Linus Torvalds's recent tweak to Linux's source code improves multithreaded performance by 2.6% while enhancing security against Spectre and Meltdown attacks.
The tweak, labeled x86/uaccess:Avoid barrier_nospec(), modifies the copy_from_user() function to improve efficiency without sacrificing security, exemplifying Torvalds’s focus on performance.
Torvalds achieved this by eliminating the barrier_nospec() API in favor of pointer masking, thereby addressing security risks without significantly impacting performance.
This implementation not only boosts performance but also sidesteps the performance degradation associated with traditional security measures, illustrating a balance between security and efficiency.
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