Re: [PATCH] KVM: arm64: Sync SPSR_EL1 when injecting an exception into a pVM

[Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>]

On Fri, Jun 12, 2026 at 12:34:14PM +0100, Fuad Tabba wrote:
> When pKVM injects a synchronous exception into a protected guest, it
> re-enters without restoring the guest's EL1 sysregs and writes the EL1
> exception registers to hardware by hand: ESR_EL1 and ELR_EL1, but not
> SPSR_EL1. enter_exception64() sets SPSR_EL1 (the interrupted PSTATE)
> only in memory, so the guest's handler reads a stale SPSR_EL1 and
> restores the wrong PSTATE on eret.
> 
> Write SPSR_EL1 alongside the other exception registers.
> 
> Fixes: 6c30bfb18d0b ("KVM: arm64: Add handlers for protected VM System Registers")
> Reported-by: sashiko <sashiko@sashiko.dev>
> Signed-off-by: Fuad Tabba <tabba@google.com>
> ---
>  arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/sys_regs.c | 1 +
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> 
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/sys_regs.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/sys_regs.c
> index 8c3fbb413a06..1a7d5cd16d72 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/sys_regs.c
> +++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/sys_regs.c
> @@ -268,6 +268,7 @@ static void inject_sync64(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u64 esr)
>  
>  	write_sysreg_el1(esr, SYS_ESR);
>  	write_sysreg_el1(read_sysreg_el2(SYS_ELR), SYS_ELR);
> +	write_sysreg_el1(read_sysreg_el2(SYS_SPSR), SYS_SPSR);
>  	write_sysreg_el2(*vcpu_pc(vcpu), SYS_ELR);
>  	write_sysreg_el2(*vcpu_cpsr(vcpu), SYS_SPSR);
>  }

Is SPSR_EL1 not set in enter_exception64() using vcpu_cpsr(vcpu), which
*is* set here? I'm just a bit wary of the report, as I'd have expected
fireworks if we weren't initialising the guest's SPSR on the exception
injection path.

Will