RE: [RFC PATCH] arm64: mm: support set_memory_encrypted/decrypted for vmalloc addresses

Kameron Carr
2026-04-10T21:36:56Z

On Friday, April 10, 2026 4:06 AM, Catalin Marinas wrote:
> Could you give more details about the user of set_memory_decrypted() on
> vmalloc()'ed addresses? I think this came up in the past and I wondered
> whether something like GFP_DECRYPTED would be simpler to implement (even
> posted a hack but without vmalloc() support). If it is known upfront
> that the memory will be decrypted, it's easier/cheaper to do this on the
> page allocation time to change the linear map and just use
> pgprot_decrypted() for vmap(). No need to rewrite the page table after
> mapping the pages.

Thank you for the review. I understand that my approach is not ideal in
terms of speed / cost. For my use case it was not an issue since the
memory is typically only initialized once during device initialization,
but I understand there could be a larger performance impact in other
uses.

The use case I am interested in is Hyper-V netvsc
(drivers/net/hyperv/netvsc.c). The network driver allocates large send
and receive buffers (typically 16MB+) with vzalloc(), then registers them
as Guest Physical Address Descriptor Lists (GPADLs) via
vmbus_establish_gpadl(). Inside __vmbus_establish_gpadl()
(drivers/hv/channel.c), set_memory_decrypted() is called on the buffer so
the hypervisor can access the shared memory.

In this use case, whether to decrypt the memory can always be known at
time of allocation, so a solution like GFP_DECRYPTED is an option.

I think I found the hack you mentioned
(https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/ZmNJdSxSz-sYpVgI@arm.com/). The
feedback in Michael Kelley's reply covers the key considerations well. He
likely had netvsc's use of vmalloc in mind when he made the point
"GFP_DECRYPTED should work for the three memory allocation interfaces and
their variants: alloc_pages(), kmalloc(), and vmalloc()." His other
points already cover the concerns I had in mind around handling errors
from set_memory_decrypted()/encrypted(), etc.

What is the current status of your proposed GFP_DECRYPTED implementation?
Is this something you are actively working on?

I'd be happy to work on an RFC following the GFP_DECRYPTED approach if
you think that's the right direction.

Regards,
Kameron Carr