linux-kernel - Re: [RFC v2 PATCH 01/13] mm/shmem: Introduce F_SEAL

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Date:   Sat, 20 Nov 2021 01:23:16 +0000
From:   Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>
To:     Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@...pe.ca>
Cc:     David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>,
        Chao Peng <chao.p.peng@...ux.intel.com>, kvm@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
        linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, qemu-devel@...gnu.org,
        Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
        Vitaly Kuznetsov <vkuznets@...hat.com>,
        Wanpeng Li <wanpengli@...cent.com>,
        Jim Mattson <jmattson@...gle.com>,
        Joerg Roedel <joro@...tes.org>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
        x86@...nel.org, "H . Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
        Hugh Dickins <hughd@...gle.com>,
        Jeff Layton <jlayton@...nel.org>,
        "J . Bruce Fields" <bfields@...ldses.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Yu Zhang <yu.c.zhang@...ux.intel.com>,
        "Kirill A . Shutemov" <kirill.shutemov@...ux.intel.com>,
        luto@...nel.org, john.ji@...el.com, susie.li@...el.com,
        jun.nakajima@...el.com, dave.hansen@...el.com, ak@...ux.intel.com
Subject: Re: [RFC v2 PATCH 01/13] mm/shmem: Introduce F_SEAL_GUEST

On Fri, Nov 19, 2021, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 19, 2021 at 10:21:39PM +0000, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> > On Fri, Nov 19, 2021, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> > > On Fri, Nov 19, 2021 at 07:18:00PM +0000, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> > > > No ideas for the kernel API, but that's also less concerning since
> > > > it's not set in stone.  I'm also not sure that dedicated APIs for
> > > > each high-ish level use case would be a bad thing, as the semantics
> > > > are unlikely to be different to some extent.  E.g. for the KVM use
> > > > case, there can be at most one guest associated with the fd, but
> > > > there can be any number of VFIO devices attached to the fd.
> > > 
> > > Even the kvm thing is not a hard restriction when you take away
> > > confidential compute.
> > > 
> > > Why can't we have multiple KVMs linked to the same FD if the memory
> > > isn't encrypted? Sure it isn't actually useful but it should work
> > > fine.
> > 
> > Hmm, true, but I want the KVM semantics to be 1:1 even if memory
> > isn't encrypted.
> 
> That is policy and it doesn't belong hardwired into the kernel.

Agreed.  I had a blurb typed up about that policy just being an "exclusive" flag
in the kernel API that KVM would set when creating a confidential VM, but deleted
it and forgot to restore it when I went down the tangent of removing userspace
from the TCB without an assist from hardware/firmware.

> Your explanation makes me think that the F_SEAL_XX isn't defined
> properly. It should be a userspace trap door to prevent any new
> external accesses, including establishing new kvms, iommu's, rdmas,
> mmaps, read/write, etc.

Hmm, the way I was thinking of it is that it the F_SEAL_XX itself would prevent
mapping/accessing it from userspace, and that any policy beyond that would be
done via kernel APIs and thus handled by whatever in-kernel agent can access the
memory.  E.g. in the confidential VM case, without support for trusted devices,
KVM would require that it be the sole owner of the file.