@wdc.com</email>
</author>
<published>2025-04-22T11:50:07+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=f0447f80aec83f1699d599c94618bb5c323963e6'/>
<id>f0447f80aec83f1699d599c94618bb5c323963e6</id>
<content type='text'>
Remove the duplicated section and while at it, turn spaces into tabs.

Signed-off-by: Hans Holmberg &lt;hans.holmberg@wdc.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig &lt;hch@lst.de&gt;
Reviewed-by: Carlos Maiolino &lt;cmaiolino@redhat.com&gt;
Fixes: c7b67ddc3c99 ("xfs: document zoned rt specifics in admin-guide")
Signed-off-by: Carlos Maiolino &lt;cem@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Remove the duplicated section and while at it, turn spaces into tabs.

Signed-off-by: Hans Holmberg &lt;hans.holmberg@wdc.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig &lt;hch@lst.de&gt;
Reviewed-by: Carlos Maiolino &lt;cmaiolino@redhat.com&gt;
Fixes: c7b67ddc3c99 ("xfs: document zoned rt specifics in admin-guide")
Signed-off-by: Carlos Maiolino &lt;cem@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>xfs: document zoned rt specifics in admin-guide</title>
<updated>2025-04-17T06:16:59+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Hans Holmberg</name>
<email>Hans.Holmberg@wdc.com</email>
</author>
<published>2025-04-09T12:39:56+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=c7b67ddc3c999aa2f8d77be7ef1913298fe78f0e'/>
<id>c7b67ddc3c999aa2f8d77be7ef1913298fe78f0e</id>
<content type='text'>
Document the lifetime, nolifetime and max_open_zones mount options
added for zoned rt file systems.

Also add documentation describing the max_open_zones sysfs attribute
exposed in /sys/fs/xfs/&lt;dev&gt;/zoned/

Fixes: 4e4d52075577 ("xfs: add the zoned space allocator")
Signed-off-by: Hans Holmberg &lt;hans.holmberg@wdc.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig &lt;hch@lst.de&gt;
Reviewed-by: Darrick J. Wong &lt;djwong@kernel.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Carlos Maiolino &lt;cem@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Document the lifetime, nolifetime and max_open_zones mount options
added for zoned rt file systems.

Also add documentation describing the max_open_zones sysfs attribute
exposed in /sys/fs/xfs/&lt;dev&gt;/zoned/

Fixes: 4e4d52075577 ("xfs: add the zoned space allocator")
Signed-off-by: Hans Holmberg &lt;hans.holmberg@wdc.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig &lt;hch@lst.de&gt;
Reviewed-by: Darrick J. Wong &lt;djwong@kernel.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Carlos Maiolino &lt;cem@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>xfs: add tunable threshold parameter for triggering zone GC</title>
<updated>2025-04-14T08:41:33+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Hans Holmberg</name>
<email>Hans.Holmberg@wdc.com</email>
</author>
<published>2025-03-25T09:10:49+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=845abeb1f06a8a44e21314460eeb14cddfca52cc'/>
<id>845abeb1f06a8a44e21314460eeb14cddfca52cc</id>
<content type='text'>
Presently we start garbage collection late - when we start running
out of free zones to backfill max_open_zones. This is a reasonable
default as it minimizes write amplification. The longer we wait,
the more blocks are invalidated and reclaim cost less in terms
of blocks to relocate.

Starting this late however introduces a risk of GC being outcompeted
by user writes. If GC can't keep up, user writes will be forced to
wait for free zones with high tail latencies as a result.

This is not a problem under normal circumstances, but if fragmentation
is bad and user write pressure is high (multiple full-throttle
writers) we will "bottom out" of free zones.

To mitigate this, introduce a zonegc_low_space tunable that lets the
user specify a percentage of how much of the unused space that GC
should keep available for writing. A high value will reclaim more of
the space occupied by unused blocks, creating a larger buffer against
write bursts.

This comes at a cost as write amplification is increased. To
illustrate this using a sample workload, setting zonegc_low_space to
60% avoids high (500ms) max latencies while increasing write
amplification by 15%.

Signed-off-by: Hans Holmberg &lt;hans.holmberg@wdc.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig &lt;hch@lst.de&gt;
Signed-off-by: Carlos Maiolino &lt;cem@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Presently we start garbage collection late - when we start running
out of free zones to backfill max_open_zones. This is a reasonable
default as it minimizes write amplification. The longer we wait,
the more blocks are invalidated and reclaim cost less in terms
of blocks to relocate.

Starting this late however introduces a risk of GC being outcompeted
by user writes. If GC can't keep up, user writes will be forced to
wait for free zones with high tail latencies as a result.

This is not a problem under normal circumstances, but if fragmentation
is bad and user write pressure is high (multiple full-throttle
writers) we will "bottom out" of free zones.

To mitigate this, introduce a zonegc_low_space tunable that lets the
user specify a percentage of how much of the unused space that GC
should keep available for writing. A high value will reclaim more of
the space occupied by unused blocks, creating a larger buffer against
write bursts.

This comes at a cost as write amplification is increased. To
illustrate this using a sample workload, setting zonegc_low_space to
60% avoids high (500ms) max latencies while increasing write
amplification by 15%.

Signed-off-by: Hans Holmberg &lt;hans.holmberg@wdc.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig &lt;hch@lst.de&gt;
Signed-off-by: Carlos Maiolino &lt;cem@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>x86/bugs: Add RSB mitigation document</title>
<updated>2025-04-09T10:42:09+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Josh Poimboeuf</name>
<email>jpoimboe@kernel.org</email>
</author>
<published>2025-04-08T21:47:35+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=83f6665a49c3d44ad0c08f837d352dd290f5d10b'/>
<id>83f6665a49c3d44ad0c08f837d352dd290f5d10b</id>
<content type='text'>
Create a document to summarize hard-earned knowledge about RSB-related
mitigations, with references, and replace the overly verbose yet
incomplete comments with a reference to the document.

Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf &lt;jpoimboe@kernel.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar &lt;mingo@kernel.org&gt;
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/ab73f4659ba697a974759f07befd41ae605e33dd.1744148254.git.jpoimboe@kernel.org
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Create a document to summarize hard-earned knowledge about RSB-related
mitigations, with references, and replace the overly verbose yet
incomplete comments with a reference to the document.

Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf &lt;jpoimboe@kernel.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar &lt;mingo@kernel.org&gt;
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/ab73f4659ba697a974759f07befd41ae605e33dd.1744148254.git.jpoimboe@kernel.org
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
</feed>
