From: Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com>
To: Kernel KVM virtualization development <kvm@vger.kernel.org>,
Linux virtualization list
<virtualization@lists.linux-foundation.org>,
Linux IOMMU Development <iommu@lists.linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
Subject: Recovering from IOMMU and/or KVM MMU faults
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2026 01:28:38 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <b16fede3-97a5-45cb-80b1-6e080af84235@gmail.com> (raw)
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I'm designing a new type of virtio device (vhost-guest, was virtio vhost-user), and I'm running into an interesting design question.
Specifically, the frontend (a vhost-user client) can ask the device (a vhost-user server) to ummap memory. This is handled by replacing the mapping with a PROT_NONE one. However, the guest might be accessing that memory. Furthermore, that memory might also be mapped into the IOVA of a VFIO device for zero-copy I/O.
If the guest is accessing the memory, KVM will get a fault. If the PCI device is accessing it, there will be an IOMMU fault. Is it possible to recover from this?
If not, then the only option is to wait for the guest to release the memory itself. If it does not do so, that's a memory leak (host denial of service).
--
Sincerely,
Demi Marie Obenour (she/her/hers)
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reply other threads:[~2026-10-06 5:28 UTC|newest]
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