1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
2
3=====================
4AMD Memory Encryption
5=====================
6
7Secure Memory Encryption (SME) and Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) are
8features found on AMD processors.
9
10SME provides the ability to mark individual pages of memory as encrypted using
11the standard x86 page tables.  A page that is marked encrypted will be
12automatically decrypted when read from DRAM and encrypted when written to
13DRAM.  SME can therefore be used to protect the contents of DRAM from physical
14attacks on the system.
15
16SEV enables running encrypted virtual machines (VMs) in which the code and data
17of the guest VM are secured so that a decrypted version is available only
18within the VM itself. SEV guest VMs have the concept of private and shared
19memory. Private memory is encrypted with the guest-specific key, while shared
20memory may be encrypted with hypervisor key. When SME is enabled, the hypervisor
21key is the same key which is used in SME.
22
23A page is encrypted when a page table entry has the encryption bit set (see
24below on how to determine its position).  The encryption bit can also be
25specified in the cr3 register, allowing the PGD table to be encrypted. Each
26successive level of page tables can also be encrypted by setting the encryption
27bit in the page table entry that points to the next table. This allows the full
28page table hierarchy to be encrypted. Note, this means that just because the
29encryption bit is set in cr3, doesn't imply the full hierarchy is encrypted.
30Each page table entry in the hierarchy needs to have the encryption bit set to
31achieve that. So, theoretically, you could have the encryption bit set in cr3
32so that the PGD is encrypted, but not set the encryption bit in the PGD entry
33for a PUD which results in the PUD pointed to by that entry to not be
34encrypted.
35
36When SEV is enabled, instruction pages and guest page tables are always treated
37as private. All the DMA operations inside the guest must be performed on shared
38memory. Since the memory encryption bit is controlled by the guest OS when it
39is operating in 64-bit or 32-bit PAE mode, in all other modes the SEV hardware
40forces the memory encryption bit to 1.
41
42Support for SME and SEV can be determined through the CPUID instruction. The
43CPUID function 0x8000001f reports information related to SME::
44
45	0x8000001f[eax]:
46		Bit[0] indicates support for SME
47		Bit[1] indicates support for SEV
48	0x8000001f[ebx]:
49		Bits[5:0]  pagetable bit number used to activate memory
50			   encryption
51		Bits[11:6] reduction in physical address space, in bits, when
52			   memory encryption is enabled (this only affects
53			   system physical addresses, not guest physical
54			   addresses)
55
56If support for SME is present, MSR 0xc00100010 (MSR_AMD64_SYSCFG) can be used to
57determine if SME is enabled and/or to enable memory encryption::
58
59	0xc0010010:
60		Bit[23]   0 = memory encryption features are disabled
61			  1 = memory encryption features are enabled
62
63If SEV is supported, MSR 0xc0010131 (MSR_AMD64_SEV) can be used to determine if
64SEV is active::
65
66	0xc0010131:
67		Bit[0]	  0 = memory encryption is not active
68			  1 = memory encryption is active
69
70Linux relies on BIOS to set this bit if BIOS has determined that the reduction
71in the physical address space as a result of enabling memory encryption (see
72CPUID information above) will not conflict with the address space resource
73requirements for the system.  If this bit is not set upon Linux startup then
74Linux itself will not set it and memory encryption will not be possible.
75
76The state of SME in the Linux kernel can be documented as follows:
77
78	- Supported:
79	  The CPU supports SME (determined through CPUID instruction).
80
81	- Enabled:
82	  Supported and bit 23 of MSR_AMD64_SYSCFG is set.
83
84	- Active:
85	  Supported, Enabled and the Linux kernel is actively applying
86	  the encryption bit to page table entries (the SME mask in the
87	  kernel is non-zero).
88
89SME can also be enabled and activated in the BIOS. If SME is enabled and
90activated in the BIOS, then all memory accesses will be encrypted and it will
91not be necessary to activate the Linux memory encryption support.  If the BIOS
92merely enables SME (sets bit 23 of the MSR_AMD64_SYSCFG), then Linux can activate
93memory encryption by default (CONFIG_AMD_MEM_ENCRYPT_ACTIVE_BY_DEFAULT=y) or
94by supplying mem_encrypt=on on the kernel command line.  However, if BIOS does
95not enable SME, then Linux will not be able to activate memory encryption, even
96if configured to do so by default or the mem_encrypt=on command line parameter
97is specified.
98