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

Sean Christopherson
2023-03-27T16:00:12Z

On Mon, Mar 27, 2023, Jim Mattson wrote:
> 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?

Yeah, AFAIK RDT and the like only provide QoS controls for L3, so L1 is fair game.