Re: [Xen-devel] Xen Project Spectre/Meltdown FAQ

[Juergen Gross <jgross@xxxxxxxx>]

On 10/01/18 04:58, Peter wrote:
> On 2018-01-09 15:04, Stefano Stabellini wrote:
>> On Sun, 7 Jan 2018, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki wrote:
>>> On Fri, Jan 05, 2018 at 07:05:56PM +0000, Andrew Cooper wrote:
>>> > On 05/01/18 18:16, Rich Persaud wrote:
>>> > >> On Jan 5, 2018, at 06:35, Lars Kurth <lars.kurth.xen@xxxxxxxxx
>>> > >> <mailto:lars.kurth.xen@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>> > >> Linux’s KPTI series is designed to address SP3 only.  For Xen
>>> guests,
>>> > >> only 64-bit PV guests are affected by SP3. A KPTI-like approach was
>>> > >> explored initially, but required significant ABI changes.  
>>>
>>> Is some partial KPTI-like approach feasible? Like unmapping memory owned
>>> by other guests, but keeping Xen areas mapped? This will still allow
>>> leaking Xen memory, but there are very few secrets there (vCPUs state,
>>> anything else?), so overall impact will be much lower.
>>
>> +1
>>
> 
> I believe
> https://blog.xenproject.org/2018/01/04/xen-project-spectremeltdown-faq/
> is clear re VMs attacking/accessing the host/dom0/hypervisor and the
> mitigations for that.
> 
> However the page seems ambiguous about whether 64 bit VMs running as
> PVHv2 with host provided kernels are protected or not (from each VM's
> own processes).

PVHv2 is using exactly the same runtime environment as HVM seen from the
hypervisor. So a guest running as PVHv2 needs a PTI like approach like
HVM in its kernel.

> Can the page be updated to be more explicit and perhaps describe how the
> VM kernel or how the PVHv2 virtualization provides that protection.  And
> ideally how that could be checked from the VM itself.  e.g. grep pti
> /proc/cpuinfo?

As this is really guest specific this information can't be provided by
Xen.

> e.g. the page says: "Guest kernels running in 64-bit PV mode are not
> directly vulnerable to attack using SP3, because 64-bit PV guests
> already run in a KPTI-like mode." but it does not mention PVHv2 for
> that.  Is it protected under PVHv2?  Does it depend on the kernel?  Is
> so what is the patchset/option/mechanism that protects the VM from its
> own processes?

This question should have been answered above already.


Juergen

_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.xenproject.org/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel