Re: [PATCH] kvm: x86: rewrite kvm_spec_ctrl_valid_bits

[Paolo Bonzini]

On 07/07/20 08:11, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> One oddity with this whole thing is that by passing through the MSR, KVM is
> allowing the guest to write bits it doesn't know about, which is definitely
> not normal.  It also means the guest could write bits that the host VMM
> can't.

That's true.  However, the main purpose of the kvm_spec_ctrl_valid_bits
check is to ensure that host-initiated writes are valid; this way, you
don't get a #GP on the next vmentry's WRMSR to MSR_IA32_SPEC_CTRL.
Checking the guest CPUID bit is not even necessary.

Paolo

> Somehwat crazy idea inbound... rather than calculating the valid bits in
> software, what if we throw the value at the CPU and see if it fails?  At
> least that way the host and guest are subject to the same rules.  E.g.
> 
> --- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
> +++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
> @@ -2062,11 +2062,19 @@ static int vmx_set_msr(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct msr_data *msr_info)
>                     !guest_cpuid_has(vcpu, X86_FEATURE_SPEC_CTRL))
>                         return 1;
> 
> -               if (data & ~kvm_spec_ctrl_valid_bits(vcpu))
> -                       return 1;
> -
> +               ret = 0;
>                 vmx->spec_ctrl = data;
> -               if (!data)
> +
> +               local_irq_disable();
> +               if (rdmsrl_safe(MSR_IA32_SPEC_CTRL, &data))
> +                       ret = 1;
> +               else if (wrmsrl_safe(MSR_IA32_SPEC_CTRL, vmx->spec_ctrl))
> +                       ret = 1;
> +               else
> +                       wrmsrl(MSR_IA32_SPEC_CTRL, data))
> +               local_irq_enable();
> +
> +               if (ret || !vmx->spec_ctrl)
>                         break;
> 
>                 /*
>