Re: [PATCH 8/9] KVM: x86, SVM: do not clobber guest DR6 on KVM_EXIT_DEBUG

From: Sean Christopherson
Date: Wed May 06 2020 - 17:20:51 EST


On Wed, May 06, 2020 at 05:13:56PM -0400, Peter Xu wrote:
> Oh... so is dr6 going to have some leftover bit set in the GD test if without
> this patch for AMD? Btw, I noticed a small difference on Intel/AMD spec for
> this case, e.g., B[0-3] definitions on such leftover bits...
>
> Intel says:
>
> B0 through B3 (breakpoint condition detected) flags (bits 0 through 3)
> â Indicates (when set) that its associated breakpoint condition was met
> when a debug exception was generated. These flags are set if the
> condition described for each breakpoint by the LENn, and R/Wn flags in
> debug control register DR7 is true. They may or may not be set if the
> breakpoint is not enabled by the Ln or the Gn flags in register
> DR7. Therefore on a #DB, a debug handler should check only those B0-B3
> bits which correspond to an enabled breakpoint.
>
> AMD says:
>
> Breakpoint-Condition Detected (B3âB0)âBits 3:0. The processor updates
> these four bits on every debug breakpoint or general-detect
> condition. A bit is set to 1 if the corresponding address- breakpoint
> register detects an enabled breakpoint condition, as specified by the
> DR7 Ln, Gn, R/Wn and LENn controls, and is cleared to 0 otherwise. For
> example, B1 (bit 1) is set to 1 if an address- breakpoint condition is
> detected by DR1.
>
> I'm not sure whether it means AMD B[0-3] bits are more strict on the Intel ones
> (if so, then the selftest could be a bit too strict to VMX).

If the question is "can DR6 bits 3:0 be set on Intel CPUs even if the
associated breakpoint is disabled?", then the answer is yes. I haven't
looked at the selftest, but if it's checking DR6 then it should ignore
bits corresponding to disabled breakpoints.