[PATCH v3] KVM: arm64: Clear the VM's feature bitmap when kvm_setup_vcpu() fails
From: Fuad Tabba
Date: Mon Sep 21 2026 - 15:10:29 EST
__kvm_vcpu_set_target() copies the requested features into the VM-wide
bitmap before kvm_setup_vcpu() runs and doesn't undo it when setup
fails, so a rejected KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT leaves the VM recording features
that were never set up. With HAS_EL2 | HAS_EL2_E2H0 on a host without
FEAT_NV1, kvm_vcpu_init_nested() returns -EINVAL before it allocates any
nested stage-2 MMU, and vcpu_has_nv() is then true with
nested_mmus_size == 0; its -ENOMEM paths do the same on a VM's first
INIT.
Until one INIT has succeeded, every INIT that passes the feature check
rewrites the bitmap and a failure leaves it there; once
KVM_ARCH_FLAG_VCPU_FEATURES_CONFIGURED is set, kvm_vcpu_init_changed()
has already required the requested features to equal the bitmap, so
the copy is a no-op. Clear the bitmap on failure while the flag is
clear.
This showed up with the series that enables KVM_PRE_FAULT_MEMORY for
arm64, since the generic kvm_vcpu_pre_fault_memory() calls vcpu_load()
without checking that the vCPU has been initialised. After the rejected
INIT, the first call's vcpu_load() reads hw_mmu still set to the
canonical MMU and leaves it alone, but its vcpu_put() takes the
vcpu_has_nv() branch into kvm_vcpu_put_hw_mmu(), which clears hw_mmu.
The second call's vcpu_load() reads hw_mmu as NULL and takes the
nested branch into get_s2_mmu_nested(), whose search over
nested_mmus_size == 0 leaves s2_mmu NULL for the
BUG_ON(atomic_read(&s2_mmu->refcnt)), under mmu_lock. On kvmarm/next
with the series applied:
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000074
Call trace:
kvm_vcpu_load_hw_mmu (arch/arm64/kvm/nested.c:891) (P)
kvm_arch_vcpu_load (arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c:662)
kvm_vcpu_pre_fault_memory (virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:170 virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:4349)
kvm_vcpu_ioctl (virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:4639)
Fixes: 427733579744e ("KVM: arm64: Select default PMU in KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT handler")
Suggested-by: Oliver Upton <oupton@xxxxxxxxxx>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260825-kvm-arm-prefault-v1-0-befe8947702e@xxxxxxxxxx/
Signed-off-by: Fuad Tabba <fuad.tabba@xxxxxxxxx>
---
v3:
- Clear the bitmap on failure instead of saving and restoring it, only
while KVM_ARCH_FLAG_VCPU_FEATURES_CONFIGURED is clear, since with the
flag set the copy was a no-op (Oliver).
- Commit message: drop the "latent, exposed by the series" framing and
state the flag invariant behind the clear; the pre-fault crash is
how the bug showed up.
- Dropped Lorenzo's Reviewed-by since the code changed.
v2:
- Commit message: say what the prefault series enables, bring the
two-ioctl walk and the trace up from below the fold, the trace
decoded, and drop the Fixes: on 1de10b7d13a97, which had nothing
fallible after the copy (Lorenzo).
- Fold Lorenzo's Reviewed-by.
Reproduced on kvmarm/next plus the series under QEMU (-cpu max with an
Apple M2 MIDR, which has_nv1() denies; kvm-arm.mode=nested):
KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT with HAS_EL2 | HAS_EL2_E2H0 returns -EINVAL, then
KVM_PRE_FAULT_MEMORY twice. With the fix both calls return -ENOENT and
the host is unaffected. Based on kvmarm/fixes; applies cleanly to
v7.3-rc4 and to kvmarm/next.
v2: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260921063718.1604533-1-fuad.tabba@xxxxxxxxx/
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260918120553.163139-1-fuad.tabba@xxxxxxxxx/
arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c | 10 +++++++++-
1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
index eaf583b771931..bd19f64ae82ef 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
@@ -1698,8 +1698,16 @@ static int __kvm_vcpu_set_target(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu,
bitmap_copy(kvm->arch.vcpu_features, &features, KVM_VCPU_MAX_FEATURES);
ret = kvm_setup_vcpu(vcpu);
- if (ret)
+ if (ret) {
+ /*
+ * Clear the bitmap if setup fails on the first vCPU to be
+ * initialized.
+ */
+ if (!test_bit(KVM_ARCH_FLAG_VCPU_FEATURES_CONFIGURED, &kvm->arch.flags))
+ bitmap_zero(kvm->arch.vcpu_features, KVM_VCPU_MAX_FEATURES);
+
goto out_unlock;
+ }
/* Now we know what it is, we can reset it. */
kvm_reset_vcpu(vcpu);
base-commit: 6b1bca1b1ab77f60a62087337bfe6e2f0efb9e6d
--
2.39.5