[PATCH] KVM: nVMX: Document that ignoring memory failures for VMCLEAR is deliberate

From: Sean Christopherson
Date: Tue Dec 20 2022 - 10:42:39 EST


Explicitly drop the result of kvm_vcpu_write_guest() when writing the
"launch state" as part of VMCLEAR emulation, and add a comment to call
out that KVM's behavior is architecturally valid. Intel's pseudocode
effectively says that VMCLEAR is a nop if the target VMCS address isn't
in memory, e.g. if the address points at MMIO.

Add a FIXME to call out that suppressing failures on __copy_to_user() is
wrong, as memory (a memslot) does exist in that case. Punt the issue to
the future as open coding kvm_vcpu_write_guest() just to make sure the
guest dies with -EFAULT isn't worth the extra complexity. The flaw will
need to be addressed if KVM ever does something intelligent on uaccess
failures, e.g. to support post-copy demand paging, but in that case KVM
will need a more thorough overhaul, i.e. VMCLEAR shouldn't need to open
code a core KVM helper.

No functional change intended.

Reported-by: coverity-bot <keescook+coverity-bot@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Addresses-Coverity-ID: 1527765 ("Error handling issues")
Fixes: 587d7e72aedc ("kvm: nVMX: VMCLEAR should not cause the vCPU to shut down")
Cc: Jim Mattson <jmattson@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c | 17 +++++++++++++----
1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c
index b6f4411b613e..f18f3a9f0943 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c
@@ -5296,10 +5296,19 @@ static int handle_vmclear(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
if (vmptr == vmx->nested.current_vmptr)
nested_release_vmcs12(vcpu);

- kvm_vcpu_write_guest(vcpu,
- vmptr + offsetof(struct vmcs12,
- launch_state),
- &zero, sizeof(zero));
+ /*
+ * Silently ignore memory errors on VMCLEAR, Intel's pseudocode
+ * for VMCLEAR includes a "ensure that data for VMCS referenced
+ * by the operand is in memory" clause that guards writes to
+ * memory, i.e. doing nothing for I/O is architecturally valid.
+ *
+ * FIXME: Suppress failures if and only if no memslot is found,
+ * i.e. exit to userspace if __copy_to_user() fails.
+ */
+ (void)kvm_vcpu_write_guest(vcpu,
+ vmptr + offsetof(struct vmcs12,
+ launch_state),
+ &zero, sizeof(zero));
} else if (vmx->nested.hv_evmcs && vmptr == vmx->nested.hv_evmcs_vmptr) {
nested_release_evmcs(vcpu);
}

base-commit: 9d75a3251adfbcf444681474511b58042a364863
--
2.39.0.314.g84b9a713c41-goog