cpu: Re-enable CPU mitigations by default for !X86 architectures

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cpu: Re-enable CPU mitigations by default for !X86 architectures Rename x86's to CPU_MITIGATIONS, define it in generic code, and force it on for all architectures exception x86. A recent commit to turn mitigations off by default if SPECULATION_MITIGATIONS=n kinda sorta missed that "cpu_mitigations" is completely generic, whereas SPECULATION_MITIGATIONS is x86-specific. Rename x86's SPECULATIVE_MITIGATIONS instead of keeping both and have it select CPU_MITIGATIONS, as having two configs for the same thing is unnecessary and confusing. This will also allow x86 to use the knob to manage mitigations that aren't strictly related to speculative execution. Use another Kconfig to communicate to common code that CPU_MITIGATIONS is already defined instead of having x86's menu depend on the common CPU_MITIGATIONS. This allows keeping a single point of contact for all of x86's mitigations, and it's not clear that other architectures *want* to allow disabling mitigations at compile-time.

Source published

20 May 2024 09:47:59 UTC

Source modified

15 Oct 2026 00:42:02 UTC

Observed here

23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC

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