[PATCH 0/2] KVM: arm64: Tentative fixes for page-table lifetime issues

[PATCH 0/2] KVM: arm64: Tentative fixes for page-table lifetime issues

[Will Deacon]

Hi all,

Sashiko highlighted a couple of potential page-table lifetime issues
in the upstream code while it was reviewing the pKVM protected memory
series. They make sense to me so I've had a crack at fixing them and
writing a better description of the problem in the commit message.

For the second issue, I've tested it by forcing the notifier
registration to fail and then watching the SecPageTables line in
/proc/meminfo after attempting to create VMs.

Cheers,

Will

Cc: Marc Zyngier <maz@kernel.org>
Cc: Oliver Upton <oupton@kernel.org>
Cc: Joey Gouly <joey.gouly@arm.com>
Cc: Suzuki K Poulose <suzuki.poulose@arm.com>
Cc: Zenghui Yu <yuzenghui@huawei.com>

--->8

Will Deacon (2):
  KVM: arm64: Don't leave mmu->pgt dangling on kvm_init_stage2_mmu()
    error
  KVM: arm64: Destroy stage-2 page-table in kvm_arch_destroy_vm()

 arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c | 1 +
 arch/arm64/kvm/mmu.c | 1 +
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)

-- 
2.53.0.1018.g2bb0e51243-goog

[PATCH 1/2] KVM: arm64: Don't leave mmu->pgt dangling on kvm_init_stage2_mmu() error

[Will Deacon]

If kvm_init_stage2_mmu() fails to allocate 'mmu->last_vcpu_ran', it
destroys the newly allocated stage-2 page-table before returning ENOMEM.

Unfortunately, it also leaves a dangling pointer in 'mmu->pgt' which
points at the freed 'kvm_pgtable' structure. This is likely to confuse
the kvm_vcpu_init_nested() failure path which can double-free the
structure if it finds it via kvm_free_stage2_pgd().

Ensure that the dangling 'mmu->pgt' pointer is cleared when returning an
error from kvm_init_stage2_mmu().

Link: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260327140039.21228-1-will%40kernel.org?patch=12265
Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
---
 arch/arm64/kvm/mmu.c | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/mmu.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/mmu.c
index 17d64a1e11e5..34e9d897d08b 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/mmu.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/mmu.c
@@ -1013,6 +1013,7 @@ int kvm_init_stage2_mmu(struct kvm *kvm, struct kvm_s2_mmu *mmu, unsigned long t
 
 out_destroy_pgtable:
 	kvm_stage2_destroy(pgt);
+	mmu->pgt = NULL;
 out_free_pgtable:
 	kfree(pgt);
 	return err;
-- 
2.53.0.1018.g2bb0e51243-goog

[PATCH 2/2] KVM: arm64: Destroy stage-2 page-table in kvm_arch_destroy_vm()

[Will Deacon]

kvm_arch_destroy_vm() can be called on the kvm_create_vm() error path
after we have failed to register the MMU notifiers for the new VM. In
this case, we cannot rely on the MMU ->release() notifier to call
kvm_arch_flush_shadow_all() and so the stage-2 page-table allocated in
kvm_arch_init_vm() will be leaked.

Explicitly destroy the stage-2 page-table in kvm_arch_destroy_vm(), so
that we clean up after kvm_arch_destroy_vm() without relying on the MMU
notifiers.

Link: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260327140039.21228-1-will%40kernel.org?patch=12265
Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
---
 arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
index 410ffd41fd73..29bfa79555b2 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
@@ -301,6 +301,7 @@ void kvm_arch_destroy_vm(struct kvm *kvm)
 	if (is_protected_kvm_enabled())
 		pkvm_destroy_hyp_vm(kvm);
 
+	kvm_uninit_stage2_mmu(kvm);
 	kvm_destroy_mpidr_data(kvm);
 
 	kfree(kvm->arch.sysreg_masks);
-- 
2.53.0.1018.g2bb0e51243-goog

Re: [PATCH 0/2] KVM: arm64: Tentative fixes for page-table lifetime issues

[Marc Zyngier]

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 19:27:55 +0000, Will Deacon wrote:
> Sashiko highlighted a couple of potential page-table lifetime issues
> in the upstream code while it was reviewing the pKVM protected memory
> series. They make sense to me so I've had a crack at fixing them and
> writing a better description of the problem in the commit message.
> 
> For the second issue, I've tested it by forcing the notifier
> registration to fail and then watching the SecPageTables line in
> /proc/meminfo after attempting to create VMs.
> 
> [...]

Applied to next, thanks!

[1/2] KVM: arm64: Don't leave mmu->pgt dangling on kvm_init_stage2_mmu() error
      commit: 2fc0f3e2b9a9f397554ffe86e8f6eb0e2507ec6e
[2/2] KVM: arm64: Destroy stage-2 page-table in kvm_arch_destroy_vm()
      commit: a3ca3bfd01b7ee9f54ed85718a6d553cdd87050e

Cheers,

	M.
-- 
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.