linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v1 2/6] virtio console: Harden port adding

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Message-ID: <87edrgp2is.fsf@ubik.fi.intel.com>
Date:   Fri, 27 Jan 2023 14:47:55 +0200
From:   Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@...ux.intel.com>
To:     "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@...hat.com>
Cc:     Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
        jasowang@...hat.com, virtualization@...ts.linux-foundation.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, elena.reshetova@...el.com,
        kirill.shutemov@...ux.intel.com, Andi Kleen <ak@...ux.intel.com>,
        Amit Shah <amit@...nel.org>, Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
        alexander.shishkin@...ux.intel.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v1 2/6] virtio console: Harden port adding

"Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@...hat.com> writes:

> On Fri, Jan 27, 2023 at 01:55:43PM +0200, Alexander Shishkin wrote:
>> "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@...hat.com> writes:
>> 
>> > On Thu, Jan 19, 2023 at 10:13:18PM +0200, Alexander Shishkin wrote:
>> >> When handling control messages, instead of peeking at the device memory
>> >> to obtain bits of the control structure,
>> >
>> > Except the message makes it seem that we are getting data from
>> > device memory, when we do nothing of the kind.
>> 
>> We can be, see below.
>> 
>> >> take a snapshot of it once and
>> >> use it instead, to prevent it from changing under us. This avoids races
>> >> between port id validation and control event decoding, which can lead
>> >> to, for example, a NULL dereference in port removal of a nonexistent
>> >> port.
>> >> 
>> >> The control structure is small enough (8 bytes) that it can be cached
>> >> directly on the stack.
>> >
>> > I still have no real idea why we want a copy here.
>> > If device can poke anywhere at memory then it can crash kernel anyway.
>> > If there's a bounce buffer or an iommu or some other protection
>> > in place, then this memory can no longer change by the time
>> > we look at it.
>> 
>> We can have shared pages between the host and guest without bounce
>> buffers in between, so they can be both looking directly at the same
>> page.
>> 
>> Regards,
>
> How does this configuration work? What else is in this page?

So, for example in TDX, you have certain pages as "shared", as in
between guest and hypervisor. You can have virtio ring(s) in such
pages. It's likely that there'd be a swiotlb buffer there instead, but
sharing pages between host virtio and guest virtio drivers is possible.

Apologies if the language is confusing, I hope I'm answering the
question.

Regards,
--
Alex