Re: [PATCH 5/6] KVM: x86: Virtualize FLUSH_L1D and passthrough MSR_IA32_FLUSH_CMD

Jim Mattson
2023-03-27T15:37:44Z

On Sun, Mar 26, 2023 at 8:33 PM Xiaoyao Li <xiaoyao.li@intel.com> wrote:
>
> On 3/22/2023 9:14 AM, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> > diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
> > index c83ec88da043..3c58dbae7b4c 100644
> > --- a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
> > +++ b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
> > @@ -3628,6 +3628,18 @@ int kvm_set_msr_common(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct msr_data *msr_info)
> >
> > wrmsrl(MSR_IA32_PRED_CMD, PRED_CMD_IBPB);
> > break;
> > + case MSR_IA32_FLUSH_CMD:
> > + if (!msr_info->host_initiated &&
> > + !guest_cpuid_has(vcpu, X86_FEATURE_FLUSH_L1D))
> > + return 1;
> > +
> > + if (!boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_FLUSH_L1D) || (data & ~L1D_FLUSH))
> > + return 1;
> > + if (!data)
> > + break;
> > +
> > + wrmsrl(MSR_IA32_FLUSH_CMD, L1D_FLUSH);
> > + break;
>
> Then KVM provides the ability to flush the L1 data cache of host to
> userspace. Can it be exploited to degrade the host performance if
> userspace VMM keeps flushing the L1 data cache?

The L1D$ isn't very big. A guest could always flush out any previously
cached data simply by referencing its own data. Is the ability to
flush the L1D$ by WRMSR that egregious?