From: Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
To: kvmarm@lists.linux.dev
Cc: linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org,
Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>, Marc Zyngier <maz@kernel.org>,
Oliver Upton <oupton@kernel.org>, Joey Gouly <joey.gouly@arm.com>,
Suzuki K Poulose <suzuki.poulose@arm.com>,
Zenghui Yu <yuzenghui@huawei.com>,
Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>,
Quentin Perret <qperret@google.com>,
Fuad Tabba <tabba@google.com>,
Vincent Donnefort <vdonnefort@google.com>,
Mostafa Saleh <smostafa@google.com>
Subject: [PATCH v2 31/35] KVM: arm64: Add some initial documentation for pKVM
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2026 12:46:24 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260119124629.2563-32-will@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260119124629.2563-1-will@kernel.org>
Add some initial documentation for pKVM to help people understand what
is supported, the limitations of protected VMs when compared to
non-protected VMs and also what is left to do.
Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
---
.../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt | 4 +-
Documentation/virt/kvm/arm/index.rst | 1 +
Documentation/virt/kvm/arm/pkvm.rst | 103 ++++++++++++++++++
3 files changed, 106 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 Documentation/virt/kvm/arm/pkvm.rst
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
index a8d0afde7f85..9939dc5654d2 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -3141,8 +3141,8 @@ Kernel parameters
for the host. To force nVHE on VHE hardware, add
"arm64_sw.hvhe=0 id_aa64mmfr1.vh=0" to the
command-line.
- "nested" is experimental and should be used with
- extreme caution.
+ "nested" and "protected" are experimental and should be
+ used with extreme caution.
kvm-arm.vgic_v3_group0_trap=
[KVM,ARM,EARLY] Trap guest accesses to GICv3 group-0
diff --git a/Documentation/virt/kvm/arm/index.rst b/Documentation/virt/kvm/arm/index.rst
index ec09881de4cf..0856b4942e05 100644
--- a/Documentation/virt/kvm/arm/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/virt/kvm/arm/index.rst
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ ARM
fw-pseudo-registers
hyp-abi
hypercalls
+ pkvm
pvtime
ptp_kvm
vcpu-features
diff --git a/Documentation/virt/kvm/arm/pkvm.rst b/Documentation/virt/kvm/arm/pkvm.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..8258c93bed6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/virt/kvm/arm/pkvm.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+====================
+Protected KVM (pKVM)
+====================
+
+**NOTE**: pKVM is currently an experimental, development feature and
+subject to breaking changes as new isolation features are implemented.
+Please reach out to the developers at kvmarm@lists.linux.dev if you have
+any questions.
+
+Overview
+========
+
+Booting a host kernel with '``kvm-arm.mode=protected``' enables
+"Protected KVM" (pKVM). During boot, pKVM installs a stage-2 identity
+map page-table for the host and uses it to isolate the hypervisor
+running at EL2 from the rest of the host running at EL1/0.
+
+If ``CONFIG_PROTECTED_VM_UAPI=y``, pKVM permits creation of protected
+virtual machines (pVMs) by passing the ``KVM_VM_TYPE_ARM_PROTECTED``
+machine type identifier to the ``KVM_CREATE_VM`` ioctl(). The hypervisor
+isolates pVMs from the host by unmapping pages from the stage-2 identity
+map as they are accessed by a pVM. Hypercalls are provided for a pVM to
+share specific regions of its IPA space back with the host, allowing
+for communication with the VMM. See hypercalls.rst for more details.
+
+Isolation mechanisms
+====================
+
+pKVM relies on a number of mechanisms to isolate PVMs from the host:
+
+CPU memory isolation
+--------------------
+
+Status: Isolation of anonymous memory and metadata pages.
+
+Metadata pages (e.g. page-table pages and '``struct kvm_vcpu``' pages)
+are donated from the host to the hypervisor during pVM creation and
+are consequently unmapped from the stage-2 identity map until the pVM is
+destroyed.
+
+Similarly to regular KVM, pages are lazily mapped into the guest in
+response to stage-2 page faults handled by the host. However, when
+running a pVM, these pages are first pinned and then unmapped from the
+stage-2 identity map as part of the donation procedure. This gives rise
+to some user-visible differences when compared to non-protected VMs,
+largely due to the lack of MMU notifiers:
+
+* Memslots cannot be moved or deleted once the pVM has started running.
+* Read-only memslots and dirty logging are not supported.
+* With the exception of swap, file-backed pages cannot be mapped into a
+ pVM.
+* Donated pages are accounted against ``RLIMIT_MLOCK`` and so the VMM
+ must have a sufficient resource limit or be granted ``CAP_IPC_LOCK``.
+ The lack of a runtime reclaim mechanism means that memory locked for
+ a pVM will remain locked until the pVM is destroyed.
+* Changes to the VMM address space (e.g. a ``MAP_FIXED`` mmap() over a
+ mapping associated with a memslot) are not reflected in the guest and
+ may lead to loss of coherency.
+* Accessing pVM memory that has not been shared back will result in the
+ delivery of a SIGSEGV.
+* If a system call accesses pVM memory that has not been shared back
+ then it will either return ``-EFAULT`` or forcefully reclaim the
+ memory pages. Reclaimed memory is zeroed by the hypervisor and a
+ subsequent attempt to access it in the pVM will return ``-EFAULT``
+ from the ``VCPU_RUN`` ioctl().
+
+CPU state isolation
+-------------------
+
+Status: **Unimplemented.**
+
+DMA isolation using an IOMMU
+----------------------------
+
+Status: **Unimplemented.**
+
+Proxying of Trustzone services
+------------------------------
+
+Status: FF-A and PSCI calls from the host are proxied by the pKVM
+hypervisor.
+
+The FF-A proxy ensures that the host cannot share pVM or hypervisor
+memory with Trustzone as part of a "confused deputy" attack.
+
+The PSCI proxy ensures that CPUs always have the stage-2 identity map
+installed when they are executing in the host.
+
+Protected VM firmware (pvmfw)
+-----------------------------
+
+Status: **Unimplemented.**
+
+Resources
+=========
+
+Quentin Perret's KVM Forum 2022 talk entitled "Protected KVM on arm64: A
+technical deep dive" remains a good resource for learning more about
+pKVM, despite some of the details having changed in the meantime:
+
+https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9npebeVFbFw
--
2.52.0.457.g6b5491de43-goog
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-01-19 12:48 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 54+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-01-19 12:45 [PATCH v2 00/35] KVM: arm64: Add support for protected guest memory with pKVM Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:45 ` [PATCH v2 01/35] KVM: arm64: Invert KVM_PGTABLE_WALK_HANDLE_FAULT to fix pKVM walkers Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:45 ` [PATCH v2 02/35] KVM: arm64: Don't leak stage-2 page-table if VM fails to init under pKVM Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:45 ` [PATCH v2 03/35] KVM: arm64: Move handle check into pkvm_pgtable_stage2_destroy_range() Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:45 ` [PATCH v2 04/35] KVM: arm64: Rename __pkvm_pgtable_stage2_unmap() Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:45 ` [PATCH v2 05/35] KVM: arm64: Don't advertise unsupported features for protected guests Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:45 ` [PATCH v2 06/35] KVM: arm64: Expose self-hosted debug regs as RAZ/WI " Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 07/35] KVM: arm64: Remove is_protected_kvm_enabled() checks from hypercalls Will Deacon
2026-02-10 14:53 ` Alexandru Elisei
2026-03-03 15:45 ` Will Deacon
2026-03-06 11:33 ` Alexandru Elisei
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 08/35] KVM: arm64: Ignore MMU notifier callbacks for protected VMs Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 09/35] KVM: arm64: Prevent unsupported memslot operations on " Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 10/35] KVM: arm64: Ignore -EAGAIN when mapping in pages for the pKVM host Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 11/35] KVM: arm64: Split teardown hypercall into two phases Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 12/35] KVM: arm64: Introduce __pkvm_host_donate_guest() Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 13/35] KVM: arm64: Hook up donation hypercall to pkvm_pgtable_stage2_map() Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 14/35] KVM: arm64: Handle aborts from protected VMs Will Deacon
2026-02-12 10:37 ` Alexandru Elisei
2026-03-04 14:06 ` Will Deacon
2026-03-06 11:34 ` Alexandru Elisei
2026-03-11 10:24 ` Fuad Tabba
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 15/35] KVM: arm64: Introduce __pkvm_reclaim_dying_guest_page() Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 16/35] KVM: arm64: Hook up reclaim hypercall to pkvm_pgtable_stage2_destroy() Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 17/35] KVM: arm64: Refactor enter_exception64() Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 18/35] KVM: arm64: Inject SIGSEGV on illegal accesses Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 19/35] KVM: arm64: Avoid pointless annotation when mapping host-owned pages Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 20/35] KVM: arm64: Generalise kvm_pgtable_stage2_set_owner() Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 21/35] KVM: arm64: Introduce host_stage2_set_owner_metadata_locked() Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 22/35] KVM: arm64: Change 'pkvm_handle_t' to u16 Will Deacon
2026-01-28 10:28 ` Fuad Tabba
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 23/35] KVM: arm64: Annotate guest donations with handle and gfn in host stage-2 Will Deacon
2026-01-28 10:29 ` Fuad Tabba
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 24/35] KVM: arm64: Introduce hypercall to force reclaim of a protected page Will Deacon
2026-02-12 17:18 ` Alexandru Elisei
2026-03-04 14:08 ` Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 25/35] KVM: arm64: Reclaim faulting page from pKVM in spurious fault handler Will Deacon
2026-02-12 17:22 ` Alexandru Elisei
2026-03-04 14:06 ` Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 26/35] KVM: arm64: Return -EFAULT from VCPU_RUN on access to a poisoned pte Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 27/35] KVM: arm64: Add hvc handler at EL2 for hypercalls from protected VMs Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 28/35] KVM: arm64: Implement the MEM_SHARE hypercall for " Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 29/35] KVM: arm64: Implement the MEM_UNSHARE " Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 30/35] KVM: arm64: Allow userspace to create protected VMs when pKVM is enabled Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` Will Deacon [this message]
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 32/35] KVM: arm64: Extend pKVM page ownership selftests to cover guest donation Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 33/35] KVM: arm64: Register 'selftest_vm' in the VM table Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 34/35] KVM: arm64: Extend pKVM page ownership selftests to cover forced reclaim Will Deacon
2026-01-19 12:46 ` [PATCH v2 35/35] KVM: arm64: Extend pKVM page ownership selftests to cover guest hvcs Will Deacon
2026-02-10 18:58 ` [PATCH v2 00/35] KVM: arm64: Add support for protected guest memory with pKVM Trilok Soni
2026-02-10 19:03 ` Fuad Tabba
2026-02-16 10:58 ` Venkata Rao Kakani
2026-02-16 11:00 ` Fuad Tabba
2026-02-17 10:43 ` Venkata Rao Kakani
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