[PATCH v3 2/2] KVM: arm64: nv: Fix null ptr deref on nested wp/unmap, teardown race

Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) ljs at kernel.org
Tue Sep 1 10:29:00 PDT 2026


Commit 7270cc9157f4 ("KVM: arm64: nv: Handle VNCR_EL2 invalidation from MMU
notifiers") introduced VNCR_EL2 invalidation in both kvm_nested_s2_unmap()
and kvm_nested_s2_wp().

However at the point of this being performed concurrent stage 2 teardown of
a nested guest can cause kvm->arch.mmu.pgt to be set to NULL.

This happens in kvm_flush_shadow_all() -> kvm_arch_flush_shadow_all() ->
kvm_free_stage2_pgd() and is performed under the kvm->mmu_lock.

Commit ec14c272408a ("KVM: arm64: nv: Unmap/flush shadow stage 2 page
tables") introduced the teardown of the entire nested MMU range, which then
invokes stage2_apply_range() with resched=true:

mmu_notifier_invalidate_range_start()
  -> ... -> kvm_mmu_notifier_invalidate_range_start()
    -> kvm_mmu_unmap_gfn_range()
      -> kvm_unmap_gfn_range()
        -> kvm_nested_s2_unmap()
          -> kvm_stage2_unmap_range()
            -> __unmap_stage2_range()
                -> stage2_apply_range()

This means that stage2_apply_range() can drop the kvm->mmu_lock and thus
concurrent progress can be made in lockstep with
kvm_arch_flush_shadow_all().

If kvm_arch_flush_shadow_all() advances ahead of stage2_apply_range() and
completes its operation it guarantees a NULL pointer deref.

Since kvm_free_stage2_pgd() is performed under the kvm->mmu_lock this will
either be observed NULL or not and serialised against
kvm_free_stage2_pgd().

Resolve the issue by abstracting the invalidation to a new function,
kvm_invalidate_vncr_ipa_all(), and check that the pgt is non-NULL before
dereferencing it.

Fixes: 7270cc9157f4 ("KVM: arm64: nv: Handle VNCR_EL2 invalidation from MMU notifiers")
Cc: stable at vger.kernel.org
Reviewed-by: Marc Zyngier <maz at kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs at kernel.org>
---
 arch/arm64/kvm/nested.c | 15 +++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/nested.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/nested.c
index 17123f0b6dab..f69722e1592a 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/nested.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/nested.c
@@ -1260,6 +1260,17 @@ void kvm_handle_s1e2_tlbi(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u32 inst, u64 val)
 	invalidate_vncr_va(vcpu->kvm, &scope);
 }
 
+static void kvm_invalidate_vncr_ipa_all(struct kvm *kvm)
+{
+	struct kvm_pgtable *pgt = kvm->arch.mmu.pgt;
+
+	lockdep_assert_held_write(&kvm->mmu_lock);
+
+	/* if the mmu lock was dropped, pgt teardown may have raced. */
+	if (pgt)
+		kvm_invalidate_vncr_ipa(kvm, 0, BIT(pgt->ia_bits));
+}
+
 void kvm_nested_s2_wp(struct kvm *kvm)
 {
 	int i;
@@ -1276,7 +1287,7 @@ void kvm_nested_s2_wp(struct kvm *kvm)
 			kvm_stage2_wp_range(mmu, 0, kvm_phys_size(mmu));
 	}
 
-	kvm_invalidate_vncr_ipa(kvm, 0, BIT(kvm->arch.mmu.pgt->ia_bits));
+	kvm_invalidate_vncr_ipa_all(kvm);
 }
 
 void kvm_nested_s2_unmap(struct kvm *kvm, bool may_block)
@@ -1295,7 +1306,7 @@ void kvm_nested_s2_unmap(struct kvm *kvm, bool may_block)
 			kvm_stage2_unmap_range(mmu, 0, kvm_phys_size(mmu), may_block);
 	}
 
-	kvm_invalidate_vncr_ipa(kvm, 0, BIT(kvm->arch.mmu.pgt->ia_bits));
+	kvm_invalidate_vncr_ipa_all(kvm);
 }
 
 void kvm_nested_s2_flush(struct kvm *kvm)

-- 
2.55.0




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