From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Peter Teoh Subject: dom0 vs non-dom0 differentiation inside Xen hypervisor Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:12:08 +0800 Message-ID: <46DA6248.4010101@singnet.com.sg> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: xen-devel-bounces@lists.xensource.com Errors-To: xen-devel-bounces@lists.xensource.com To: xen-devel@lists.xensource.com List-Id: xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org In some parts of IA64 I can see that domain==dom0 checking is done, but in all x86 - I have yet to find a proper checking that the hypercalls comes from a dom0 domain instead of any other domain. Theoretically, this means that any domain (PV or HVM) can always modify its own kernel binary and then make a direct hypercall (via int 0x82 or SYSENTER) into the hypervisor, executing domain controller commands like create domain etc. Is this possible? Access control should be done from the hypervisor side, so any existing dom0 checking (CONFIG_XEN_PRIVILEGED_GUEST compilation option - done from the dom0 side) seems like useless, because another domU can always modify its own kernel binaries to achieve all the features what CONF_XEN_PRIVILEGED_GUEST restrict. Am I right?