Re: New Defects reported by Coverity Scan for XenProject

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

On 30/07/2026 2:14 pm, Jan Beulich wrote:
> On 30.07.2026 12:24, scan-admin@coverity.com wrote:
>> ** CID 1697485:       Control flow issues  (DEADCODE)
>> /xen/arch/x86/hvm/hvm.c: 2436           in hvm_set_cr3()
>>
>>
>> _____________________________________________________________________________________________
>> *** CID 1697485:         Control flow issues  (DEADCODE)
>> /xen/arch/x86/hvm/hvm.c: 2436             in hvm_set_cr3()
>> 2430                 curr->arch.vm_event->write_data.cr3_noflush = noflush;
>> 2431     
>> 2432                 return X86EMUL_OKAY;
>> 2433             }
>> 2434         }
>> 2435     
>>>>>     CID 1697485:         Control flow issues  (DEADCODE)
>>>>>     Execution cannot reach the expression "(value ^ curr->arch.hvm.guest_cr[3]) >> 12" inside this statement: "if (!!(curr->arch.hvm.guest...".
>> 2436         if ( hvm_paging_enabled(curr) && paging_mode_shadow(currd) &&
>> 2437              ((value ^ curr->arch.hvm.guest_cr[3]) >> PAGE_SHIFT) )
>> 2438         {
>> 2439             /* Shadow-mode CR3 change. Check PDBR and update refcounts. */
>> 2440             struct page_info *page;
>> 2441     
>>
>> ** CID 1697484:       Control flow issues  (DEADCODE)
>> /xen/arch/x86/hvm/svm/svm.c: 128           in svm_update_guest_cr()
>>
>>
>> _____________________________________________________________________________________________
>> *** CID 1697484:         Control flow issues  (DEADCODE)
>> /xen/arch/x86/hvm/svm/svm.c: 128             in svm_update_guest_cr()
>> 122                      monitor_ctrlreg_bitmask(VM_EVENT_X86_CR3) )
>> 123                    vmcb_set_cr_intercepts(vmcb, intercepts | CR_INTERCEPT_CR3_WRITE);
>> 124             }
>> 125     
>> 126             value = v->arch.hvm.guest_cr[0];
>> 127             if ( paging_mode_shadow(v->domain) )
>>>>>     CID 1697484:         Control flow issues  (DEADCODE)
>>>>>     Execution cannot reach this statement: "value |= 0x80010000UL;".
>> 128                 value |= X86_CR0_PG | X86_CR0_WP;
>> 129             vmcb_set_cr0(vmcb, value);
>> 130             break;
>> 131     
>> 132         case 2:
>> 133             vmcb_set_cr2(vmcb, v->arch.hvm.guest_cr[2]);
>>
>> ** CID 1697483:       Control flow issues  (DEADCODE)
>> /xen/arch/x86/hvm/svm/svm.c: 396           in svm_vmcb_restore()
>>
>>
>> _____________________________________________________________________________________________
>> *** CID 1697483:         Control flow issues  (DEADCODE)
>> /xen/arch/x86/hvm/svm/svm.c: 396             in svm_vmcb_restore()
>> 390                 return -EINVAL;
>> 391             }
>> 392         }
>> 393     
>> 394         if ( paging_mode_shadow(v->domain) )
>> 395         {
>>>>>     CID 1697483:         Control flow issues  (DEADCODE)
>>>>>     Execution cannot reach this statement: "if (c->cr0 & 0x80000000UL) ...".
>> 396             if ( c->cr0 & X86_CR0_PG )
>> 397             {
>> 398                 page = get_page_from_gfn(v->domain, c->cr3 >> PAGE_SHIFT,
>> 399                                          NULL, P2M_ALLOC);
>> 400                 if ( !page )
>> 401                 {
>>
>> ** CID 1697482:         (DEADCODE)
>> /xen/arch/x86/hvm/hvm.c: 2332           in hvm_set_cr0()
>> /xen/arch/x86/hvm/hvm.c: 2382           in hvm_set_cr0()
>>
>>
>> _____________________________________________________________________________________________
>> *** CID 1697482:           (DEADCODE)
>> /xen/arch/x86/hvm/hvm.c: 2332             in hvm_set_cr0()
>> 2326                 hvm_update_guest_efer(v);
>> 2327             }
>> 2328     
>> 2329             if ( paging_mode_shadow(d) )
>> 2330             {
>> 2331                 /* The guest CR3 must be pointing to the guest physical. */
>>>>>     CID 1697482:           (DEADCODE)
>>>>>     Execution cannot reach this statement: "gfn = v->arch.hvm.guest_cr[...".
>> 2332                 gfn = v->arch.hvm.guest_cr[3] >> PAGE_SHIFT;
>> 2333                 page = get_page_from_gfn(d, gfn, NULL, P2M_ALLOC);
>> 2334                 if ( !page )
>> 2335                 {
>> 2336                     gdprintk(XENLOG_ERR, "Invalid CR3 value = %lx\n",
>> 2337                              v->arch.hvm.guest_cr[3]);
>> /xen/arch/x86/hvm/hvm.c: 2382             in hvm_set_cr0()
>> 2376                 v->arch.hvm.guest_efer &= ~EFER_LMA;
>> 2377                 hvm_update_guest_efer(v);
>> 2378             }
>> 2379     
>> 2380             if ( paging_mode_shadow(d) )
>> 2381             {
>>>>>     CID 1697482:           (DEADCODE)
>>>>>     Execution cannot reach this statement: "put_page((struct page_info ...".
>> 2382                 put_page(pagetable_get_page(v->arch.guest_table));
>> 2383                 v->arch.guest_table = pagetable_null();
>> 2384             }
>> 2385         }
>> 2386     
>> 2387         if ( ((value ^ old_value) & X86_CR0_CD) &&
> For all of the above (and maybe more further down the original report): Do we have
> control over the .config Coverity uses? These (not really) issues all result from
> SHADOW_PAGING=n by default now, i.e. the unreachable statements are expected in
> that configuration (and they were there before, if the build had been done with
> SHADOW_PAGING=n).

Yes.  It is .github/workflows/coverity.yml which does the build and
submission to Coverity.

Right now it's a plain `make build-xen`, so will go from absolute
defaults, but we can change it if needs be.

~Andrew