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    Turn on MDS Mitigation

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • markdudovM
      markdudov
      last edited by markdudov

      Hello guys,

      After I turned on MDS mitigation

      71770ef5-db57-4941-b9ee-9cd37acce595-image.png

      2ccf9727-1499-448b-abf4-0c9e5ac5232c-image.png

      5b9f82fc-3bb9-45bd-b62f-5bfaff5edcec-image.png

      As can be seen here it is already in use

      052c41aa-0219-4d62-8326-fa3dcaca4d20-image.png

      But for some reason after restarting the pfSense, the function MDS mitigation stopped working.
      Does anyone know what could be the cause and how it can be resolved

      Thanks in advance for your time!

      johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @markdudov
        last edited by johnpoz

        @markdudov how exactly did you set it - by manual edit the tuneables?

        You should just set it here. Advanced / Misc

        sethere.jpg

        I personally see no point to having it enabled on a firewall - but there is where you should set to what you want.

        https://forum.netgate.com/post/845431

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

        markdudovM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
        • markdudovM
          markdudov @johnpoz
          last edited by

          @johnpoz I haven't even noticed that it can be turned on from the Misc menu.

          Ah, do you know where Kernel PTI can also be included?

          johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @markdudov
            last edited by

            @markdudov yeah again you can enable right there just above the mds if you want, again I see no point to turning these mitigations on a firewall appliance. But hey you do you..

            Its like being worried about someone hitting your hand with a hammer so you wear protective gloves all the time.. But you don't even own a hammer, you never hold nails for other people to use their hammers to drive in nails.

            So why should go about wearing hammer hit protection gloves?

            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

            markdudovM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • markdudovM
              markdudov @johnpoz
              last edited by

              @johnpoz As far as I can see in the Misc menu there is an option to disable KPTI

              d392bef9-2235-4075-bda5-3695683b358f-image.png

              by default it should be on, but it is disabled for me

              d93df319-89dc-4dff-9af3-4643ea5345a5-image.png

              How can I activate it

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                It's only active on affected CPUs. Like it says there.

                markdudovM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • markdudovM
                  markdudov @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10 Sure. And can you tell me the difference between MDs Mitigation and Kernel PTI? And whether they work together or are separate functions?

                  johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • johnpozJ
                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @markdudov
                    last edited by

                    @markdudov are you doing a lot of hammering? These protection gloves are not needed where there is no hammer to hit your hand with..

                    Do you allow people to just run arbitrary code on your firewall? This is issues are related to shared hardware where users are running code directly on the hardware or something like a VM host where users can run there own vms..

                    These sorts of scenarios should really never be an issue on a firewall appliance.

                    An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                    If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                    Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                    SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Yes, they are really only of much value in a shared environment like if you are running as a VM or hosting VM in pfSense (don't do that!).

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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