[Xen-devel] [PATCH 1/4] xen/arm: Park CPUs with a MIDR different from the boot CPU.

[Stefano Stabellini <sstabellini@xxxxxxxxxx>]

From: Julien Grall <julien.grall@xxxxxxx>

From: Julien Grall <julien.grall@xxxxxxx>

Xen does not properly support big.LITTLE platform. All vCPUs of a guest
will always have the MIDR of the boot CPU (see arch_domain_create).
At best the guest may see unreliable performance (vCPU switching between
big and LITTLE), at worst the guest will become unreliable or insecure.

This is becoming more apparent with branch predictor hardening in Linux
because they target a specific kind of CPUs and may not work on other
CPUs.

For the time being, park any CPUs with a MDIR different from the boot
CPU. This will be revisited in the future once Xen gains understanding
of big.LITTLE.

[1] https://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2016-12/msg00826.html

Signed-off-by: Julien Grall <julien.grall@xxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Oleksandr Tyshchenkko <oleksandr_tyshchenko@xxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Stefano Stabellini <sstabellini@xxxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: Jan Beulich <jbeulich@xxxxxxxx>
---
 docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown | 10 ++++++++++
 xen/arch/arm/smpboot.c              | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 36 insertions(+)

diff --git a/docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown 
b/docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown
index 8317639..2184cb9 100644
--- a/docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown
+++ b/docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown
@@ -1000,6 +1000,16 @@ supported only when compiled with XSM on x86.
 
 Control Xens use of the APEI Hardware Error Source Table, should one be found.
 
+### hmp-unsafe (arm)
+> `= <boolean>`
+
+> Default : `false`
+
+Say yes at your own risk if you want to enable heterogenous computing
+(such as big.LITTLE). This may result to an unstable and insecure
+platform. When the option is disabled (default), CPUs that are not
+identical to the boot CPU will be parked and not used by Xen.
+
 ### hpetbroadcast
 > `= <boolean>`
 
diff --git a/xen/arch/arm/smpboot.c b/xen/arch/arm/smpboot.c
index 1255185..7ea4e41 100644
--- a/xen/arch/arm/smpboot.c
+++ b/xen/arch/arm/smpboot.c
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 #include <xen/smp.h>
 #include <xen/softirq.h>
 #include <xen/timer.h>
+#include <xen/warning.h>
 #include <xen/irq.h>
 #include <xen/console.h>
 #include <asm/cpuerrata.h>
@@ -69,6 +70,13 @@ DEFINE_PER_CPU_READ_MOSTLY(cpumask_var_t, cpu_sibling_mask);
 /* representing HT and core siblings of each logical CPU */
 DEFINE_PER_CPU_READ_MOSTLY(cpumask_var_t, cpu_core_mask);
 
+/*
+ * By default non-boot CPUs not identical to the boot CPU will be
+ * parked.
+ */
+static bool __read_mostly opt_hmp_unsafe = false;
+boolean_param("hmp-unsafe", opt_hmp_unsafe);
+
 static void setup_cpu_sibling_map(int cpu)
 {
     if ( !zalloc_cpumask_var(&per_cpu(cpu_sibling_mask, cpu)) ||
@@ -255,6 +263,9 @@ void __init smp_init_cpus(void)
     else
         acpi_smp_init_cpus();
 
+    if ( opt_hmp_unsafe )
+        warning_add("WARNING: HMP COMPUTING HAS BEEN ENABLED.\n"
+                    "It has implications on the security and stability of the 
system.\n");
 }
 
 int __init
@@ -292,6 +303,21 @@ void start_secondary(unsigned long boot_phys_offset,
 
     init_traps();
 
+    /*
+     * Currently Xen assumes the platform has only one kind of CPUs.
+     * This assumption does not hold on big.LITTLE platform and may
+     * result to instability and insecure platform. Better to park them
+     * for now.
+     */
+    if ( !opt_hmp_unsafe &&
+         current_cpu_data.midr.bits != boot_cpu_data.midr.bits )
+    {
+        printk(XENLOG_ERR "CPU%u MIDR (0x%x) does not match boot CPU MIDR 
(0x%x).\n",
+               smp_processor_id(), current_cpu_data.midr.bits,
+               boot_cpu_data.midr.bits);
+        stop_cpu();
+    }
+
     mmu_init_secondary_cpu();
 
     gic_init_secondary_cpu();
-- 
1.9.1


_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.xenproject.org/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel