Abstract: An apparatus and method are described for generating performance metrics of a processor. For example, one embodiment of a processor comprises: one or more simultaneous multithreading cores to simultaneously execute multiple instruction threads; a plurality of performance monitor counters, each to maintain a count of events occurring as a result of the execution of the multiple instruction threads; and a performance monitor unit to generate a plurality of performance metric values using the event counts stored in the performance monitor counters and in response to receipt of a request from software for the performance metric values.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are described for generating performance metrics of a processor. For example, one embodiment of a processor comprises: one or more simultaneous multithreading cores to simultaneously execute multiple instruction threads; a plurality of performance monitor counters, each to maintain a count of events occurring as a result of the execution of the multiple instruction threads; and a performance monitor unit to generate a plurality of performance metric values using the event counts stored in the performance monitor counters and in response to receipt of a request from software for the performance metric values.

Abstract: Various systems and methods for detecting and preventing side-channel attacks, including attacks aimed at discovering the location of KASLR-randomized privileged code sections in virtual memory address space, are described. In an example, a computing system includes electronic operations for detecting unauthorized attempts to access kernel virtual memory pages via trap entry detection, with operations including: generating a trap page with a physical memory address; assigning a phantom page at an open location in the privileged portion of the virtual memory address space; generating a plurality of phantom page table entries corresponding to an otherwise-unmapped privileged virtual memory region; placing the trap page in physical memory and placing the phantom page table entry in a page table map; and detecting an access to the trap page via the phantom page table entry, to trigger a response to a potential attack.

Abstract: Various systems and methods for detecting and preventing side-channel attacks, including attacks aimed at discovering the location of KASLR-randomized privileged code sections in virtual memory address space, are described. In an example, a computing system includes electronic operations for detecting unauthorized attempts to access kernel virtual memory pages via trap entry detection, with operations including: generating a trap page with a physical memory address; assigning a phantom page at an open location in the privileged portion of the virtual memory address space; generating a plurality of phantom page table entries corresponding to an otherwise-unmapped privileged virtual memory region; placing the trap page in physical memory and placing the phantom page table entry in a page table map; and detecting an access to the trap page via the phantom page table entry, to trigger a response to a potential attack.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are described for generating performance metrics of a processor. For example, one embodiment of a processor comprises: one or more simultaneous multithreading cores to simultaneously execute multiple instruction threads; a plurality of performance monitor counters, each to maintain a count of events occurring as a result of the execution of the multiple instruction threads; and a performance monitor unit to generate a plurality of performance metric values using the event counts stored in the performance monitor counters and in response to receipt of a request from software for the performance metric values.