Re: [PATCH v10 09/15] KVM: guest_memfd: Add flag to remove from direct map

David Hildenbrand (Arm)
2026-03-10T00:00:42Z

On 1/26/26 17:50, Kalyazin, Nikita wrote:
> From: Patrick Roy <patrick.roy@linux.dev>
>
> Add GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_NO_DIRECT_MAP flag for KVM_CREATE_GUEST_MEMFD()
> ioctl. When set, guest_memfd folios will be removed from the direct map
> after preparation, with direct map entries only restored when the folios
> are freed.
>
> To ensure these folios do not end up in places where the kernel cannot
> deal with them, set AS_NO_DIRECT_MAP on the guest_memfd's struct
> address_space if GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_NO_DIRECT_MAP is requested.
>
> Note that this flag causes removal of direct map entries for all
> guest_memfd folios independent of whether they are "shared" or "private"
> (although current guest_memfd only supports either all folios in the
> "shared" state, or all folios in the "private" state if
> GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_MMAP is not set). The usecase for removing direct map
> entries of also the shared parts of guest_memfd are a special type of
> non-CoCo VM where, host userspace is trusted to have access to all of
> guest memory, but where Spectre-style transient execution attacks
> through the host kernel's direct map should still be mitigated. In this
> setup, KVM retains access to guest memory via userspace mappings of
> guest_memfd, which are reflected back into KVM's memslots via
> userspace_addr. This is needed for things like MMIO emulation on x86_64
> to work.
>
> Direct map entries are zapped right before guest or userspace mappings
> of gmem folios are set up, e.g. in kvm_gmem_fault_user_mapping() or
> kvm_gmem_get_pfn() [called from the KVM MMU code]. The only place where
> a gmem folio can be allocated without being mapped anywhere is
> kvm_gmem_populate(), where handling potential failures of direct map
> removal is not possible (by the time direct map removal is attempted,
> the folio is already marked as prepared, meaning attempting to re-try
> kvm_gmem_populate() would just result in -EEXIST without fixing up the
> direct map state). These folios are then removed form the direct map
> upon kvm_gmem_get_pfn(), e.g. when they are mapped into the guest later.
>
> Signed-off-by: Patrick Roy <patrick.roy@linux.dev>
> Signed-off-by: Nikita Kalyazin <kalyazin@amazon.com>
> ---
> Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst | 21 +++++----
> arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h | 5 +--
> arch/x86/kvm/x86.c | 5 +++
> include/linux/kvm_host.h | 12 +++++
> include/uapi/linux/kvm.h | 1 +
> virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c | 80 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
> 6 files changed, 106 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst b/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
> index 01a3abef8abb..c5ee43904bca 100644
> --- a/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst
> @@ -6440,15 +6440,18 @@ a single guest_memfd file, but the bound ranges must not overlap).
> The capability KVM_CAP_GUEST_MEMFD_FLAGS enumerates the `flags` that can be
> specified via KVM_CREATE_GUEST_MEMFD. Currently defined flags:
>
> - ============================ ================================================
> - GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_MMAP Enable using mmap() on the guest_memfd file
> - descriptor.
> - GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_INIT_SHARED Make all memory in the file shared during
> - KVM_CREATE_GUEST_MEMFD (memory files created
> - without INIT_SHARED will be marked private).
> - Shared memory can be faulted into host userspace
> - page tables. Private memory cannot.
> - ============================ ================================================
> + ============================== ================================================
> + GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_MMAP Enable using mmap() on the guest_memfd file
> + descriptor.
> + GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_INIT_SHARED Make all memory in the file shared during
> + KVM_CREATE_GUEST_MEMFD (memory files created
> + without INIT_SHARED will be marked private).
> + Shared memory can be faulted into host userspace
> + page tables. Private memory cannot.
> + GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_NO_DIRECT_MAP The guest_memfd instance will unmap the memory
> + backing it from the kernel's address space
> + before passing it off to userspace or the guest.
> + ============================== ================================================
>
> When the KVM MMU performs a PFN lookup to service a guest fault and the backing
> guest_memfd has the GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_MMAP set, then the fault will always be
> diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> index 68bd29a52f24..6de1c3a6344f 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> @@ -2483,10 +2483,7 @@ static inline bool kvm_arch_has_irq_bypass(void)
> }
>
> #ifdef CONFIG_KVM_GUEST_MEMFD
> -static inline bool kvm_arch_gmem_supports_no_direct_map(void)
> -{
> - return can_set_direct_map();
> -}
> +bool kvm_arch_gmem_supports_no_direct_map(struct kvm *kvm);

It's odd given that you introduced that code two patches previously. Can
these changes directly be squashed into the earlier patch?
[...]

>
> +#define KVM_GMEM_FOLIO_NO_DIRECT_MAP BIT(0)
> +
> +static bool kvm_gmem_folio_no_direct_map(struct folio *folio)
> +{
> + return ((u64)folio->private) & KVM_GMEM_FOLIO_NO_DIRECT_MAP;
> +}
> +
> +static int kvm_gmem_folio_zap_direct_map(struct folio *folio)
> +{
> + u64 gmem_flags = GMEM_I(folio_inode(folio))->flags;
> + int r = 0;
> +
> + if (kvm_gmem_folio_no_direct_map(folio) || !(gmem_flags & GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_NO_DIRECT_MAP))
> + goto out;
> +
> + folio->private = (void *)((u64)folio->private | KVM_GMEM_FOLIO_NO_DIRECT_MAP);
> + r = folio_zap_direct_map(folio);

And if it fails, you'd leave KVM_GMEM_FOLIO_NO_DIRECT_MAP set.

What about modifying ->private only if it really worked?

> +
> +out:
> + return r;
> +}
> +
> +static void kvm_gmem_folio_restore_direct_map(struct folio *folio)
> +{
> + /*
> + * Direct map restoration cannot fail, as the only error condition
> + * for direct map manipulation is failure to allocate page tables
> + * when splitting huge pages, but this split would have already
> + * happened in folio_zap_direct_map() in kvm_gmem_folio_zap_direct_map().
> + * Note that the splitting occurs always because guest_memfd
> + * currently supports only base pages.
> + * Thus folio_restore_direct_map() here only updates prot bits.
> + */
> + WARN_ON_ONCE(folio_restore_direct_map(folio));

Which raised the question: why should this function then even return an
error?

> + folio->private = (void *)((u64)folio->private & ~KVM_GMEM_FOLIO_NO_DIRECT_MAP);
> +}
> +
> static inline void kvm_gmem_mark_prepared(struct folio *folio)
> {
> folio_mark_uptodate(folio);
> @@ -393,11 +433,17 @@ static bool kvm_gmem_supports_mmap(struct inode *inode)
> return GMEM_I(inode)->flags & GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_MMAP;
> }
>
> +static bool kvm_gmem_no_direct_map(struct inode *inode)
> +{
> + return GMEM_I(inode)->flags & GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_NO_DIRECT_MAP;
> +}
> +
> static vm_fault_t kvm_gmem_fault_user_mapping(struct vm_fault *vmf)
> {
> struct inode *inode = file_inode(vmf->vma->vm_file);
> struct folio *folio;
> vm_fault_t ret = VM_FAULT_LOCKED;
> + int err;
>
> if (((loff_t)vmf->pgoff << PAGE_SHIFT) >= i_size_read(inode))
> return VM_FAULT_SIGBUS;
> @@ -423,6 +469,14 @@ static vm_fault_t kvm_gmem_fault_user_mapping(struct vm_fault *vmf)
> kvm_gmem_mark_prepared(folio);
> }
>
> + if (kvm_gmem_no_direct_map(folio_inode(folio))) {
> + err = kvm_gmem_folio_zap_direct_map(folio);
> + if (err) {
> + ret = vmf_error(err);
> + goto out_folio;
> + }
> + }
> +
> vmf->page = folio_file_page(folio, vmf->pgoff);
>
> out_folio:
> @@ -533,6 +587,9 @@ static void kvm_gmem_free_folio(struct folio *folio)
> kvm_pfn_t pfn = page_to_pfn(page);
> int order = folio_order(folio);
>
> + if (kvm_gmem_folio_no_direct_map(folio))
> + kvm_gmem_folio_restore_direct_map(folio);
> +
> kvm_arch_gmem_invalidate(pfn, pfn + (1ul << order));
> }
>
> @@ -596,6 +653,9 @@ static int __kvm_gmem_create(struct kvm *kvm, loff_t size, u64 flags)
> /* Unmovable mappings are supposed to be marked unevictable as well. */
> WARN_ON_ONCE(!mapping_unevictable(inode->i_mapping));
>
> + if (flags & GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_NO_DIRECT_MAP)
> + mapping_set_no_direct_map(inode->i_mapping);
> +
> GMEM_I(inode)->flags = flags;
>
> file = alloc_file_pseudo(inode, kvm_gmem_mnt, name, O_RDWR, &kvm_gmem_fops);
> @@ -804,15 +864,25 @@ int kvm_gmem_get_pfn(struct kvm *kvm, struct kvm_memory_slot *slot,
> if (IS_ERR(folio))
> return PTR_ERR(folio);
>
> - if (!is_prepared)
> + if (!is_prepared) {
> r = kvm_gmem_prepare_folio(kvm, slot, gfn, folio);
> + if (r)
> + goto out_unlock;
> + }
> +
> + if (kvm_gmem_no_direct_map(folio_inode(folio))) {
> + r = kvm_gmem_folio_zap_direct_map(folio);
> + if (r)
> + goto out_unlock;
> + }

It's a bit nasty that we have two different places where we have to call
this. Smells error prone.

I was wondering why kvm_gmem_get_folio() cannot handle that?

Then also fallocate() would directly be handled directly, instead of
later at fault time etc.

Is it because __kvm_gmem_populate() etc need to write to this page?

--
Cheers,

David