2025-09-05 –, Room 2
COCONUT-SVSM currently lacks a reliable, monotonic timer source, which is essential for supporting trusted services. In SEV-SNP guests, the TSC is the only trusted time source, but its actual frequency may slightly differ from the nominal P0 frequency due to spread spectrum clocking. This small deviation can lead to clock drift over time. This talk explores adding SecureTSC support to COCONUT-SVSM to establish a safe timer foundation, and proposes integrating the KVM clock to improve accuracy -- inviting discussion on how best to ensure reliable timekeeping in SVSM.
Vaishali Thakkar works on Confidential Computing at SUSE. She has previously worked in various subsystems of the kernel as part of her job and was involved with Outreachy as a Linux kernel coordinator for few years. She has given talks at various conferences like Linux Plumbers Conference, FOSDEM, LinuxCon, Xen Summit etc.