[PATCH 6.12 228/567] KVM: nSVM: Set exit_code_hi to -1 when synthesizing SVM_EXIT_ERR (failed VMRUN)

Greg Kroah-Hartman
2026-01-06T17:26:50Z

From: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>

commit f402ecd7a8b6446547076f4bd24bd5d4dcc94481 upstream.

Set exit_code_hi to -1u as a temporary band-aid to fix a long-standing
(effectively since KVM's inception) bug where KVM treats the exit code as
a 32-bit value, when in reality it's a 64-bit value. Per the APM, offset
0x70 is a single 64-bit value:

070h 63:0 EXITCODE

And a sane reading of the error values defined in "Table C-1. SVM Intercept
Codes" is that negative values use the full 64 bits:

–1 VMEXIT_INVALID Invalid guest state in VMCB.
–2 VMEXIT_BUSYBUSY bit was set in the VMSA
–3 VMEXIT_IDLE_REQUIREDThe sibling thread is not in an idle state
-4 VMEXIT_INVALID_PMC Invalid PMC state

And that interpretation is confirmed by testing on Milan and Turin (by
setting bits in CR0[63:32] to generate VMEXIT_INVALID on VMRUN).

Furthermore, Xen has treated exitcode as a 64-bit value since HVM support
was adding in 2006 (see Xen commit d1bd157fbc ("Big merge the HVM
full-virtualisation abstractions.")).

Cc: Jim Mattson <jmattson@google.com>
Cc: Yosry Ahmed <yosry.ahmed@linux.dev>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Reviewed-by: Yosry Ahmed <yosry.ahmed@linux.dev>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251113225621.1688428-3-seanjc@google.com
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
---
arch/x86/kvm/svm/nested.c | 4 ++--
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

--- a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/nested.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/nested.c
@@ -883,7 +883,7 @@ int nested_svm_vmrun(struct kvm_vcpu *vc
if (!nested_vmcb_check_save(vcpu) ||
!nested_vmcb_check_controls(vcpu)) {
vmcb12->control.exit_code = SVM_EXIT_ERR;
- vmcb12->control.exit_code_hi = 0;
+ vmcb12->control.exit_code_hi = -1u;
vmcb12->control.exit_info_1 = 0;
vmcb12->control.exit_info_2 = 0;
goto out;
@@ -916,7 +916,7 @@ out_exit_err:
svm->soft_int_injected = false;

svm->vmcb->control.exit_code = SVM_EXIT_ERR;
- svm->vmcb->control.exit_code_hi = 0;
+ svm->vmcb->control.exit_code_hi = -1u;
svm->vmcb->control.exit_info_1 = 0;
svm->vmcb->control.exit_info_2 = 0;