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Learn about FineIBT Enhanced, a security hardening technique for protecting Linux kernels against microarchitectural attacks on x86 systems in this 58-minute conference talk. Discover how microarchitectural attacks like Branch History Injection (BHI) can expose kernel data through speculative execution of instructions at mispredicted indirect call targets using attacker-crafted malicious data. Explore the original FineIBT (Fine-grain Control-flow Enforcement with Indirect Branch Tracking) implementation that was first merged in Linux kernel 6.2, which performs type checking at indirect call targets to match function pointer types and provides defense against architectural attacks like Call-Oriented Programming (COP). Understand the limitations of the current FineIBT implementation in addressing microarchitectural attacks and examine the new enhancement that strengthens Linux kernel security by poisoning live register contents when FineIBT checks fail, effectively preventing attackers from passing malicious data to mispredicted call targets. Gain insights into this comprehensive defense mechanism that protects against multiple microarchitectural attacks including BHI, and learn about its integration into Linux kernel 6.15.
