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- .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
- =====================
- AMD Memory Encryption
- =====================
- Secure Memory Encryption (SME) and Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) are
- features found on AMD processors.
- SME provides the ability to mark individual pages of memory as encrypted using
- the standard x86 page tables. A page that is marked encrypted will be
- automatically decrypted when read from DRAM and encrypted when written to
- DRAM. SME can therefore be used to protect the contents of DRAM from physical
- attacks on the system.
- SEV enables running encrypted virtual machines (VMs) in which the code and data
- of the guest VM are secured so that a decrypted version is available only
- within the VM itself. SEV guest VMs have the concept of private and shared
- memory. Private memory is encrypted with the guest-specific key, while shared
- memory may be encrypted with hypervisor key. When SME is enabled, the hypervisor
- key is the same key which is used in SME.
- A page is encrypted when a page table entry has the encryption bit set (see
- below on how to determine its position). The encryption bit can also be
- specified in the cr3 register, allowing the PGD table to be encrypted. Each
- successive level of page tables can also be encrypted by setting the encryption
- bit in the page table entry that points to the next table. This allows the full
- page table hierarchy to be encrypted. Note, this means that just because the
- encryption bit is set in cr3, doesn't imply the full hierarchy is encrypted.
- Each page table entry in the hierarchy needs to have the encryption bit set to
- achieve that. So, theoretically, you could have the encryption bit set in cr3
- so that the PGD is encrypted, but not set the encryption bit in the PGD entry
- for a PUD which results in the PUD pointed to by that entry to not be
- encrypted.
- When SEV is enabled, instruction pages and guest page tables are always treated
- as private. All the DMA operations inside the guest must be performed on shared
- memory. Since the memory encryption bit is controlled by the guest OS when it
- is operating in 64-bit or 32-bit PAE mode, in all other modes the SEV hardware
- forces the memory encryption bit to 1.
- Support for SME and SEV can be determined through the CPUID instruction. The
- CPUID function 0x8000001f reports information related to SME::
- 0x8000001f[eax]:
- Bit[0] indicates support for SME
- Bit[1] indicates support for SEV
- 0x8000001f[ebx]:
- Bits[5:0] pagetable bit number used to activate memory
- encryption
- Bits[11:6] reduction in physical address space, in bits, when
- memory encryption is enabled (this only affects
- system physical addresses, not guest physical
- addresses)
- If support for SME is present, MSR 0xc00100010 (MSR_K8_SYSCFG) can be used to
- determine if SME is enabled and/or to enable memory encryption::
- 0xc0010010:
- Bit[23] 0 = memory encryption features are disabled
- 1 = memory encryption features are enabled
- If SEV is supported, MSR 0xc0010131 (MSR_AMD64_SEV) can be used to determine if
- SEV is active::
- 0xc0010131:
- Bit[0] 0 = memory encryption is not active
- 1 = memory encryption is active
- Linux relies on BIOS to set this bit if BIOS has determined that the reduction
- in the physical address space as a result of enabling memory encryption (see
- CPUID information above) will not conflict with the address space resource
- requirements for the system. If this bit is not set upon Linux startup then
- Linux itself will not set it and memory encryption will not be possible.
- The state of SME in the Linux kernel can be documented as follows:
- - Supported:
- The CPU supports SME (determined through CPUID instruction).
- - Enabled:
- Supported and bit 23 of MSR_K8_SYSCFG is set.
- - Active:
- Supported, Enabled and the Linux kernel is actively applying
- the encryption bit to page table entries (the SME mask in the
- kernel is non-zero).
- SME can also be enabled and activated in the BIOS. If SME is enabled and
- activated in the BIOS, then all memory accesses will be encrypted and it will
- not be necessary to activate the Linux memory encryption support. If the BIOS
- merely enables SME (sets bit 23 of the MSR_K8_SYSCFG), then Linux can activate
- memory encryption by default (CONFIG_AMD_MEM_ENCRYPT_ACTIVE_BY_DEFAULT=y) or
- by supplying mem_encrypt=on on the kernel command line. However, if BIOS does
- not enable SME, then Linux will not be able to activate memory encryption, even
- if configured to do so by default or the mem_encrypt=on command line parameter
- is specified.
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