linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 6/9] KVM: x86: Update guest cpu_caps at runtime for dynamic CPUID-based features

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Message-ID: <965bf6a9-97f7-4e20-bcb8-658e5cf459e5@gmail.com>
Date:   Fri, 17 Nov 2023 09:28:14 +0800
From:   Robert Hoo <robert.hoo.linux@...il.com>
To:     Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>
Cc:     Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>, kvm@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Maxim Levitsky <mlevitsk@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 6/9] KVM: x86: Update guest cpu_caps at runtime for
 dynamic CPUID-based features

On 11/15/2023 11:09 PM, Sean Christopherson wrote:
...
>>> No, because then every caller would need extra code to pass
>>> vcpu->cpu_caps,
>>
>> Emm, I don't understand this. I tried to modified and compiled, all need to
>> do is simply substitute "vcpu" with "vcpu->arch.cpu_caps" in calling. (at
>> the end is my diff based on this patch set)
> 
> Yes, and I'm saying that
> 
> 	guest_cpu_cap_restrict(vcpu, X86_FEATURE_PAUSEFILTER);
> 	guest_cpu_cap_restrict(vcpu, X86_FEATURE_PFTHRESHOLD);
> 	guest_cpu_cap_restrict(vcpu, X86_FEATURE_VGIF);
> 	guest_cpu_cap_restrict(vcpu, X86_FEATURE_VNMI);
> 
> is harder to read and write than this
> 
> 	guest_cpu_cap_restrict(vcpu->arch.cpu_caps, X86_FEATURE_PAUSEFILTER);
> 	guest_cpu_cap_restrict(vcpu->arch.cpu_caps, X86_FEATURE_PFTHRESHOLD);
> 	guest_cpu_cap_restrict(vcpu->arch.cpu_caps, X86_FEATURE_VGIF);
> 	guest_cpu_cap_restrict(vcpu->arch.cpu_caps, X86_FEATURE_VNMI);
> 
> a one-time search-replace is easy, but the extra boilerplate has a non-zero cost
> for every future developer/reader.

Hmm, I think this is trivial. And can be solved/eased by other means, e.g. 
Macro?. Rather than in the sacrifice of letting function's inside (easily) 
access those info it shouldn't.
> 
>>> and passing 'u32 *' provides less type safety than 'struct kvm_vcpu *'.
>>> That tradeoff isn't worth making this one path slightly easier to read.
>>
>> My point is also from vulnerability, long term, since as a principle, we'd
>> better pass in param/info to a function of its necessity.
> 
> Attempting to apply the principle of least privilege to low level C helpers is
> nonsensical.  E.g. the helper can trivially get at the owning vcpu via container_of()
> (well, if not for typeof assertions not playing nice with arrays, but open coding
> container_of() is also trivial and illustrates the point).
> 
> 	struct kvm_vcpu_arch *arch = (void *)caps -  offsetof(struct kvm_vcpu_arch, cpu_caps);
> 	struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu = container_of(arch, struct kvm_vcpu, arch);
> 
> 	if (!kvm_cpu_cap_has(x86_feature))
> 		guest_cpu_cap_clear(vcpu, x86_feature);
> 
> And the intent behind that principle is to improve security/robustness; what I'm
> saying is that passing in a 'u32 *" makes the overall implementation _less_ robust,
> as it opens up the possibilities of passing in an unsafe/incorrect pointer.  E.g.
> a well-intentioned, not _that_ obviously broken example is:
> 
> 	guest_cpu_cap_restrict(&vcpu->arch.cpu_caps[CPUID_1_ECX], X86_FEATURE_XSAVE);
> 
>> e.g. cpuid_entry2_find().
> 
> The main reason cpuid_entry2_find() exists is because KVM checks the incoming
> array provided by KVM_SET_CPUID2, which is also the reason why
> __kvm_update_cpuid_runtime() takes an @entries array instead of just @vcpu.

Thanks for detailed explanation, I understand your points deeper, though I would 
still prefer to honoring the principle if it was me to write the function. The 
concerns above can/should be addressed by other means. (If some really cannot be 
solved in C, i.e. more stringent type check, it's C to blame ;) but it on the 
other side offers those flexibility that other languages cannot, doesn't it?)
Another pros of the principle is that, it's also a fence, prevent (at least 
raise the bar) people in the future from doing something that shouldn't be in 
the function, e.g.  for his convenience to quickly fix a bug etc.

Anyway, it's a dilemma, and I said it's a less important point for this great 
progress of vCPUID's implementation, thanks.

Reviewed-by: Robert Hoo <robert.hoo.linux@...il.com>