[ based on kvm/next ]
Unmapping virtual machine guest memory from the host kernel's direct map is a successful mitigation against Spectre-style transient execution issues: if the kernel page tables do not contain entries pointing to guest memory, then any attempted speculative read through the direct map will necessarily be blocked by the MMU before any observable microarchitectural side-effects happen. This means that Spectre-gadgets and similar cannot be used to target virtual machine memory. Roughly 60% of speculative execution issues fall into this category [1, Table 1].
This patch series extends guest_memfd with the ability to remove its memory from the host kernel's direct map, to be able to attain the above protection for KVM guests running inside guest_memfd.
Additionally, a Firecracker branch with support for these VMs can be found on GitHub [2].
For more details, please refer to the v5 cover letter. No substantial changes in design have taken place since.
See also related write() syscall support in guest_memfd [3] where the interoperation between the two features is described.
Changes since v7: - David: separate patches for adding x86 and ARM support - Dave/Will: drop support for disabling TLB flushes
v7: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20250924151101.2225820-1-patrick.roy@campus.lmu.... v6: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20250912091708.17502-1-roypat@amazon.co.uk v5: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20250828093902.2719-1-roypat@amazon.co.uk v4: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20250221160728.1584559-1-roypat@amazon.co.uk RFCv3: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20241030134912.515725-1-roypat@amazon.co.uk RFCv2: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20240910163038.1298452-1-roypat@amazon.co.uk RFCv1: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20240709132041.3625501-1-roypat@amazon.co.uk
[1] https://download.vusec.net/papers/quarantine_raid23.pdf [2] https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker/tree/feature/secret-hidin... [3] https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20251114151828.98165-1-kalyazin@amazon.com
Patrick Roy (13): x86: export set_direct_map_valid_noflush to KVM module x86/tlb: export flush_tlb_kernel_range to KVM module mm: introduce AS_NO_DIRECT_MAP KVM: guest_memfd: Add stub for kvm_arch_gmem_invalidate KVM: guest_memfd: Add flag to remove from direct map KVM: x86: define kvm_arch_gmem_supports_no_direct_map() KVM: arm64: define kvm_arch_gmem_supports_no_direct_map() KVM: selftests: load elf via bounce buffer KVM: selftests: set KVM_MEM_GUEST_MEMFD in vm_mem_add() if guest_memfd != -1 KVM: selftests: Add guest_memfd based vm_mem_backing_src_types KVM: selftests: cover GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_NO_DIRECT_MAP in existing selftests KVM: selftests: stuff vm_mem_backing_src_type into vm_shape KVM: selftests: Test guest execution from direct map removed gmem
Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst | 22 ++++--- arch/arm64/include/asm/kvm_host.h | 13 ++++ arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h | 9 +++ arch/x86/include/asm/tlbflush.h | 3 +- arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c | 1 + arch/x86/mm/tlb.c | 1 + include/linux/kvm_host.h | 14 ++++ include/linux/pagemap.h | 16 +++++ include/linux/secretmem.h | 18 ------ include/uapi/linux/kvm.h | 1 + lib/buildid.c | 4 +- mm/gup.c | 19 ++---- mm/mlock.c | 2 +- mm/secretmem.c | 8 +-- .../testing/selftests/kvm/guest_memfd_test.c | 17 ++++- .../testing/selftests/kvm/include/kvm_util.h | 37 ++++++++--- .../testing/selftests/kvm/include/test_util.h | 8 +++ tools/testing/selftests/kvm/lib/elf.c | 8 +-- tools/testing/selftests/kvm/lib/io.c | 23 +++++++ tools/testing/selftests/kvm/lib/kvm_util.c | 59 +++++++++-------- tools/testing/selftests/kvm/lib/test_util.c | 8 +++ tools/testing/selftests/kvm/lib/x86/sev.c | 1 + .../selftests/kvm/pre_fault_memory_test.c | 1 + .../selftests/kvm/set_memory_region_test.c | 52 +++++++++++++-- .../kvm/x86/private_mem_conversions_test.c | 7 +- virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c | 64 +++++++++++++++++-- 26 files changed, 314 insertions(+), 102 deletions(-)
base-commit: e0c26d47def7382d7dbd9cad58bc653aed75737a