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from the trying-to-tie-up-some-loose-threads dept.
Linux May Gain Protection Against Hyper-Threading Attacks
Oracle security researchers have been working on security feature for Linux kernels that could protect Linux-based systems against attacks that affect Intel's Hyper-Threading (HT) feature. Multiple side-channel threats the feature's vulnerable against, including L1TF/Foreshadow and the MDS attacks, have been revealed over the past few months.
The Oracle developers didn't specify whether or not the recent MDS[*] attacks against Intel's HT would also be mitigated through its Kernel Address Space Isolation (KASI), only that it will protect against L1TF/Foreshadow. Other side-channel attacks seem to be up for debate, as any extra isolation being introduced into the kernel could potentially impact the performance of Linux systems.
[...] They're now looking for suggestions on how to improve the feature before they attempt to merge it into an official release of the Linux kernel.
[*] MDS — Microarchitectural Data Sampling. See the explanation by Intel and an in-depth description and analysis at https://mdsattacks.com/.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday July 17 2019, @06:20AM
Far cheaper (than what you'll likely** pay Oracle for it) solution: use AMD CPUes.
** remember ksplice [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford