Google Engineers Propose Adding Linux Kernel Option For ARM SLS Mitigation

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Google Engineers Propose Adding Linux Kernel Option For ARM SLS Mitigation

Made public last year was the Arm Straight Light Speculation (SLS) vulnerability. SLS with ARM hardware can result in speculative executing instructions following an unconditional change in control flow. The Linux kernel may soon have an option for enabling the mitigation of the Arm SLS vulnerability...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Kernel-ARM-SLS-Option

[hotaru]

once this patch is mainlined we'll be sure to check for its performance impact

according to the whitepaper, there should be very little (if any) impact on performance:

While a DSB+ISB sequence is expected to have a significantly greater impact on performance than an SB if architecturally executed, in many of the cases outlined in this document the DSB+ISB sequence is not architecturally executed and should have no direct impact on performance save for a reduction in code density.