diff --git a/src/runtime-rs/crates/shim/src/core_sched.rs b/src/runtime-rs/crates/shim/src/core_sched.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1464b86b39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/runtime-rs/crates/shim/src/core_sched.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2019-2022 Alibaba Cloud
+// Copyright (c) 2019-2022 Ant Group
+//
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+//
+
+//
+// Core Scheduling landed in linux 5.14, this enables that -
+// ONLY the processes have the same cookie value can share an SMT core for security
+// reasons, since SMT siblings share their cpu caches and many other things. This can
+// prevent some malicious processes steal others' private information.
+//
+// This is enabled by containerd, see https://github.com/containerd/containerd/blob/main/docs/man/containerd-config.toml.5.md#format
+//
+// This is done by using system call prctl(), for core scheduling purpose, it is defined as
+// int prctl(PR_SCHED_CORE, int cs_command, pid_t pid, enum pid_type type,
+//           unsigned long *cookie);
+//
+// You may go to https://lwn.net/Articles/861251/, https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20210422123309.039845339@infradead.org/
+// and kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/hw-vuln/core-scheduling.html for more info.
+//
+
+use anyhow::Result;
+use nix::{self, errno::Errno};
+
+#[allow(dead_code)]
+pub const PID_GROUP: usize = 0;
+#[allow(dead_code)]
+pub const THREAD_GROUP: usize = 1;
+pub const PROCESS_GROUP: usize = 2;
+
+#[allow(dead_code)]
+pub const PR_SCHED_CORE: i32 = 62;
+pub const PR_SCHED_CORE_CREATE: usize = 1;
+pub const PR_SCHED_CORE_SHARE_FROM: usize = 3;
+
+// create a new core sched domain, this will NOT succeed if kernel version < 5.14
+pub fn core_sched_create(pidtype: usize) -> Result<(), Errno> {
+    let errno = unsafe { nix::libc::prctl(PR_SCHED_CORE, PR_SCHED_CORE_CREATE, 0, pidtype, 0) };
+    if errno != 0 {
+        Err(nix::errno::Errno::from_i32(errno))
+    } else {
+        Ok(())
+    }
+}
+
+// shares the domain with *pid*
+#[allow(dead_code)]
+pub fn core_sched_share_from(pid: usize, pidtype: usize) -> Result<(), Errno> {
+    let errno =
+        unsafe { nix::libc::prctl(PR_SCHED_CORE, PR_SCHED_CORE_SHARE_FROM, pid, pidtype, 0) };
+    if errno != 0 {
+        Err(nix::errno::Errno::from_i32(errno))
+    } else {
+        Ok(())
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+    use nix::errno::Errno::{EINVAL, ENODEV, ENOMEM, EPERM, ESRCH};
+
+    const RELEASE_MAJOR_VERSION: u8 = 5;
+    const RELEASE_MINOR_VERSION: u8 = 14;
+
+    // since this feature only lands in linux 5.14, we run the test when version is higher
+    fn core_sched_landed() -> bool {
+        let vinfo = std::fs::read_to_string("/proc/sys/kernel/osrelease");
+        if let Ok(info) = vinfo {
+            let vnum: Vec<&str> = info.as_str().split('.').collect();
+            if vnum.len() >= 2 {
+                let major: u8 = vnum[0].parse().unwrap();
+                let minor: u8 = vnum[1].parse().unwrap();
+                return major >= RELEASE_MAJOR_VERSION && minor >= RELEASE_MINOR_VERSION;
+            }
+        }
+        false
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_core_sched() {
+        std::env::set_var("SCHED_CORE", "1");
+        assert_eq!(std::env::var("SCHED_CORE").unwrap(), "1");
+        if core_sched_landed() {
+            // it is possible that the machine running this test does not support SMT,
+            // therefore it does not make sense to assert a successful prctl call
+            // but we can still make sure that the return value is a possible value
+            let e = core_sched_create(PROCESS_GROUP);
+            match e {
+                Err(errno) => {
+                    if errno != EINVAL
+                        && errno != ENODEV
+                        && errno != ENOMEM
+                        && errno != EPERM
+                        && errno != ESRCH
+                    {
+                        panic!("impossible return value {:?}", errno);
+                    }
+                }
+                Ok(()) => {}
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/runtime-rs/crates/shim/src/lib.rs b/src/runtime-rs/crates/shim/src/lib.rs
index 000c5620a2..2b419061c8 100644
--- a/src/runtime-rs/crates/shim/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/runtime-rs/crates/shim/src/lib.rs
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ mod logger;
 mod panic_hook;
 mod shim;
 pub use shim::ShimExecutor;
+mod core_sched;
 #[rustfmt::skip]
 pub mod config;
 mod shim_delete;
diff --git a/src/runtime-rs/crates/shim/src/shim_run.rs b/src/runtime-rs/crates/shim/src/shim_run.rs
index cde365780e..553b90a2c5 100644
--- a/src/runtime-rs/crates/shim/src/shim_run.rs
+++ b/src/runtime-rs/crates/shim/src/shim_run.rs
@@ -8,9 +8,10 @@ use std::os::unix::io::RawFd;
 
 use anyhow::{Context, Result};
 use kata_sys_util::spec::get_bundle_path;
+use nix::errno::Errno;
 
 use crate::{
-    logger,
+    core_sched, logger,
     shim::{ShimExecutor, ENV_KATA_RUNTIME_BIND_FD},
     Error,
 };
@@ -23,6 +24,12 @@ impl ShimExecutor {
         let path = bundle_path.join("log");
         let _logger_guard =
             logger::set_logger(path.to_str().unwrap(), &sid, self.args.debug).context("set logger");
+        if try_core_sched().is_err() {
+            warn!(
+                sl!(),
+                "Failed to enable core sched since prctl() returns non-zero value."
+            );
+        }
 
         self.do_run()
             .await
@@ -62,3 +69,17 @@ fn get_server_fd() -> Result<RawFd> {
         .map_err(|_| Error::ServerFd(env_fd))?;
     Ok(fd)
 }
+
+// TODO: currently we log a warning on fail (i.e. kernel version < 5.14), maybe just exit
+fn try_core_sched() -> Result<(), Errno> {
+    if let Ok(v) = std::env::var("SCHED_CORE") {
+        info!(
+            sl!(),
+            "containerd wants to enable core scheduling, SCHED_CORE={}(expected 1)", v
+        );
+        if !v.is_empty() {
+            return core_sched::core_sched_create(core_sched::PROCESS_GROUP);
+        }
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}