Re: Should hvm_hw_cpu's sysenter_eip always be zero after xc_domain_hvm_getcontext_partial()?

[Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@citrix.com>]

On 31/07/15 16:30, Razvan Cojocaru wrote:
> Thanks for the quick reply!
>
> On 07/31/2015 06:13 PM, Andrew Cooper wrote:
>>> Looking in the code, the only two __vmwrite(GUEST_SYSENTER_EIP, ...)
>>> calls occur in xen/arch/x86/hvm/vmx/vmx.c. One is in
>>> vmx_msr_write_intercept(), but adding a printk() just after produces no
>>> output after starting and stopping a guest.
>> Write interception for that MSR is disabled (if the hardware supports
>> disabling interception) because it is not interesting.
>>
>> You can re-enable interception by commenting out the appropriate
>> vmx_disable_intercept_for_msr() line in construct_vmcs()
> It shouldn't be disabled, it's in the
> vmx_introspection_force_enabled_msrs[] list and I'm testing it with
> memory introspection.

So it is - I thought it might have been, but couldn't locate it in the code.

>
>>> The other is in vmx_vmcs_restore(), which seems to dutifully restore the
>>> never-set value of zero after a save.
>>>
>>> So this doesn't seem to be actually initialized anywhere. Could somebody
>>> please recommend the best place to initialize it, and the best value to
>>> initialize it with? Or maybe you could point out what I'm missing, if
>>> that's the case?
>> Are you certain that the guest is actually setting it?  If the guest
>> never sets it in the first place, 0 will be the expected value.
> That might be it, I'll need to look closer.

Any credible 64bit kernel will not rely on sysenter, as it only
available on Intel, and any kernel trying to reduce its attack surface
will likely not enable it in the first place.

~Andrew