Re: [PATCH 1/3] x86/cpu: Process all CPUID dependencies after identifying CPU info

Sean Christopherson
2023-01-04T21:02:22Z

On Thu, Dec 08, 2022, Borislav Petkov wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 08, 2022 at 04:26:29PM +0000, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> > But it's not really a hardware issue either. More like an admin/user issue.
> >
> > The problem is that if a kernel is built for subset of CPU types, e.g. just Intel
> > or just Centaur, and then booted on an "unsupported" CPU type, init_ia32_feat_ctl()
> > will never be invoked because ->c_init() will point a default_init(), and so the
> > kernel never checks MSR_IA32_FEAT_CTL to see if VMX and/or SGX are fully enabled.
>
> Yeah, you called it an "edge case". I'm wondering whether we should even
> worry about that case...
>
> I mean, the majority of Linuxes out there are allmodconfig-like kernels
> and booting on unsupported CPU type doesn't happen.
>
> Hell, I'd even say that if you attempt booting on unsupported CPU type,
> we should simply fail that boot attempt.
>
> I.e., what validate_cpu() does in some cases.
>
> IOW, I don't mind what you're doing but I wonder whether we should even
> go the trouble to do so or simply deny that by saying "Well, don't do
> that then".

I agree with the "don't do that" sentiment, but IMO refusing to boot is too much.
Unlike the validate_cpu() cases, the kernel can likely boot and run just fine,
albeit with limited feature enabling.

And there's a non-zero chance we'd end up with a kernel param to allow booting
unknown CPUs, e.g. for people doing weird things with VMs or running old, esoteric
hardware. At that point we'd end up with a more complex implementation than
processing dependencies on synthetic flags, especially if there's ever a more
legitimate need to process such dependencies.