Taint protection during speculative execution
US10956157B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 5, 2019 |
| Grant date | Mar 23, 2021 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 20, 2039 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/3861
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A subset of a set of architectural registers in a processing system is marked (or “tainted”) to indicate that speculative use of data in the subset of the architectural registers is constrained based on a taint handling policy. One or more speculation features supported by the processing system are disabled for the instruction so that the one or more speculation features cannot be used on data in the subset. In some cases, values of bits associated with the subset of architectural registers are modified to indicate that the subset is tainted. The taint handling policy can be indicated by values stored in a policy register. Taint markings are tracked in response to values stored in the tainted architectural registers being written to a memory or read from the memory.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.