[PATCH v2 1/4] KVM: SVM: Handle #MCs in guest outside of fastpath

Sean Christopherson
2025-11-18T22:23:33Z

Handle Machine Checks (#MC) that happen in the guest (by forwarding them
to the host) outside of KVM's fastpath so that as much host state as
possible is re-loaded before invoking the kernel's #MC handler. The only
requirement is that KVM invokes the #MC handler before enabling IRQs (and
even that could _probably_ be relaxed to handling #MCs before enabling
preemption).

Waiting to handle #MCs until "more" host state is loaded hardens KVM
against flaws in the #MC handler, which has historically been quite
brittle. E.g. prior to commit 5567d11c21a1 ("x86/mce: Send #MC singal from
task work"), the #MC code could trigger a schedule() with IRQs and
preemption disabled. That led to a KVM hack-a-fix in commit 1811d979c716
("x86/kvm: move kvm_load/put_guest_xcr0 into atomic context").

Note, except for #MCs on VM-Enter, VMX already handles #MCs outside of the
fastpath.

Reviewed-by: Rick Edgecombe <rick.p.edgecombe@intel.com>
Reviewed-by: Jon Kohler <jon@nutanix.com>
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
---
arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c | 18 +++++++++---------
1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c
index 9aac0eb3a490..bf34378ebe2d 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c
@@ -4321,14 +4321,6 @@ static __no_kcsan fastpath_t svm_vcpu_run(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u64 run_flags)

vcpu->arch.regs_avail &= ~SVM_REGS_LAZY_LOAD_SET;

- /*
- * We need to handle MC intercepts here before the vcpu has a chance to
- * change the physical cpu
- */
- if (unlikely(svm->vmcb->control.exit_code ==
- SVM_EXIT_EXCP_BASE + MC_VECTOR))
- svm_handle_mce(vcpu);
-
trace_kvm_exit(vcpu, KVM_ISA_SVM);

svm_complete_interrupts(vcpu);
@@ -4631,8 +4623,16 @@ static int svm_check_intercept(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu,

static void svm_handle_exit_irqoff(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
{
- if (to_svm(vcpu)->vmcb->control.exit_code == SVM_EXIT_INTR)
+ switch (to_svm(vcpu)->vmcb->control.exit_code) {
+ case SVM_EXIT_EXCP_BASE + MC_VECTOR:
+ svm_handle_mce(vcpu);
+ break;
+ case SVM_EXIT_INTR:
vcpu->arch.at_instruction_boundary = true;
+ break;
+ default:
+ break;
+ }
}

static void svm_setup_mce(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
--
2.52.0.rc1.455.g30608eb744-goog