diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 88524043b..7d66d4f5b 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,10 +1,8 @@
-FEATURES ?= "default"
-SVSM_ARGS = --features ${FEATURES}
+FEATURES ?= mstpm
+SVSM_ARGS += --features ${FEATURES}
 
-SVSM_ARGS_TEST = --no-default-features
-ifdef FEATURES_TEST
-	SVSM_ARGS_TEST += --features ${FEATURES_TEST}
-endif
+FEATURES_TEST ?= mstpm
+SVSM_ARGS_TEST += --no-default-features --features ${FEATURES_TEST}
 
 ifdef RELEASE
 TARGET_PATH=release
@@ -112,7 +110,7 @@ bin/meta.bin: utils/gen_meta utils/print-meta bin
 	./utils/gen_meta $@
 
 bin/stage2.bin: bin
-	cargo build --manifest-path kernel/Cargo.toml ${CARGO_ARGS} --no-default-features --bin stage2
+	cargo build --manifest-path kernel/Cargo.toml ${CARGO_ARGS} --bin stage2
 	objcopy -O binary ${STAGE2_ELF} $@
 
 bin/svsm-kernel.elf: bin
@@ -120,7 +118,7 @@ bin/svsm-kernel.elf: bin
 	objcopy -O elf64-x86-64 --strip-unneeded ${SVSM_KERNEL_ELF} $@
 
 bin/test-kernel.elf: bin
-	LINK_TEST=1 cargo +nightly test ${CARGO_ARGS} -p svsm --config 'target.x86_64-unknown-none.runner=["sh", "-c", "cp $$0 ../${TEST_KERNEL_ELF}"]'
+	LINK_TEST=1 cargo +nightly test ${CARGO_ARGS} ${SVSM_ARGS_TEST} -p svsm --config 'target.x86_64-unknown-none.runner=["sh", "-c", "cp $$0 ../${TEST_KERNEL_ELF}"]'
 	objcopy -O elf64-x86-64 --strip-unneeded ${TEST_KERNEL_ELF} bin/test-kernel.elf
 
 ${FS_BIN}: bin
diff --git a/kernel/Cargo.toml b/kernel/Cargo.toml
index 3031edf9c..3b699c72f 100644
--- a/kernel/Cargo.toml
+++ b/kernel/Cargo.toml
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ libmstpm = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 test.workspace = true
 
 [features]
-default = ["mstpm"]
+default = []
 enable-gdb = ["dep:gdbstub", "dep:gdbstub_arch"]
 mstpm = ["dep:libmstpm"]