[Qemu-devel] [qemu-web PATCH] add a blog post about "Spectre"

[Paolo Bonzini]

---
 _posts/2018-01-04-spectre.md | 60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 60 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 _posts/2018-01-04-spectre.md

diff --git a/_posts/2018-01-04-spectre.md b/_posts/2018-01-04-spectre.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1be86d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_posts/2018-01-04-spectre.md
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title:  "QEMU and the Spectre and Meltdown attacks"
+date:   2018-01-04 18:00:00 +0000
+author: Paolo Bonzini and Eduardo Habkost
+categories: [meltdown, spectre, security, x86]
+---
+As you probably know by now, three critical architectural flaws in CPUs have
+been recently disclosed that allow user processes to read kernel or hypervisor
+memory through cache side-channel attacks.  These flaws, collectively
+named _Meltdown_ and _Spectre_, affect in one way or another almost
+all processors that perform out-of-order execution, including x86 (from
+Intel and AMD), POWER, s390 and ARM processors.
+
+No microcode updates are required to block the _Meltdown_ attack; it is
+enough to update the guest operating system to a version that separates
+the user and kernel address spaces (known as _page table isolation_ for
+the Linux kernel).  Therefore, this post will focus on _Spectre_, and
+especially on 
[CVE-2017-5715](https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2017-5715).
+
+Fixing or mitigating _Spectre_ in general, and CVE-2017-5715 in particular,
+requires cooperation between the processor and the operating system kernel or
+hypervisor; the processor can be updated through microcode or millicode
+patches to provide the required functionality.  CVE-2017-5715 allows guests
+to read potentially sensitive data from hypervisor memory; however, __patching
+the host kernel is sufficient to block this attack__.
+
+On the other hand, in order to protect the guest kernel from a malicious
+userspace, updates are also needed to the guest kernel and, depending on
+the processor architecture, to QEMU.  Just like on bare-metal, the guest
+kernel will use the new functionality provided by the microcode or millicode
+updates.  When running under a hypervisor, processor emulation is mostly out of
+QEMU's scope, so QEMU's role in the fix is small, but nevertheless important.
+In the case of KVM:
+
+* QEMU configures the hypervisor to emulate a specific processor model.
+For x86, QEMU has to be aware of new CPUID bits introduced by the microcode
+update, and it must provide them to guests depending on how the guest is
+configured.
+
+* upon virtual machine migration, QEMU reads the CPU state on the source
+and transmits it to the destination.  For x86, QEMU has to be aware of new
+model specific registers (MSRs).
+
+Right now, there are no public patches to KVM that expose the new CPUID bits
+and MSRs to the virtual machines, therefore there is no urgent need to update
+QEMU; remember that __updating the host kernel is enough to protect the
+host from malicious guests__.  Nevertheless, updates will be posted to the
+qemu-devel mailing list in the next few days, and a 2.11.1 patch release
+will be released with the fix.
+
+As of today, the QEMU project is not aware of whether similar changes will
+be required for non-x86 processors.  If so, they will also posted to the
+mailing list and backported to recent stable releases.
+
+For more information on the vulnerabilities, please refer to the [Google 
Security
+Blog](https://security.googleblog.com/2018/01/todays-cpu-vulnerability-what-you-need.html)
+and [Google Project
+Zero](https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.it/2018/01/reading-privileged-memory-with-side.html)
+posts on the topic, as well as the [Spectre and Meltdown 
FAQ](https://meltdownattack.com/#faq).
-- 
2.14.3