linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 2/3] KVM: x86: guest debug: don't inject interrupts while single stepping

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Message-ID: <YE/vtYYwMakERzTS@google.com>
Date:   Mon, 15 Mar 2021 16:37:25 -0700
From:   Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>
To:     Maxim Levitsky <mlevitsk@...hat.com>
Cc:     kvm@...r.kernel.org, Vitaly Kuznetsov <vkuznets@...hat.com>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Wanpeng Li <wanpengli@...cent.com>,
        Kieran Bingham <kbingham@...nel.org>,
        Jessica Yu <jeyu@...nel.org>,
        Jan Kiszka <jan.kiszka@...mens.com>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        "maintainer:X86 ARCHITECTURE (32-BIT AND 64-BIT)" <x86@...nel.org>,
        Joerg Roedel <joro@...tes.org>,
        Jim Mattson <jmattson@...gle.com>,
        Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
        Stefano Garzarella <sgarzare@...hat.com>,
        "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
        Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/3] KVM: x86: guest debug: don't inject interrupts while
 single stepping

On Tue, Mar 16, 2021, Maxim Levitsky wrote:
> This change greatly helps with two issues:
> 
> * Resuming from a breakpoint is much more reliable.
> 
>   When resuming execution from a breakpoint, with interrupts enabled, more often
>   than not, KVM would inject an interrupt and make the CPU jump immediately to
>   the interrupt handler and eventually return to the breakpoint, to trigger it
>   again.
> 
>   From the user point of view it looks like the CPU never executed a
>   single instruction and in some cases that can even prevent forward progress,
>   for example, when the breakpoint is placed by an automated script
>   (e.g lx-symbols), which does something in response to the breakpoint and then
>   continues the guest automatically.
>   If the script execution takes enough time for another interrupt to arrive,
>   the guest will be stuck on the same breakpoint RIP forever.
> 
> * Normal single stepping is much more predictable, since it won't land the
>   debugger into an interrupt handler, so it is much more usable.
> 
>   (If entry to an interrupt handler is desired, the user can still place a
>   breakpoint at it and resume the guest, which won't activate this workaround
>   and let the gdb still stop at the interrupt handler)
> 
> Since this change is only active when guest is debugged, it won't affect
> KVM running normal 'production' VMs.
> 
> 
> Signed-off-by: Maxim Levitsky <mlevitsk@...hat.com>
> Tested-by: Stefano Garzarella <sgarzare@...hat.com>
> ---
>  arch/x86/kvm/x86.c | 6 ++++++
>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
> index a9d95f90a0487..b75d990fcf12b 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
> +++ b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
> @@ -8458,6 +8458,12 @@ static void inject_pending_event(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, bool *req_immediate_exit
>  		can_inject = false;
>  	}
>  
> +	/*
> +	 * Don't inject interrupts while single stepping to make guest debug easier
> +	 */
> +	if (vcpu->guest_debug & KVM_GUESTDBG_SINGLESTEP)
> +		return;

Is this something userspace can deal with?  E.g. disable IRQs and/or set NMI
blocking at the start of single-stepping, unwind at the end?  Deviating this far
from architectural behavior will end in tears at some point.

> +
>  	/*
>  	 * Finally, inject interrupt events.  If an event cannot be injected
>  	 * due to architectural conditions (e.g. IF=0) a window-open exit
> -- 
> 2.26.2
>