Re: [PATCH v2 1/7] KVM: nVMX: Keep KVM updates to BNDCFGS ctrl bits across MSR write

Sean Christopherson
2022-02-07T18:19:56Z

On Mon, Feb 07, 2022, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> On 2/4/22 21:46, Oliver Upton wrote:
> > Since commit 5f76f6f5ff96 ("KVM: nVMX: Do not expose MPX VMX controls
> > when guest MPX disabled"), KVM has taken ownership of the "load
> > IA32_BNDCFGS" and "clear IA32_BNDCFGS" VMX entry/exit controls. The ABI
> > is that these bits must be set in the IA32_VMX_TRUE_{ENTRY,EXIT}_CTLS
> > MSRs if the guest's CPUID supports MPX, and clear otherwise.
> >
> > However, KVM will only do so if userspace sets the CPUID before writing
> > to the corresponding MSRs. Of course, there are no ordering requirements
> > between these ioctls. Uphold the ABI regardless of ordering by
> > reapplying KVMs tweaks to the VMX control MSRs after userspace has
> > written to them.
>
> I don't understand this patch. If you first write the CPUID and then the
> MSR, the consistency is upheld by these checks:
>
> if (!is_bitwise_subset(data, supported, GENMASK_ULL(31, 0)))
> return -EINVAL;
>
> if (!is_bitwise_subset(supported, data, GENMASK_ULL(63, 32)))
> return -EINVAL;
>
> If you're fixing a case where userspace first writes the MSR and then sets
> CPUID, then I would expect that KVM_SET_CPUID2 redoes those checks and, if
> they fail, it adjusts the MSRs.
>
> The selftests confirm that I'm a bit confused, but in general
> vmx_restore_control_msr is not the place where I was expecting the change.

Do we even need this change? The ABI is whatever it is, not what may or may not
have been intended by a flawed, 3+ year old commit. E.g. if there's a userspace
that relies on being able to override KVM's tweaks by writing the MSRs after
setting CPUID, then this commit will break the ABI for that userspace. The quirk
should be sufficient warning that KVM's behavior is funky.