Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2018 12:11:40 -0600 From: Valeri Galtsev <galtsev@kicp.uchicago.edu> To: Aryeh Friedman <aryeh.friedman@gmail.com>, Baho Utot <baho-utot@columbus.rr.com> Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: =?UTF-8?Q?Re:_Meltdown_=e2=80=93_Spectre?= Message-ID: <ecaf7b87-3455-dc63-f67a-dbb1f5eb9354@kicp.uchicago.edu> In-Reply-To: <CAGBxaXm=6NbZ%2Bcz6WGB7YY7NT_%2BxOhdxb17ORTsQs5e7RvqKaQ@mail.gmail.com> References: <f9cc484e-be92-7aff-52fe-38655e85dbaa@columbus.rr.com> <CAH78cDqPnOUGoU=6x-BiugnpjmjYcd=CZS3fSNaX5tq-Uvma7g@mail.gmail.com> <bc9ad15b-a718-b901-76fa-bc43ce0c1f1a@columbus.rr.com> <3AECDC7F-8838-4C09-AC7F-117DFBAA326C@sigsegv.be> <20180108085756.GA3001@c720-r314251> <CAGBxaXnSRwtS=mbdsePyKvyZjTpu1tvo2O61SW60yQfdDJH4gA@mail.gmail.com> <48211515-cc6b-522b-ccd2-4d0c1f6a2072@columbus.rr.com> <CAGBxaXm=6NbZ%2Bcz6WGB7YY7NT_%2BxOhdxb17ORTsQs5e7RvqKaQ@mail.gmail.com>
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On 01/08/18 06:37, Aryeh Friedman wrote: > On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 7:28 AM, Baho Utot <baho-utot@columbus.rr.com> wrote: > >> >> >> On 1/8/2018 4:15 AM, Aryeh Friedman wrote: >> >>> On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 3:57 AM, Matthias Apitz <guru@unixarea.de> wrote: >>> >>> As I side note, and not related to FreeBSD: My Internet server is run by >>>> some webhosting company (www.1blu.de), they use Ubuntu servers and since >>>> yesterday they have shutdown SSH access to the servers argumenting that >>>> they want >>>> protect my (all's) servers against attacks of Meltdown and Spectre. >>>> >>>> Imagine, next time we have to shutdown all IOT gadgets... >>>> >>> >>> >>> Not always possible for things like medical test equipment/devices. For >>> example I maintain a specialized EMR for interacting with Dr. prescribed >>> remote cardiac monitors. Having those off line is not an option since >>> they are used to detect if the patient needs something more serious like a >>> pace maker (also almost always a IoT device these days) surgery. >>> >>> The actual monitoring is done on Windows and was attacked by some >>> ransomeware via a bit coin miner that somehow installed it self. Since >>> all the users claim that they don't read email/upload/download executables >>> or any other of the known attack vectors this leaves something like >>> Meltdown or Spectre. We have also detected issues on the CentOS that has >>> the non-medical corporate site on it. The only machine left on touched >>> on >>> the physical server (running some bare metal virtualization tool) is the >>> FreeBSD machine that runs the actual EMR we wrote. >>> >>> TL;DR -- It seems Linux and Windows already have issues with these holes >>> but I have seen little to no evidence that FreeBSD (when run as a host). >>> In general when ever any virtualization issue (like the bleed through on >>> Qemu last year) comes up FreeBSD is the one OS that seems to be immune >>> (thanks to good design of the OS and bhyve). This is the main reason why >>> I chose FreeBSD over Linux as the reference host for PetiteCloud. >>> >>> >> This is not operating system specific, read the papers on theses two. it >> attacks the cpu, usally through a JIT > > > Please learn a little OS design theory before making insane claims. > Specifically it *ONLY* effects OS's that rely on the specific CPU > architecture (vs. a generic one). Namely if you strictly partition the > page table between userland and kernel space (which xxxBSD has always done > and Linux has not) and don't use any CPU specific instructions to do so > (except for protected vs. unprotected mode in the original 386 design > FreeBSD does not do this while yet again microslut and linux do). > > For more info go read the more technical thread then here in -hackers@ and > -current@. Thanks, Aryeh! Your posts made my day today. Valeri ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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