[PATCH v3] KVM: nVMX: Skip IBPB when switching between vmcs01 and vmcs02

[PATCH v3] KVM: nVMX: Skip IBPB when switching between vmcs01 and vmcs02

[Sean Christopherson]

Skip the Indirect Branch Prediction Barrier that is triggered on a VMCS
switch when running with spectre_v2_user=on/auto if the switch is
guaranteed to be between two VMCSes in the same guest, i.e. between
vmcs01 and vmcs02.  The IBPB is intended to prevent one guest from
attacking another, which is unnecessary in the nested case as it's the
same guest from KVM's perspective.

This all but eliminates the overhead observed for nested VMX transitions
when running with CONFIG_RETPOLINE=y and spectre_v2_user=on/auto, which
can be significant, e.g. roughly 3x on current systems.

Reported-by: Alexander Graf <graf@amazon.com>
Cc: KarimAllah Raslan <karahmed@amazon.de>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Fixes: 15d45071523d ("KVM/x86: Add IBPB support")
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <sean.j.christopherson@intel.com>
---

v3: Switch back to passing 'struct loaded_vmcs buddy', but keep the WARN
    if the buddy VMCS isn't already loaded as well as the comment as to
    why skipping IBPB in the nested case is ok. [Paolo]

v2: Pass a boolean to indicate a nested VMCS switch and instead WARN if
    the buddy VMCS is not already loaded.  [Alex]

 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c |  2 +-
 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c    | 18 ++++++++++++++----
 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h    |  3 ++-
 3 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c
index 2c36f3f53108..1a02bdfeeb2b 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c
@@ -303,7 +303,7 @@ static void vmx_switch_vmcs(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct loaded_vmcs *vmcs)
 	cpu = get_cpu();
 	prev = vmx->loaded_vmcs;
 	vmx->loaded_vmcs = vmcs;
-	vmx_vcpu_load_vmcs(vcpu, cpu);
+	vmx_vcpu_load_vmcs(vcpu, cpu, prev);
 	vmx_sync_vmcs_host_state(vmx, prev);
 	put_cpu();
 
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
index 3ab6ca6062ce..06ee0572b929 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
@@ -1311,10 +1311,12 @@ static void vmx_vcpu_pi_load(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int cpu)
 		pi_set_on(pi_desc);
 }
 
-void vmx_vcpu_load_vmcs(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int cpu)
+void vmx_vcpu_load_vmcs(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int cpu,
+			struct loaded_vmcs *buddy)
 {
 	struct vcpu_vmx *vmx = to_vmx(vcpu);
 	bool already_loaded = vmx->loaded_vmcs->cpu == cpu;
+	struct vmcs *prev;
 
 	if (!already_loaded) {
 		loaded_vmcs_clear(vmx->loaded_vmcs);
@@ -1333,10 +1335,18 @@ void vmx_vcpu_load_vmcs(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int cpu)
 		local_irq_enable();
 	}
 
-	if (per_cpu(current_vmcs, cpu) != vmx->loaded_vmcs->vmcs) {
+	prev = per_cpu(current_vmcs, cpu);
+	if (prev != vmx->loaded_vmcs->vmcs) {
 		per_cpu(current_vmcs, cpu) = vmx->loaded_vmcs->vmcs;
 		vmcs_load(vmx->loaded_vmcs->vmcs);
-		indirect_branch_prediction_barrier();
+
+		/*
+		 * No indirect branch prediction barrier needed when switching
+		 * the active VMCS within a guest, e.g. on nested VM-Enter.
+		 * The L1 VMM can protect itself with retpolines, IBPB or IBRS.
+		 */
+		if (!buddy || WARN_ON_ONCE(buddy->vmcs != prev))
+			indirect_branch_prediction_barrier();
 	}
 
 	if (!already_loaded) {
@@ -1377,7 +1387,7 @@ void vmx_vcpu_load(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int cpu)
 {
 	struct vcpu_vmx *vmx = to_vmx(vcpu);
 
-	vmx_vcpu_load_vmcs(vcpu, cpu);
+	vmx_vcpu_load_vmcs(vcpu, cpu, NULL);
 
 	vmx_vcpu_pi_load(vcpu, cpu);
 
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h
index b5e773267abe..d3d48acc6bd9 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h
@@ -320,7 +320,8 @@ struct kvm_vmx {
 };
 
 bool nested_vmx_allowed(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);
-void vmx_vcpu_load_vmcs(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int cpu);
+void vmx_vcpu_load_vmcs(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int cpu,
+			struct loaded_vmcs *buddy);
 void vmx_vcpu_load(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int cpu);
 int allocate_vpid(void);
 void free_vpid(int vpid);
-- 
2.26.0