Re: [PATCH net V2 4/4] vhost: log dirty page correctly

Michael S. Tsirkin
2018-12-14T13:20:43Z

On Fri, Dec 14, 2018 at 10:43:03AM +0800, Jason Wang wrote:
>
> On 2018/12/13 下午10:31, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > > Just to make sure I understand this. It looks to me we should:
> > >
> > > - allow passing GIOVA->GPA through UAPI
> > >
> > > - cache GIOVA->GPA somewhere but still use GIOVA->HVA in device IOTLB for
> > > performance
> > >
> > > Is this what you suggest?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > Not really. We already have GPA->HVA, so I suggested a flag to pass
> > GIOVA->GPA in the IOTLB.
> >
> > This has advantages for security since a single table needs
> > then to be validated to ensure guest does not corrupt
> > QEMU memory.
> >
>
> I wonder how much we can gain through this. Currently, qemu IOMMU gives
> GIOVA->GPA mapping, and qemu vhost code will translate GPA to HVA then pass
> GIOVA->HVA to vhost. It looks no difference to me.
>
> Thanks

The difference is in security not in performance. Getting a bad HVA
corrupts QEMU memory and it might be guest controlled. Very risky. If
translations to HVA are done in a single place through a single table
it's safer as there's a single risky place.

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MST