Re: [PATCH v19 023/130] KVM: TDX: Initialize the TDX module when loading the KVM intel kernel module

Sean Christopherson
2024-04-19T17:23:54Z

On Fri, Apr 19, 2024, Kai Huang wrote:
> On 19/04/2024 2:30 am, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> > No, that will deadlock as cpuhp_setup_state() does cpus_read_lock().
>
> Right, but it takes cpus_read_lock()/unlock() internally. I was talking
> about:
>
> if (enable_tdx) {
> kvm_x86_virtualization_enable();
>
> /*
> * Unfortunately currently tdx_enable() internally has
> * lockdep_assert_cpus_held().
> */
> cpus_read_lock();
> tdx_enable();
> cpus_read_unlock();
> }

Ah. Just have tdx_enable() do cpus_read_lock(), I suspect/assume the current
implemention was purely done in anticipation of KVM "needing" to do tdx_enable()
while holding cpu_hotplug_lock.

And tdx_enable() should also do its best to verify that the caller is post-VMXON:

if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!(__read_cr4() & X86_CR4_VMXE)))
return -EINVAL;

> > > Btw, why couldn't we do the 'system_state' check at the very beginning of
> > > this function?
> >
> > We could, but we'd still need to check after, and adding a small bit of extra
> > complexity just to try to catch a very rare situation isn't worth it.
> >
> > To prevent races, system_state needs to be check after register_syscore_ops(),
> > because only once kvm_syscore_ops is registered is KVM guaranteed to get notified
> > of a shutdown. >
> > And because the kvm_syscore_ops hooks disable virtualization, they should be called
> > after cpuhp_setup_state(). That's not strictly required, as the per-CPU
> > hardware_enabled flag will prevent true problems if the system enter shutdown
> > state before KVM reaches cpuhp_setup_state().
> >
> > Hmm, but the same edge cases exists in the above flow. If the system enters
> > shutdown _just_ after register_syscore_ops(), KVM would see that in system_state
> > and do cpuhp_remove_state(), i.e. invoke kvm_offline_cpu() and thus do a double
> > disable (which again is benign because of hardware_enabled).
> >
> > Ah, but registering syscore ops before doing cpuhp_setup_state() has another race,
> > and one that could be fatal. If the system does suspend+resume before the cpuhup
> > hooks are registered, kvm_resume() would enable virtualization. And then if
> > cpuhp_setup_state() failed, virtualization would be left enabled.
> >
> > So cpuhp_setup_state() *must* come before register_syscore_ops(), and
> > register_syscore_ops() *must* come before the system_state check.
>
> OK. I guess I have to double check here to completely understand the races.
> :-)
>
> So I think we have consensus to go with the approach that shows in your
> second diff -- that is to always enable virtualization during module loading
> for all other ARCHs other than x86, for which we only always enables
> virtualization during module loading for TDX.

Assuming the other arch maintainers are ok with that approach. If waiting until
a VM is created is desirable for other architectures, then we'll need to figure
out a plan b. E.g. KVM arm64 doesn't support being built as a module, so enabling
hardware during initialization would mean virtualization is enabled for any kernel
that is built with CONFIG_KVM=y.

Actually, duh. There's absolutely no reason to force other architectures to
choose when to enable virtualization. As evidenced by the massaging to have x86
keep enabling virtualization on-demand for !TDX, the cleanups don't come from
enabling virtualization during module load, they come from registering cpuup and
syscore ops when virtualization is enabled.

I.e. we can keep kvm_usage_count in common code, and just do exactly what I
proposed for kvm_x86_enable_virtualization().

I have patches to do this, and initial testing suggests they aren't wildly
broken. I'll post them soon-ish, assuming nothing pops up in testing. They are
clean enough that they can land in advance of TDX, e.g. in kvm-coco-queue even
before other architectures verify I didn't break them.

> Then how about "do kvm_x86_virtualization_enable() within
> late_hardware_setup() in kvm_x86_vendor_init()" vs "do
> kvm_x86_virtualization_enable() in TDX-specific code after
> kvm_x86_vendor_init()"?
>
> Which do you prefer?

The latter, assuming it doesn't make the TDX code more complex than it needs to
be. The fewer kvm_x86_ops hooks, the better.