linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH v3 01/11] KVM: Capture VM start

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Message-ID: <YedWUJNnQK3HFrWC@google.com>
Date:   Wed, 19 Jan 2022 00:07:44 +0000
From:   Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>
To:     Reiji Watanabe <reijiw@...gle.com>
Cc:     Raghavendra Rao Ananta <rananta@...gle.com>, kvm@...r.kernel.org,
        Marc Zyngier <maz@...nel.org>, Peter Shier <pshier@...gle.com>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@....com>,
        Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        Will Deacon <will@...nel.org>, kvmarm@...ts.cs.columbia.edu,
        Linux ARM <linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>,
        Jim Mattson <jmattson@...gle.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v3 01/11] KVM: Capture VM start

On Fri, Jan 14, 2022, Reiji Watanabe wrote:
> The restriction, with which KVM doesn't need to worry about the changes
> in the registers after KVM_RUN, could potentially protect or be useful
> to protect KVM and simplify future changes/maintenance of the KVM codes
> that consumes the values.

That sort of protection is definitely welcome, the previously mentioned CPUID mess
on x86 would have benefit greatly by KVM being restrictive in the past.  That said,
hooking KVM_RUN is likely the wrong way to go about implementing any restrictions.
Running a vCPU is where much of the vCPU's state is explicitly consumed, but it's
all too easy for KVM to implicity/indirectly consume state via a different ioctl(),
e.g. if there are side effects that are visible in other registers, than an update
can also be visible to userspace via KVM_{G,S}ET_{S,}REGS, at which point disallowing
modifying state after KVM_RUN but not after reading/writing regs is arbitrary and
inconsitent.

If possible, preventing modification if kvm->created_vcpus > 0 is ideal as it's
a relatively common pattern in KVM, and provides a clear boundary to userpace
regarding what is/isn't allowed.