An information leakage flaw is found in the way Linux kernel saves and restores Floating Point Unit(FPU) state during task switch. There are two ways, one is to save & restore FPU state during task context switch. And second is to defer FPU state save & restore until an FP instruction is invoked by the current task. First is called as "Eager FPU Restore" and second is known as "Lazy FPU Restore" scheme. Linux kernel which follows the "Lazy FPU Restore" scheme is vulnerable to the FPU state information leakage issue. An unprivileged local attacker could use this flaw to read FPU state bits by conducting targeted cache side-channel attacks, similar to Meltdown attack disclosed earlier this year. Upstream fix: ------------- -> https://git.kernel.org/linus//58122bf1d856a4ea9581d62a07c557d997d46a19 References: ----------- -> http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2018/06/13/7
Mitigation: RHEL-7 will automatically default to (safe) “eager” floating point register restore on Sandy Bridge and newer Intel processors. AMD processors are not affected. You can mitigate this issue on older processors by booting the kernel with the 'eagerfpu=on' parameter to enable eager FPU restore mode. In this mode FPU state is saved and restored for every task/context switch regardless of whether the current process invokes FPU instructions or not. The parameter does not affect performance negatively, and can be applied with no adverse effects to processors that are not affected.
External References: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/3485131 http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2018/06/15/5 https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-00145.html
Statement: This issue affects the versions of the Linux kernel as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, 7, and Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2. Future kernel updates for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7, and Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 may address this issue. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is now in Production 3 Phase of the support and maintenance life cycle. This has been rated as having Moderate security impact and is not currently planned to be addressed in future updates. For additional information, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle: https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/.
Acknowledgments: Name: Julian Stecklina (Amazon.de), Thomas Prescher (cyberus-technology.de), Zdenek Sojka (sysgo.com)
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Via RHSA-2018:1852 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:1852
Is there a reason for eager only being default on Sandy Bridge and newer?
(In reply to Klaas Demter from comment #11) > Is there a reason for eager only being default on Sandy Bridge and newer? On Sandy Bridge and newer CPUs RHEL-7 already defaults to 'eagerfpu' mode. Latest kernel update makes 'eagerfpu' as default on earlier Intel CPUs. Please use appropriate support channel for future questions: -> https://access.redhat.com/ Thank you.
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Via RHSA-2018:1944 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:1944
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 Via RHSA-2018:2165 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2165
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Via RHSA-2018:2164 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2164
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 Extended Update Support Via RHSA-2019:1170 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:1170
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 Via RHSA-2019:1190 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:1190