All of lore.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Saul Freedman <fre3dm4n@gmail.com>
To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org
Cc: pbonzini@redhat.com, mtosatti@redhat.com, kvm@vger.kernel.org,
	Saul Freedman <fre3dm4n@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH RFC 0/1] Fix ICEBP handling after KVM debug exits
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2026 06:13:54 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260820061355.196465-1-fre3dm4n@gmail.com> (raw)

To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org
Cc: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>,
    Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@redhat.com>,
    kvm@vger.kernel.org

KVM normally recognizes ICEBP, advances RIP, and injects #DB itself.
When userspace enables hardware breakpoints, however, KVM reports the
pre-skip #DB through KVM_EXIT_DEBUG.  QEMU currently reinjects it at the
old RIP, causing a debug-exit livelock.

The patch is marked RFC because KVM_EXIT_DEBUG does not preserve KVM's
exact ICEBP classification.  The proposed compatibility heuristic accepts
a causeless #DB whose instruction stream consists only of prefixes and
0xf1.  A durable long-term ABI might instead let KVM expose its exact
classification or advance the instruction before exiting; I would like
feedback from both QEMU and KVM reviewers on that direction.

Validation on an Intel VT-x host:

- Built x86_64-softmmu from current master (ae4f3443209).
- checkpatch reports zero errors and warnings.
- Ran a real Linux guest that executes kernel-mode ICEBP while an
  unrelated hardware breakpoint is installed through QEMU's GDB stub.
  Unpatched QEMU stalls after ICEBP_KERNEL_BEFORE; patched QEMU reaches
  ICEBP_KERNEL_AFTER.

I did not include the hardware reproduction in the patch because it needs
real VT-x, a matching guest kernel build, and a loadable module.  I can
turn the fixture into an optional avocado test if reviewers prefer.

Saul Freedman (1):
  target/i386: skip ICEBP before reinjecting #DB

 target/i386/kvm/kvm.c | 62 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 61 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

-- 
2.55.0

             reply	other threads:[~2026-08-20  6:14 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-08-20  6:13 Saul Freedman [this message]
2026-08-20  6:13 ` [PATCH RFC 1/1] target/i386: skip ICEBP before reinjecting #DB Saul Freedman

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=20260820061355.196465-1-fre3dm4n@gmail.com \
    --to=fre3dm4n@gmail.com \
    --cc=kvm@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=mtosatti@redhat.com \
    --cc=pbonzini@redhat.com \
    --cc=qemu-devel@nongnu.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.