Re: [PATCH v2 02/21] KVM: VMX: Drop bits 31:16 when shoving exception error code into VMCS

From: Maxim Levitsky
Date: Wed Jul 06 2022 - 14:50:58 EST


On Wed, 2022-07-06 at 16:12 +0000, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 06, 2022, Maxim Levitsky wrote:
> > On Tue, 2022-06-14 at 20:47 +0000, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> > > Deliberately truncate the exception error code when shoving it into the
> > > VMCS (VM-Entry field for vmcs01 and vmcs02, VM-Exit field for vmcs12).
> > > Intel CPUs are incapable of handling 32-bit error codes and will never
> > > generate an error code with bits 31:16, but userspace can provide an
> > > arbitrary error code via KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS. Failure to drop the bits
> > > on exception injection results in failed VM-Entry, as VMX disallows
> > > setting bits 31:16. Setting the bits on VM-Exit would at best confuse
> > > L1, and at worse induce a nested VM-Entry failure, e.g. if L1 decided to
> > > reinject the exception back into L2.
> >
> > Wouldn't it be better to fail KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS instead if it tries
> > to set error code with uppper 16 bits set?
>
> No, because AMD CPUs generate error codes with bits 31:16 set. KVM "supports"
> cross-vendor live migration, so outright rejecting is not an option.
>
> > Or if that is considered ABI breakage, then KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS code
> > can truncate the user given value to 16 bit.
>
> Again, AMD, and more specifically SVM, allows bits 31:16 to be non-zero, so
> truncation is only correct for VMX. I say "VMX" instead of "Intel" because
> architecturally the Intel CPUs do have 32-bit error codes, it's just the VMX
> architecture that doesn't allow injection of 32-bit values.
>

Oh, I see AMD uses bit 31 for RMP (from SEV-SNP) page fault,
Thanks for the explanation!

You might want to add this piece of info somewhere as a comment if you wish.

Thanks,
Best regards,
Maxim Levitsky