Re: [PATCH] x86/bhi: avoid hardware mitigation for 'spectre_bhi=vmexit'

[Chao Gao]

On Thu, Sep 12, 2024 at 09:24:40AM -0700, Pawan Gupta wrote:
>On Thu, Sep 12, 2024 at 03:44:38PM +0000, Jon Kohler wrote:
>> > It is only worth implementing the long sequence in VMEXIT_ONLY mode if it is
>> > significantly better than toggling the MSR.
>> 
>> Thanks for the pointer! I hadn’t seen that second sequence. I’ll do measurements on
>> three cases and come back with data from an SPR system.
>> 1. as-is (wrmsr on entry and exit)
>> 2. Short sequence (as a baseline)
>> 3. Long sequence
>
>I wonder if virtual SPEC_CTRL feature introduced in below series can
>provide speedup, as it can replace the MSR toggling with faster VMCS
>operations:

"virtual SPEC_CTRL" won't provide speedup. the wrmsr on entry/exit is still
need if guest's (effective) value and host's value are different.

"virtual SPEC_CTRL" just prevents guests from toggling some bits. It doesn't
switch the MSR between guest value and host value on entry/exit. so, KVM has
to do the switching with wrmsr/rdmsr instructions. A new feature, "load
IA32_SPEC_CTRL" VMX control (refer to Chapter 15 in ISE spec[*]), can help but
it isn't supported on SPR.

[*]: https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/671368

>
>  https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20240410143446.797262-1-chao.gao@xxxxxxxxx/
>
>Adding Chao for their opinion.