LinuxCon + ContainerCon North America 2016

Guest escapes and host information leaks in KVM are a causes for great concern. This talk covers a safer mode for KVM on x86 that is intended to reduce the frequency of such exploits, without decreasing performance. By removing complex, non-performance critical devices from KVM (namely, legacy interrupt controllers and the instruction emulator), the host kernel can expose less attack surface to the guest. This talk analyzes the guest exposed attack surface of KVM, as well as the performance and security implications of this new mode in production.