arm64: Add skeleton to harden the branch predictor against aliasing attacks

Aliasing attacks against CPU branch predictors can allow an attacker to
redirect speculative control flow on some CPUs and potentially divulge
information from one context to another.

This patch adds initial skeleton code behind a new Kconfig option to
enable implementation-specific mitigations against these attacks for
CPUs that are affected.

Co-developed-by: Marc Zyngier <marc.zyngier@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>

1 files changed, 17 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/arch/arm64/Kconfig b/arch/arm64/Kconfig
index cb7a70e686cb..664fadc2aa2e 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/arm64/Kconfig
@@ -874,6 +874,23 @@ config UNMAP_KERNEL_AT_EL0
 
 	  If unsure, say Y.
 
+config HARDEN_BRANCH_PREDICTOR
+	bool "Harden the branch predictor against aliasing attacks" if EXPERT
+	default y
+	help
+	  Speculation attacks against some high-performance processors rely on
+	  being able to manipulate the branch predictor for a victim context by
+	  executing aliasing branches in the attacker context.  Such attacks
+	  can be partially mitigated against by clearing internal branch
+	  predictor state and limiting the prediction logic in some situations.
+
+	  This config option will take CPU-specific actions to harden the
+	  branch predictor against aliasing attacks and may rely on specific
+	  instruction sequences or control bits being set by the system
+	  firmware.
+
+	  If unsure, say Y.
+
 menuconfig ARMV8_DEPRECATED
 	bool "Emulate deprecated/obsolete ARMv8 instructions"
 	depends on COMPAT