[PATCH v7 3/8] KVM: Make __kvm_follow_pfn not imply FOLL_GET

David Stevens stevensd at chromium.org
Tue Sep 5 20:24:01 PDT 2023


On Wed, Sep 6, 2023 at 9:45 AM Sean Christopherson <seanjc at google.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Sep 05, 2023, David Stevens wrote:
> > On Wed, Jul 12, 2023 at 7:00 AM Sean Christopherson <seanjc at google.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Tue, Jul 11, 2023, Zhi Wang wrote:
> > > > On Thu, 6 Jul 2023 15:49:39 +0900
> > > > David Stevens <stevensd at chromium.org> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > On Wed, Jul 5, 2023 at 10:19___PM Zhi Wang <zhi.wang.linux at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > On Tue,  4 Jul 2023 16:50:48 +0900
> > > > > > David Stevens <stevensd at chromium.org> wrote:
> > > > > > If yes, do we have to use FOLL_GET to resolve GFN associated with a tail page?
> > > > > > It seems gup can tolerate gup_flags without FOLL_GET, but it is more like a
> > > > > > temporary solution. I don't think it is a good idea to play tricks with
> > > > > > a temporary solution, more like we are abusing the toleration.
> > > > >
> > > > > I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at. This series never
> > > > > calls gup without FOLL_GET.
> > > > >
> > > > > This series aims to provide kvm_follow_pfn as a unified API on top of
> > > > > gup+follow_pte. Since one of the major clients of this API uses an mmu
> > > > > notifier, it makes sense to support returning a pfn without taking a
> > > > > reference. And we indeed need to do that for certain types of memory.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > I am not having prob with taking a pfn without taking a ref. I am
> > > > questioning if using !FOLL_GET in struct kvm_follow_pfn to indicate taking
> > > > a pfn without a ref is a good idea or not, while there is another flag
> > > > actually showing it.
> > > >
> > > > I can understand that using FOLL_XXX in kvm_follow_pfn saves some
> > > > translation between struct kvm_follow_pfn.{write, async, xxxx} and GUP
> > > > flags. However FOLL_XXX is for GUP. Using FOLL_XXX for reflecting the
> > > > requirements of GUP in the code path that going to call GUP is reasonable.
> > > >
> > > > But using FOLL_XXX with purposes that are not related to GUP call really
> > > > feels off.
> > >
> > > I agree, assuming you're talking specifically about the logic in hva_to_pfn_remapped()
> > > that handles non-refcounted pages, i.e. this
> > >
> > >         if (get_page_unless_zero(page)) {
> > >                 foll->is_refcounted_page = true;
> > >                 if (!(foll->flags & FOLL_GET))
> > >                         put_page(page);
> > >         } else if (foll->flags & FOLL_GET) {
> > >                 r = -EFAULT;
> > >         }
> > >
> > > should be
> > >
> > >         if (get_page_unless_zero(page)) {
> > >                 foll->is_refcounted_page = true;
> > >                 if (!(foll->flags & FOLL_GET))
> > >                         put_page(page);
> > >         else if (!foll->guarded_by_mmu_notifier)
> > >                 r = -EFAULT;
> > >
> > > because it's not the desire to grab a reference that makes getting non-refcounted
> > > pfns "safe", it's whether or not the caller is plugged into the MMU notifiers.
> > >
> > > Though that highlights that checking guarded_by_mmu_notifier should be done for
> > > *all* non-refcounted pfns, not just non-refcounted struct page memory.
> >
> > I think things are getting confused here because there are multiple
> > things which "safe" refers to. There are three different definitions
> > that I think are relevant here:
> >
> > 1) "safe" in the sense that KVM doesn't corrupt page reference counts
> > 2) "safe" in the sense that KVM doesn't access pfns after they have been freed
> > 3) "safe" in the sense that KVM doesn't use stale hva -> pfn translations
> >
> > For property 1, FOLL_GET is important. If the caller passes FOLL_GET,
> > then they expect to be able to pass the returned pfn to
> > kvm_release_pfn. This means that when FOLL_GET is set, if
> > kvm_pfn_to_refcounted_page returns a page, then hva_to_pfn_remapped
> > must take a reference count to avoid eventually corrupting the page
> > ref count. I guess replacing the FOLL_GET check with
> > !guarded_by_mmu_notifier is logically equivalent because
> > __kvm_follow_pfn requires that at least one of guarded_by_mmu_notifier
> > and FOLL_GET is set. But since we're concerned about a property of the
> > refcount, I think that checking FOLL_GET is clearer.
> >
> > For property 2, FOLL_GET is also important. If guarded_by_mmu_notifier
> > is set, then we're all good here. If guarded_by_mmu_notifier is not
> > set, then the check in __kvm_follow_pfn guarantees that FOLL_GET is
> > set. For struct page memory, we're safe because KVM will hold a
> > reference as long as it's still using the page. For non struct page
> > memory, we're not safe - this is where the breaking change of
> > allow_unsafe_mappings would go. Note that for non-refcounted struct
> > page, we can't use the allow_unsafe_mappings escape hatch. Since
> > FOLL_GET was requested, if we returned such a page, then the caller
> > would eventually corrupt the page refcount via kvm_release_pfn.
>
> Yes we can.  The caller simply needs to be made aware of is_refcounted_page.   I
> didn't include that in the snippet below because I didn't want to write the entire
> patch.  The whole point of adding is_refcounted_page is so that callers can
> identify exactly what type of page was at the end of the trail that was followed.

Are you asking me to completely migrate every caller of any gfn_to_pfn
variant to __kvm_follow_pfn, so that they can respect
is_refcounted_page? That's the only way to make it safe for
allow_unsafe_mappings to apply to non-refcounted pages. That is
decidedly not simple. Or is kvm_vcpu_map the specific call site you
care about? At best, I can try to migrate x86, and then just add some
sort of compatibility shim for other architectures that rejects
non-refcounted pages.

> > Property 3 would be nice, but we've already concluded that guarding
> > all translations with mmu notifiers is infeasible. So maintaining
> > property 2 is the best we can hope for.
>
> No, #3 is just a variant of #2.  Unless you're talking about not making guarantees
> about guest accesses being ordered with respect to VMA/memslot updates, but I
> don't think that's the case.

I'm talking about the fact that kvm_vcpu_map is busted with respect to
updates to VMA updates. It won't corrupt host memory because the
mapping keeps a reference to the page, but it will continue to use
stale translations. From [1], it sounds like you've granted that
fixing that is not feasible, so I just wanted to make sure that this
isn't the "unsafe" referred to by allow_unsafe_mappings.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/ZBEEQtmtNPaEqU1i@google.com/

> > > As for the other usage of FOLL_GET in this series (using it to conditionally do
> > > put_page()), IMO that's very much related to the GUP call.  Invoking put_page()
> > > is a hack to workaround the fact that GUP doesn't provide a way to get the pfn
> > > without grabbing a reference to the page.  In an ideal world, KVM would NOT pass
> > > FOLL_GET to the various GUP helpers, i.e. FOLL_GET would be passed as-is and KVM
> > > wouldn't "need" to kinda sorta overload FOLL_GET to manually drop the reference.
> > >
> > > I do think it's worth providing a helper to consolidate and document that hacky
> > > code, e.g. add a kvm_follow_refcounted_pfn() helper.
> > >
> > > All in all, I think the below (completely untested) is what we want?
> > >
> > > David (and others), I am planning on doing a full review of this series "soon",
> > > but it will likely be a few weeks until that happens.  I jumped in on this
> > > specific thread because this caught my eye and I really don't want to throw out
> > > *all* of the FOLL_GET usage.
> > >
> > > diff --git a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
> > > index 5b5afd70f239..90d424990e0a 100644
> > > --- a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
> > > +++ b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
> > > @@ -2481,6 +2481,25 @@ static inline int check_user_page_hwpoison(unsigned long addr)
> > >         return rc == -EHWPOISON;
> > >  }
> > >
> > > +static kvm_pfn_t kvm_follow_refcounted_pfn(struct kvm_follow_pfn *foll,
> > > +                                          struct page *page)
> > > +{
> > > +       kvm_pfn_t pfn = page_to_pfn(page);
> > > +
> > > +       foll->is_refcounted_page = true;
> > > +
> > > +       /*
> > > +        * FIXME: Ideally, KVM wouldn't pass FOLL_GET to gup() when the caller
> > > +        * doesn't want to grab a reference, but gup() doesn't support getting
> > > +        * just the pfn, i.e. FOLL_GET is effectively mandatory.  If that ever
> > > +        * changes, drop this and simply don't pass FOLL_GET to gup().
> > > +        */
> > > +       if (!(foll->flags & FOLL_GET))
> > > +               put_page(page);
> > > +
> > > +       return pfn;
> > > +}
> > > +
> > >  /*
> > >   * The fast path to get the writable pfn which will be stored in @pfn,
> > >   * true indicates success, otherwise false is returned.  It's also the
> > > @@ -2500,11 +2519,9 @@ static bool hva_to_pfn_fast(struct kvm_follow_pfn *foll, kvm_pfn_t *pfn)
> > >                 return false;
> > >
> > >         if (get_user_page_fast_only(foll->hva, FOLL_WRITE, page)) {
> > > -               *pfn = page_to_pfn(page[0]);
> > >                 foll->writable = foll->allow_write_mapping;
> > > -               foll->is_refcounted_page = true;
> > > -               if (!(foll->flags & FOLL_GET))
> > > -                       put_page(page[0]);
> > > +
> > > +               *pfn = kvm_follow_refcounted_pfn(foll, page[0]);
> > >                 return true;
> > >         }
> > >
> > > @@ -2528,7 +2545,6 @@ static int hva_to_pfn_slow(struct kvm_follow_pfn *foll, kvm_pfn_t *pfn)
> > >                 return npages;
> > >
> > >         foll->writable = (foll->flags & FOLL_WRITE) && foll->allow_write_mapping;
> > > -       foll->is_refcounted_page = true;
> > >
> > >         /* map read fault as writable if possible */
> > >         if (unlikely(!foll->writable) && foll->allow_write_mapping) {
> > > @@ -2540,9 +2556,8 @@ static int hva_to_pfn_slow(struct kvm_follow_pfn *foll, kvm_pfn_t *pfn)
> > >                         page = wpage;
> > >                 }
> > >         }
> > > -       *pfn = page_to_pfn(page);
> > > -       if (!(foll->flags & FOLL_GET))
> > > -               put_page(page);
> > > +
> > > +       *pfn = kvm_follow_refcounted_pfn(foll, page);
> > >         return npages;
> > >  }
> > >
> > > @@ -2610,17 +2625,16 @@ static int hva_to_pfn_remapped(struct vm_area_struct *vma, struct kvm_follow_pfn
> > >         if (!page)
> > >                 goto out;
> > >
> > > -       if (get_page_unless_zero(page)) {
> > > -               foll->is_refcounted_page = true;
> > > -               if (!(foll->flags & FOLL_GET))
> > > -                       put_page(page);
> > > -       } else if (foll->flags & FOLL_GET) {
> > > -               r = -EFAULT;
> > > -       }
> > > -
> > > +       if (get_page_unless_zero(page))
> > > +               WARN_ON_ONCE(kvm_follow_refcounted_pfn(foll, page) != pfn);
> > >  out:
> > >         pte_unmap_unlock(ptep, ptl);
> > > -       *p_pfn = pfn;
> > > +
> > > +       if (!foll->is_refcounted_page && !foll->guarded_by_mmu_notifier &&
> > > +           !allow_unsafe_mappings)
> > > +               r = -EFAULT;
> > > +       else
> > > +               *p_pfn = pfn;
> > >
> > >         return r;
> > >  }
> > >
> >
> > As I pointed out above, this suggestion is broken because a FOLL_GET
> > && !guarded_by_mmu_notifier request (e.g. kvm_vcpu_map) for a
> > non-refcounted page will result in the refcount eventually being
> > corrupted.
>
> I don't think so, unless I'm misunderstanding the concern.  It just wasn't a
> complete patch, and wasn't intended to be.

I guess I misunderstood the scale of the changes you're suggesting.

-David



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