From: sashiko-bot@kernel.org
To: "Jörg Rödel" <joro@8bytes.org>
Cc: kvm@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/4] kvm: svm: Streamline VMSA setting for VCPUs
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2026 12:56:28 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260611125628.C61421F00893@smtp.kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260611123528.572255-2-joro@8bytes.org>
Thank you for your contribution! Sashiko AI review found 2 potential issue(s) to consider:
New issues:
- [High] Dynamically freeing an active initial VMSA page during SNP AP creation without using SNP_PAGE_RECLAIM triggers an RMP violation, which bug-halts the VM and leaks memory.
Pre-existing issues:
- [Critical] A malicious SEV-SNP guest can crash the host kernel by punching a hole in a guest_memfd page that is actively assigned as an AP VMSA.
--
commit dfce748c773ed97c4a6e2b3a1ea5718862d5c1bf
Author: Joerg Roedel <joerg.roedel@amd.com>
kvm: svm: Streamline VMSA setting for VCPUs
This commit streamlines the VMSA setting state of vcpus, allowing a VMSA
to be either KVM-allocated or guest-provided. It consolidates the various
tracking states around VMSAs.
> diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
> index 0c3962647116e..9e00aa7bdca8c 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
> +++ b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
[ ... ]
> @@ -156,6 +159,173 @@ struct enc_region {
[ ... ]
> +static void sev_es_vcpu_free_vmsa(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
> +{
> + struct vcpu_svm *svm = to_svm(vcpu);
> + void *vmsa_ptr;
> +
> + switch (svm->sev_es.vmsa.vmsa_state) {
> + case VMSA_NONE:
> + case VMSA_GUEST:
> + break;
> + case VMSA_PRIVATE:
> + vmsa_ptr = page_address(svm->sev_es.vmsa.vmsa_page);
> +
> + if (is_sev_snp_guest(vcpu)) {
> + u64 pfn = __pa(vmsa_ptr) >> PAGE_SHIFT;
> +
> + if (kvm_rmp_make_shared(vcpu->kvm, pfn, PG_LEVEL_4K)) {
[Severity: High]
Does this sequence trigger an RMP violation?
When an SEV-SNP guest provisions an AP and triggers svm_vmgexit_ap_creation(),
KVM replaces the initial KVM-managed VMSA with the guest-provided one using
sev_es_set_guest_vmsa(), which eagerly frees the old VMSA via
sev_es_vcpu_free_vmsa().
For SNP guests, the old VMSA page is in the VMSA_PRIVATE state and has been
transitioned to the hardware VMSA state. To transition it back to shared
memory, AMD architecture requires reclaiming the page via snp_page_reclaim()
before issuing an RMPUPDATE.
Since sev_es_vcpu_free_vmsa() bypasses snp_page_reclaim() and directly calls
kvm_rmp_make_shared(), could this fail with an RMP violation, causing the VM
to bug-halt and leak the physical page?
> + pr_err("Failed to make VMSA page shared - leaking it to avoid re-use\n");
> + goto out;
> + }
> + }
> +
> + if (vcpu->arch.guest_state_protected)
> + sev_flush_encrypted_page(vcpu, vmsa_ptr);
> +
> + fallthrough;
[ ... ]
> +static u64 sev_es_vmsa_pa(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
> +{
> + struct vcpu_svm *svm = to_svm(vcpu);
> + enum vmsa_state vmsa_state = svm->sev_es.vmsa.vmsa_state;
> + u64 vmsa_pa = INVALID_PAGE;
> +
> + if (vmsa_state == VMSA_GUEST) {
[ ... ]
> + /*
> + * The new VMSA will be private memory guest memory, so retrieve the
> + * PFN from the gmem backend.
> + */
> + if (kvm_gmem_get_pfn(vcpu->kvm, slot, gfn, &pfn, &page, NULL))
> + goto out;
> +
> + vmsa_pa = pfn_to_hpa(pfn);
> +
> + /*
> + * gmem pages aren't currently migratable, but if this ever changes
> + * then care should be taken to ensure the guest vmsa is pinned
> + * through some other means.
> + */
> + kvm_release_page_clean(page);
[Severity: Critical]
This is a pre-existing issue, but does dropping the page reference here allow
a malicious guest to crash the host kernel?
When a guest-provided VMSA is used for an AP, KVM resolves the GPA to a PFN
and immediately drops its page reference here. The physical address is then
programmed into the hardware VMCB.
If a malicious guest issues a Page State Change request to transition this VMSA
page back to shared memory, host userspace can handle this by calling
fallocate(PUNCH_HOLE) on the guest_memfd. This would trigger
sev_gmem_invalidate(), which attempts rmp_make_shared().
Because the page is still in the VMSA state, rmp_make_shared() would fail.
sev_gmem_invalidate() only prints a warning and proceeds, freeing the page
back to the buddy allocator while its RMP entry is still guest-restricted.
When the host buddy allocator reallocates and accesses this page, would it
trigger an RMP violation and a host kernel panic?
> + } else if (vmsa_state == VMSA_PRIVATE || vmsa_state == VMSA_SHARED) {
> + vmsa_pa = __pa(page_address(svm->sev_es.vmsa.vmsa_page));
> + }
> +
> +out:
> + return vmsa_pa;
> +}
--
Sashiko AI review · https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260611123528.572255-1-joro@8bytes.org?part=1
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-06-11 12:56 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 15+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-06-11 12:35 [PATCH 0/4] KVM: SEV: Support direct setting of VMSA for SEV-SNP guests Jörg Rödel
2026-06-11 12:35 ` [PATCH 1/4] kvm: svm: Streamline VMSA setting for VCPUs Jörg Rödel
2026-06-11 12:56 ` sashiko-bot [this message]
2026-06-11 14:13 ` Jörg Rödel
2026-06-11 12:35 ` [PATCH 2/4] kvm: svm: Defer VMSA allocation to LAUNCH_FINISH stage Jörg Rödel
2026-06-11 12:58 ` sashiko-bot
2026-06-11 14:29 ` Jörg Rödel
2026-06-11 12:35 ` [PATCH 3/4] kvm: svm: Support guest-provided VMSA for launching Jörg Rödel
2026-06-11 13:05 ` sashiko-bot
2026-06-11 14:43 ` Jörg Rödel
2026-06-11 12:35 ` [PATCH 4/4] kvm: svm: Support KVM_SEV_SNP_PAGE_TYPE_VMSA at SNP_LAUNCH_UPDATE Jörg Rödel
2026-06-11 12:43 ` Sean Christopherson
2026-06-11 13:23 ` Jörg Rödel
2026-06-11 12:58 ` sashiko-bot
2026-06-11 15:23 ` Jörg Rödel
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=20260611125628.C61421F00893@smtp.kernel.org \
--to=sashiko-bot@kernel.org \
--cc=joro@8bytes.org \
--cc=kvm@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=sashiko-reviews@lists.linux.dev \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox