[RFC PATCH v2 09/17] KVM: SVM: Do not intercept exceptions for Secure AVIC guests

Neeraj Upadhyay posted 17 patches 1 week, 1 day ago
[RFC PATCH v2 09/17] KVM: SVM: Do not intercept exceptions for Secure AVIC guests
Posted by Neeraj Upadhyay 1 week, 1 day ago
Exceptions cannot be explicitly injected from the hypervisor to
Secure AVIC enabled guests. So, KVM cannot inject exceptions into
a Secure AVIC guest. If KVM were to intercept an exception (e.g., #PF
or #GP), it would be unable to deliver it back to the guest, effectively
dropping the event and leading to guest misbehavior or hangs. So,
clear exception intercepts so that all exceptions are handled directly by
the guest without KVM intervention.

Signed-off-by: Neeraj Upadhyay <Neeraj.Upadhyay@amd.com>
---
 arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c | 11 ++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
index a64fcc7637c7..837ab55a3330 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
@@ -4761,8 +4761,17 @@ static void sev_es_init_vmcb(struct vcpu_svm *svm)
 	/* Can't intercept XSETBV, HV can't modify XCR0 directly */
 	svm_clr_intercept(svm, INTERCEPT_XSETBV);
 
-	if (sev_savic_active(vcpu->kvm))
+	if (sev_savic_active(vcpu->kvm)) {
 		svm_set_intercept_for_msr(vcpu, MSR_AMD64_SAVIC_CONTROL, MSR_TYPE_RW, false);
+
+		/* Clear all exception intercepts. */
+		clr_exception_intercept(svm, PF_VECTOR);
+		clr_exception_intercept(svm, UD_VECTOR);
+		clr_exception_intercept(svm, MC_VECTOR);
+		clr_exception_intercept(svm, AC_VECTOR);
+		clr_exception_intercept(svm, DB_VECTOR);
+		clr_exception_intercept(svm, GP_VECTOR);
+	}
 }
 
 void sev_init_vmcb(struct vcpu_svm *svm)
-- 
2.34.1
Re: [RFC PATCH v2 09/17] KVM: SVM: Do not intercept exceptions for Secure AVIC guests
Posted by Tom Lendacky 1 week, 1 day ago
On 9/23/25 00:03, Neeraj Upadhyay wrote:
> Exceptions cannot be explicitly injected from the hypervisor to
> Secure AVIC enabled guests. So, KVM cannot inject exceptions into
> a Secure AVIC guest. If KVM were to intercept an exception (e.g., #PF
> or #GP), it would be unable to deliver it back to the guest, effectively
> dropping the event and leading to guest misbehavior or hangs. So,
> clear exception intercepts so that all exceptions are handled directly by
> the guest without KVM intervention.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Neeraj Upadhyay <Neeraj.Upadhyay@amd.com>
> ---
>  arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c | 11 ++++++++++-
>  1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
> index a64fcc7637c7..837ab55a3330 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
> +++ b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
> @@ -4761,8 +4761,17 @@ static void sev_es_init_vmcb(struct vcpu_svm *svm)
>  	/* Can't intercept XSETBV, HV can't modify XCR0 directly */
>  	svm_clr_intercept(svm, INTERCEPT_XSETBV);
>  
> -	if (sev_savic_active(vcpu->kvm))
> +	if (sev_savic_active(vcpu->kvm)) {
>  		svm_set_intercept_for_msr(vcpu, MSR_AMD64_SAVIC_CONTROL, MSR_TYPE_RW, false);
> +
> +		/* Clear all exception intercepts. */
> +		clr_exception_intercept(svm, PF_VECTOR);
> +		clr_exception_intercept(svm, UD_VECTOR);
> +		clr_exception_intercept(svm, MC_VECTOR);
> +		clr_exception_intercept(svm, AC_VECTOR);
> +		clr_exception_intercept(svm, DB_VECTOR);
> +		clr_exception_intercept(svm, GP_VECTOR);

Some of these are cleared no matter what prior to here. For example,
PF_VECTOR is cleared if npt_enabled is true (which is required for SEV),
UD_VECTOR and GP_VECTOR are cleared in sev_init_vmcb().

For the MC_VECTOR interception, the SVM code just ignores it today by
returning 1 immediately, so clearing the interception looks like a NOP,
but I might be missing something.

Thanks,
Tom

> +	}
>  }
>  
>  void sev_init_vmcb(struct vcpu_svm *svm)