On Debian 13 (or any Linux system), you can check if your CPU supports Pointer Authentication (pauth) by examining the CPU features exposed in the /proc/cpuinfo file. Pointer Authentication is part of the ARMv8.3-A architecture and is often referred to as pauth or APoA (Address Authentication) and APIA (Instruction Authentication).

Steps to Check for pauth Support:

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1. Check /proc/cpuinfo

Run the following command to check if pauth is listed in the CPU features:

bash
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grep -i pauth /proc/cpuinfo

• If the CPU supports Pointer Authentication, you will see output like:

  text
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  Features: ... pauth ...

• If there is no output, your CPU does not support pauth.

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2. Use lscpu

Alternatively, you can use the lscpu command to list CPU features:

bash
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lscpu | grep -i pauth

• If pauth is supported, it will appear in the output.

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3. Check ARMv8.3-A Support

Since pauth is part of the ARMv8.3-A extension, you can also check if your CPU supports ARMv8.3-A:

bash
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grep -i "CPU part" /proc/cpuinfo

• Look up the CPU part number in the ARM documentation to confirm if it supports ARMv8.3-A.

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4. Use cat /proc/cpuinfo

For a detailed view, you can dump the entire /proc/cpuinfo and manually look for pauth:

bash
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cat /proc/cpuinfo

• Search for the Features line in the output.

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Notes:

• ARM Only: Pointer Authentication (pauth) is an ARM-specific feature. If you are using an x86 or x86_64 CPU, this feature will not be available.
• Kernel Support: Even if your CPU supports pauth, ensure your kernel is compiled with support for it. You can check this by running:

  bash
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  zgrep PAUTH /proc/config.gz

  • If the output includes CONFIG_ARM64_POINTER_AUTH=y, your kernel supports pauth.

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