linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2] KVM: x86: Allow guests to see MSR_IA32_TSX

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]

Date:   Mon, 1 Feb 2021 18:34:34 +0100
From:   Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>
To:     Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, kvm@...r.kernel.org,
        jmattson@...gle.com, stable@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] KVM: x86: Allow guests to see MSR_IA32_TSX_CTRL even
 if tsx=off

On 01/02/21 17:38, Sean Christopherson wrote:
>>>>      /*
>>>>       * On TAA affected systems:
>>>>       *      - nothing to do if TSX is disabled on the host.
>>>>       *      - we emulate TSX_CTRL if present on the host.
>>>>       *      This lets the guest use VERW to clear CPU buffers.
>>>>       */
> 
> it says "nothing to do..." and then clears a
> flag.  The other interpretation of "nothing to do... at runtime" is also wrong
> as KVM emulates the MSR as a nop.
> 
> I guess I just find the whole comment more confusing than the code itself.

What about:


         if (!boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_RTM)) {
                 /*
                  * If RTM=0 because the kernel has disabled TSX, the 
host might
                  * have TAA_NO or TSX_CTRL.  Clear TAA_NO (the guest 
sees RTM=0
                  * and therefore knows that there cannot be TAA) but keep
                  * TSX_CTRL: some buggy userspaces leave it set on 
tsx=on hosts,
                  * and we want to allow migrating those guests to 
tsx=off hosts.
                  */
                 data &= ~ARCH_CAP_TAA_NO;
         } else if (!boot_cpu_has_bug(X86_BUG_TAA)) {
                 data |= ARCH_CAP_TAA_NO;
         } else {
                 /*
                  * Nothing to do here; we emulate TSX_CTRL if present 
on the
                  * host so the guest can choose between disabling TSX or
                  * using VERW to clear CPU buffers.
                  */
         }

Paolo