Re: [PATCH 2/2] KVM: x86/mmu: Exclude the MMU_PRESENT bit from MMIO SPTE's generation

[Maxim Levitsky]

On Mon, 2021-03-08 at 18:19 -0800, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> Drop bit 11, used for the MMU_PRESENT flag, from the set of bits used to
> store the generation number in MMIO SPTEs.  MMIO SPTEs with bit 11 set,
> which occurs when userspace creates 128+ memslots in an address space,
> get false positives for is_shadow_present_spte(), which lead to a variety
> of fireworks, crashes KVM, and likely hangs the host kernel.
> 
> Fixes: b14e28f37e9b ("KVM: x86/mmu: Use a dedicated bit to track shadow/MMU-present SPTEs")
> Reported-by: Tom Lendacky <thomas.lendacky@xxxxxxx>
> Reported-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  arch/x86/kvm/mmu/spte.h | 12 +++++++-----
>  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/spte.h b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/spte.h
> index b53036d9ddf3..bca0ba11cccf 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/spte.h
> +++ b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/spte.h
> @@ -101,11 +101,11 @@ static_assert(!(EPT_SPTE_MMU_WRITABLE & SHADOW_ACC_TRACK_SAVED_MASK));
>  #undef SHADOW_ACC_TRACK_SAVED_MASK
>  
>  /*
> - * Due to limited space in PTEs, the MMIO generation is a 20 bit subset of
> + * Due to limited space in PTEs, the MMIO generation is a 19 bit subset of
>   * the memslots generation and is derived as follows:
>   *
> - * Bits 0-8 of the MMIO generation are propagated to spte bits 3-11
> - * Bits 9-19 of the MMIO generation are propagated to spte bits 52-62
> + * Bits 0-7 of the MMIO generation are propagated to spte bits 3-10
> + * Bits 8-18 of the MMIO generation are propagated to spte bits 52-62
>   *
>   * The KVM_MEMSLOT_GEN_UPDATE_IN_PROGRESS flag is intentionally not included in
>   * the MMIO generation number, as doing so would require stealing a bit from
> @@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ static_assert(!(EPT_SPTE_MMU_WRITABLE & SHADOW_ACC_TRACK_SAVED_MASK));
>   */
>  
>  #define MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_START		3
> -#define MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_END		11
> +#define MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_END		10
>  
>  #define MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_START	52
>  #define MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_END		62
> @@ -125,12 +125,14 @@ static_assert(!(EPT_SPTE_MMU_WRITABLE & SHADOW_ACC_TRACK_SAVED_MASK));
>  						    MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_START)
>  #define MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_MASK		GENMASK_ULL(MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_END, \
>  						    MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_START)
> +static_assert(!(SPTE_MMU_PRESENT_MASK &
> +		(MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_MASK | MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_MASK)));
>  
>  #define MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_BITS		(MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_END - MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_START + 1)
>  #define MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_BITS		(MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_END - MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_START + 1)
>  
>  /* remember to adjust the comment above as well if you change these */
> -static_assert(MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_BITS == 9 && MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_BITS == 11);
> +static_assert(MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_BITS == 8 && MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_BITS == 11);
>  
>  #define MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_SHIFT		(MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_START - 0)
>  #define MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_SHIFT	(MMIO_SPTE_GEN_HIGH_START - MMIO_SPTE_GEN_LOW_BITS)
I bisected this and I reached the same conclusion that bit 11 has to be removed from mmio generation mask.

Reviewed-by: Maxim Levitsky <mlevitsk@xxxxxxxxxx>
 
I do wonder, why do we need 19 (and now 18 bits) for the mmio generation:

What happens if mmio generation overflows (e.g if userspace keeps on updating the memslots)? 
In theory if we have a SPTE with a stale generation, it can became valid, no?

I think that we should in the case of the overflow zap all mmio sptes.
What do you think?

Best regards,
	Maxim Levitsky