linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 1/3] Implement emulator_write

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <46D3095A.6020305@qumranet.com>
Date:	Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:26:50 +0300
From:	Avi Kivity <avi@...ranet.com>
To:	Anthony Liguori <aliguori@...ibm.com>
CC:	kvm-devel@...ts.sourceforge.net, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/3] Implement emulator_write_phys()

Anthony Liguori wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-08-27 at 18:45 +0300, Avi Kivity wrote:
>   
>> Anthony Liguori wrote:
>>     
>>> Since a hypercall may span two pages and is a gva, we need a function to write
>>> to a gva that may span multiple pages.  emulator_write_phys() seems like the
>>> logical choice for this.
>>>
>>> @@ -962,8 +962,35 @@ static int emulator_write_std(unsigned long addr,
>>>  			      unsigned int bytes,
>>>  			      struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu
>>>       
>> I think that emulator_write_emulated(), except for being awkwardly 
>> named, should do the job.  We have enough APIs.
>>
>> But!  We may not overwrite the hypercall instruction while a vcpu may be 
>> executing, since there's no atomicity guarantee for code fetch.  We have 
>> to to be out of guest mode while writing that insn.
>>     
>
>
> Hrm, good catch.
>
> How can we get out of guest mode given SMP guest support?
>
>   

kvm_flush_remote_tlbs() is something that can be generalized.  
Basically, you set a bit in each vcpu and send an IPI to take them out.

But that's deadlock prone and complex.  Maybe you can just take 
kvm->lock, zap the mmu and the flush tlbs, and patch the instruction at 
your leisure, as no vcpu will be able to map memory until the lock is 
released.

-- 
Any sufficiently difficult bug is indistinguishable from a feature.

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/