Simple KVM firmware

This project is an experiment and should not be used production workloads.

This repository contains a simple KVM firmware that is designed to be launched from anything that supports loading ELF binaries and running them with the Linux kernel loading standard.

The ultimate goal is to be able to use this "firmware" to be able to load a bootloader from within a disk image.

Currently it will directly load a kernel from a disk image that follows the Boot Loader Specification

The firmware is primarily developed against Cloud Hypervisor.

This project was orginally developed using Firecracker however as it does not currently support resetting the virtio block device it is not possible to boot all the way into the OS.

Building

To compile:

cargo xbuild --release --target target.json

The result will be in:

target/target/release/hypervisor-fw

Features

• virtio (MMIO & PCI) block support
• GPT parsing (to find EFI system partition)
• FAT12/16/32 directory traversal and file reading
• bzImage loader
• "Boot Loader Specification" parser
• PE32+ loader
• Minimal EFI environment (sufficient to boot shim + GRUB2 as used by Ubuntu)

Running

Works with Cloud Hypervisor and Firecracker as a drop in replacement for the Linux kernel. It does not work with crosvm as crosvm has a hardcoded kernel function start address.

Cloud Hypervisor is currently the primary development target for the firmware although support for other VMMs will be considered.

Cloud Hypervisor

As per getting started

However instead of using the binary firmware for the parameter to --kernel instead use the binary you build above.

$ pushd $CLOUDH
$ sudo setcap cap_net_admin+ep ./cloud-hypervisor/target/release/cloud-hypervisor
$ ./cloud-hypervisor/target/release/cloud-hypervisor \
	--kernel ./target/target/release/hypervisor-fw \
	--disk path=./clear-29160-kvm.img \
	--cpus boot=4 \
	--memory size=512M \
	--net "tap=,mac=,ip=,mask=" \
	--rng
$ popd

Firecracker

As per quick start

Replacing the kernel and rootfs to point at the firmware and the full disk image instead.

curl --unix-socket /tmp/firecracker.socket -i \
    -X PUT 'http://localhost/boot-source'   \
    -H 'Accept: application/json'           \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json'     \
    -d '{
        "kernel_image_path": "target/target/release/hypervisor-fw",
        "boot_args": ""
    }'

curl --unix-socket /tmp/firecracker.socket -i \
    -X PUT 'http://localhost/drives/rootfs' \
    -H 'Accept: application/json'           \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json'     \
    -d '{
        "drive_id": "rootfs",
        "path_on_host": "clear-28660-kvm.img",
        "is_root_device": true,
        "is_read_only": false
    }'

curl --unix-socket /tmp/firecracker.socket -i \
    -X PUT 'http://localhost/actions'       \
    -H  'Accept: application/json'          \
    -H  'Content-Type: application/json'    \
    -d '{
        "action_type": "InstanceStart"
     }'

Currently Firecracker's virtio block device does not support resetting the device and as such it is not possible for the booted Linux kernel to take over the device from the firmware.

Testing

"cargo test" needs disk images from make-test-disks.sh

And clear-28660-kvm.img:

https://download.clearlinux.org/releases/28660/clear/clear-28660-kvm.img.xz

sha1sum: 5fc086643dea4b20c59a795a262e0d2400fab15f

Security

Reporting a Potential Security Vulnerability: If you have discovered potential security vulnerability in this project, please send an e-mail to secure@intel.com. For issues related to Intel Products, please visit https://security-center.intel.com.

It is important to include the following details:

• The projects and versions affected
• Detailed description of the vulnerability
• Information on known exploits

Vulnerability information is extremely sensitive. Please encrypt all security vulnerability reports using our PGP key

A member of the Intel Product Security Team will review your e-mail and contact you to to collaborate on resolving the issue. For more information on how Intel works to resolve security issues, see: Vulnerability Handling Guidelines

PGP Key: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/pgp-public-key.html

Vulnerability Handling Guidelines: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/vulnerability-handling-guidelines.html