Re: [PATCH] KVM: X86: Allow userspace to define the microcode version

Paolo Bonzini
2018-02-26T12:18:13Z

On 26/02/2018 13:16, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> On 26/02/2018 13:15, Borislav Petkov wrote:
>> On Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 12:54:52PM +0100, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
>>> I don't understand how one thing follows from the other. How are writes
>>> to 0x8B related to having a virtualized microcode loaded (which is a
>>> concept that actually makes no sense at all)?
>>
>> I'm questioning the whole idea. 0x8b is the MSR which gives you the
>> microcode revision. Most CPUs don't even allow writing to it, AFAICT.
>> (SDM says "may prevent writing" on VM transitions.)
>>
>> So how is that host-initiated write to 0x8b is even going to work, in
>> reality? kvm module writes the microcode version in there? How does the
>> admin work around that?
>
> In this context, "host-initiated" write means written by KVM userspace
> with ioctl(KVM_SET_MSR). It generally happens only on VM startup, reset
> or live migration.

To be clear, the target of the write is still the vCPU's emulated MSR.

Paolo