Re: [PATCH] x86/kvm: Don't consume async #PF flags on a kernel #PF in NMI context

[Paolo Bonzini]

> An async #PF "page not present" event arrives through the #PF vector,
> and its reason sits in the per-CPU apf_reason.flags until
> __kvm_handle_async_pf() reads and clears it. If an NMI arrives after
> the event is injected and before the #PF handler reads the flags, and
> the NMI handler itself takes a #PF, that fault reads and clears the
> flags belonging to the #PF it interrupted. It then finds interrupts
> disabled in the NMI context it interrupted, and panics:
> 
>   Kernel panic - not syncing: Host injected async #PF in interrupt
> disabled region
>   Call Trace:
>    <NMI>
>    panic+0x52/0x60
>    __kvm_handle_async_pf+0xb0/0xb0
>    exc_page_fault+0x71/0xb0
>    asm_exc_page_fault+0x27/0x30
>   RIP: 0010:__get_user_nocheck_8+0x6/0x20
>    perf_callchain_user+0x147/0x1a0
>    get_perf_callchain+0x12d/0x1c0
>    ...
>    perf_event_nmi_handler+0x26/0x50
>    exc_nmi+0xe8/0x110
>   RIP: 0010:asm_exc_page_fault+0x0/0x30
>    </NMI>

I've made a small adjustment to move "if (!kvm_apf_reason_pending())"
before the user_mode test, which preserves the idea of the "if (!flags)"
conditional that existed before your patch.  It's just a matter of taste
though.

Otherwise, the patch looks good.  What I applied is below:

-------------- 8< ----------------
From: EJ Campbell <ejc3@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2026 11:12:32 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] x86/kvm: Don't consume async #PF flags on a kernel #PF in NMI context

An async #PF "page not present" event arrives through the #PF vector,
and its reason sits in the per-CPU apf_reason.flags until
__kvm_handle_async_pf() reads and clears it. If an NMI arrives after
the event is injected and before the #PF handler reads the flags, and
the NMI handler itself takes a #PF, that fault reads and clears the
flags belonging to the #PF it interrupted. It then finds interrupts
disabled in the NMI context it interrupted, and panics:

  Kernel panic - not syncing: Host injected async #PF in interrupt
disabled region
  Call Trace:
   <NMI>
   panic+0x52/0x60
   __kvm_handle_async_pf+0xb0/0xb0
   exc_page_fault+0x71/0xb0
   asm_exc_page_fault+0x27/0x30
  RIP: 0010:__get_user_nocheck_8+0x6/0x20
   perf_callchain_user+0x147/0x1a0
   get_perf_callchain+0x12d/0x1c0
   ...
   perf_event_nmi_handler+0x26/0x50
   exc_nmi+0xe8/0x110
  RIP: 0010:asm_exc_page_fault+0x0/0x30
   </NMI>

The last RIP line shows the NMI landing on the first instruction of
the #PF entry. perf with user call chains takes such a fault: the
sampling NMI walks the user stack with __get_user(), which faults when
a saved frame pointer is not a valid user address or the walk runs off
the top of the stack. The same window exists when KVM, running as an
L1 hypervisor with DELIVERY_AS_PF_VMEXIT, reads the flags itself after
a #PF VM-exit.

The NMI entry code saves and restores CR2 for this nesting, but not the
async #PF reason. Andy Lutomirski described the race, with perf as the
example, when async #PF delivery was reworked in 2020 [1]. Saving and
clearing the flags across the NMI, next to CR2, was discussed there but
not merged.

Since that rework, Linux has stopped setting KVM_ASYNC_PF_SEND_ALWAYS,
so the host delivers "page not present" only for user mode faults and
a kernel-mode fault in NMI context (including kernel-mode #MC and #DB)
cannot be an async page fault.  In that case, return without touching
the flags so that the interrupted handler finds them intact.

Tested on v7.3-rc5 in a 4-vCPU, 2 GiB guest restored from a snapshot
whose memory is served on demand through userfaultfd, so that reading
it back takes async #PFs, while every thread samples hardware cycles
with user call chains and points its frame pointer at an unmapped page.
Without this patch the guest panicked as above in 3 of 3 runs. With it,
the guest survived 3 of 3 runs of 60 seconds, and the host counted
148,441 to 153,334 kvm_async_pf_not_present events in the first 20
seconds of each. On 6.18.50 the results were the same: the guest
panicked without the patch and survived with it.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/ed71d0967113a35f670a9625a058b8e6e0b2f104.1583547991.git.luto@xxxxxxxxxx/ [1]
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20211126123145.2772-1-jiangshanlai@xxxxxxxxx/ [2]
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx # v5.9+
Signed-off-by: EJ Campbell <ejc3@xxxxxxxx>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/CADkxfh-uQTca_6jB1JPDq1MsKffF_UKGQR339oQSJNcoV75GNQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@xxxxxxxxxx>

diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/kvm.c b/arch/x86/kernel/kvm.c
index 6b0a5861ccb8..d8dd2cadcbf7 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/kvm.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/kvm.c
@@ -265,11 +265,39 @@ noinstr u32 kvm_read_and_reset_apf_flags(void)
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_FOR_KVM(kvm_read_and_reset_apf_flags);
 
+static __always_inline bool kvm_apf_reason_pending(void)
+{
+	return __this_cpu_read(async_pf_enabled) &&
+	       __this_cpu_read(apf_reason.flags);
+}
+
 noinstr bool __kvm_handle_async_pf(struct pt_regs *regs, u32 token)
 {
-	u32 flags = kvm_read_and_reset_apf_flags();
 	irqentry_state_t state;
+	u32 flags;
 
+	if (!kvm_apf_reason_pending())
+		return false;
+
+	/*
+	 * The guest does not enable KVM_ASYNC_PF_SEND_ALWAYS, so the host
+	 * delivers async #PF only to user mode (or as a #PF VM-exit, which KVM
+	 * reads itself). A #PF from kernel mode can still arrive between that
+	 * delivery and the read of the reason flags, inside an NMI that
+	 * interrupted it, for instance perf reading user memory for a call
+	 * chain. Such a fault is not async, so leave the async PF flags
+	 * untouched for the outer handler.  Outside NMI context, on the other
+	 * hand, async PF flags on a kernel-mode fault mean the host is broken.
+	 */
+	if (!user_mode(regs)) {
+		if (likely(in_nmi()))
+			return false;
+		state = irqentry_enter(regs);
+		instrumentation_begin();
+		panic("Host injected async #PF in kernel mode\n");
+	}
+
+	flags = kvm_read_and_reset_apf_flags();
 	if (!flags)
 		return false;
 
@@ -285,8 +313,6 @@ noinstr bool __kvm_handle_async_pf(struct pt_regs *regs, u32 token)
 		panic("Host injected async #PF in interrupt disabled region\n");
 
 	if (flags & KVM_PV_REASON_PAGE_NOT_PRESENT) {
-		if (unlikely(!(user_mode(regs))))
-			panic("Host injected async #PF in kernel mode\n");
 		/* Page is swapped out by the host. */
 		kvm_async_pf_task_wait_schedule(token);
 	} else {