Re: [PATCH v12 20/46] arm64: RMI: Allow populating initial contents

From: Marc Zyngier

Date: Mon Mar 02 2026 - 10:01:18 EST


On Wed, 17 Dec 2025 10:10:57 +0000,
Steven Price <steven.price@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> The VMM needs to populate the realm with some data before starting (e.g.
> a kernel and initrd). This is measured by the RMM and used as part of
> the attestation later on.
>
> Signed-off-by: Steven Price <steven.price@xxxxxxx>
> ---
> Changes since v11:
> * The multiplex CAP is gone and there's a new ioctl which makes use of
> the generic kvm_gmem_populate() functionality.
> Changes since v7:
> * Improve the error codes.
> * Other minor changes from review.
> Changes since v6:
> * Handle host potentially having a larger page size than the RMM
> granule.
> * Drop historic "par" (protected address range) from
> populate_par_region() - it doesn't exist within the current
> architecture.
> * Add a cond_resched() call in kvm_populate_realm().
> Changes since v5:
> * Refactor to use PFNs rather than tracking struct page in
> realm_create_protected_data_page().
> * Pull changes from a later patch (in the v5 series) for accessing
> pages from a guest memfd.
> * Do the populate in chunks to avoid holding locks for too long and
> triggering RCU stall warnings.
> ---
> arch/arm64/include/asm/kvm_rmi.h | 4 +
> arch/arm64/kvm/Kconfig | 1 +
> arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c | 9 ++
> arch/arm64/kvm/rmi.c | 175 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 4 files changed, 189 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/kvm_rmi.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/kvm_rmi.h
> index 8a862fc1a99d..b5e36344975c 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/kvm_rmi.h
> +++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/kvm_rmi.h
> @@ -99,6 +99,10 @@ int kvm_rec_enter(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);
> int kvm_rec_pre_enter(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);
> int handle_rec_exit(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int rec_run_status);
>
> +struct kvm_arm_rmi_populate;
> +
> +int kvm_arm_rmi_populate(struct kvm *kvm,
> + struct kvm_arm_rmi_populate *arg);
> void kvm_realm_unmap_range(struct kvm *kvm,
> unsigned long ipa,
> unsigned long size,
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/Kconfig b/arch/arm64/kvm/Kconfig
> index 1cac6dfc0972..b495dfd3a8b4 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/kvm/Kconfig
> +++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/Kconfig
> @@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ menuconfig KVM
> select GUEST_PERF_EVENTS if PERF_EVENTS
> select KVM_GUEST_MEMFD
> select KVM_GENERIC_MEMORY_ATTRIBUTES
> + select HAVE_KVM_ARCH_GMEM_POPULATE
> help
> Support hosting virtualized guest machines.
>
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
> index 7927181887cf..0a06ed9d1a64 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
> +++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
> @@ -2037,6 +2037,15 @@ int kvm_arch_vm_ioctl(struct file *filp, unsigned int ioctl, unsigned long arg)
> return -EFAULT;
> return kvm_vm_ioctl_get_reg_writable_masks(kvm, &range);
> }
> + case KVM_ARM_RMI_POPULATE: {
> + struct kvm_arm_rmi_populate req;
> +
> + if (!kvm_is_realm(kvm))
> + return -EPERM;

EPERM is odd. It isn't that the VMM doesn't have the right to do it,
it is that it shouldn't have called that, because the ioctl doesn't
exist for a normal VM. -ENOSYS?

> + if (copy_from_user(&req, argp, sizeof(req)))
> + return -EFAULT;
> + return kvm_arm_rmi_populate(kvm, &req);
> + }
> default:
> return -EINVAL;
> }
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/rmi.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/rmi.c
> index fe15b400091c..39577e956a59 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/kvm/rmi.c
> +++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/rmi.c
> @@ -558,6 +558,150 @@ void kvm_realm_unmap_range(struct kvm *kvm, unsigned long start,
> realm_unmap_private_range(kvm, start, end, may_block);
> }
>
> +static int realm_create_protected_data_granule(struct realm *realm,
> + unsigned long ipa,
> + phys_addr_t dst_phys,
> + phys_addr_t src_phys,
> + unsigned long flags)
> +{
> + phys_addr_t rd = virt_to_phys(realm->rd);
> + int ret;
> +
> + if (rmi_granule_delegate(dst_phys))
> + return -ENXIO;
> +
> + ret = rmi_data_create(rd, dst_phys, ipa, src_phys, flags);
> + if (RMI_RETURN_STATUS(ret) == RMI_ERROR_RTT) {
> + /* Create missing RTTs and retry */
> + int level = RMI_RETURN_INDEX(ret);
> +
> + WARN_ON(level == RMM_RTT_MAX_LEVEL);

If this is unexpected, why do we still try to handle it? We should
abort hard on anything that doesn't seem 100% correct, and mark the
realm dead.

> +
> + ret = realm_create_rtt_levels(realm, ipa, level,
> + RMM_RTT_MAX_LEVEL, NULL);
> + if (ret)
> + return -EIO;
> +
> + ret = rmi_data_create(rd, dst_phys, ipa, src_phys, flags);
> + }
> + if (ret)
> + return -EIO;
> +
> + return 0;
> +}
> +
> +static int realm_create_protected_data_page(struct realm *realm,
> + unsigned long ipa,
> + kvm_pfn_t dst_pfn,
> + kvm_pfn_t src_pfn,
> + unsigned long flags)
> +{
> + unsigned long rd = virt_to_phys(realm->rd);
> + phys_addr_t dst_phys, src_phys;
> + bool undelegate_failed = false;
> + int ret, offset;
> +
> + dst_phys = __pfn_to_phys(dst_pfn);
> + src_phys = __pfn_to_phys(src_pfn);
> +
> + for (offset = 0; offset < PAGE_SIZE; offset += RMM_PAGE_SIZE) {
> + ret = realm_create_protected_data_granule(realm,
> + ipa,
> + dst_phys,
> + src_phys,
> + flags);
> + if (ret)
> + goto err;
> +
> + ipa += RMM_PAGE_SIZE;
> + dst_phys += RMM_PAGE_SIZE;
> + src_phys += RMM_PAGE_SIZE;
> + }
> +
> + return 0;
> +
> +err:
> + if (ret == -EIO) {
> + /* current offset needs undelegating */
> + if (WARN_ON(rmi_granule_undelegate(dst_phys)))
> + undelegate_failed = true;
> + }
> + while (offset > 0) {
> + ipa -= RMM_PAGE_SIZE;
> + offset -= RMM_PAGE_SIZE;
> + dst_phys -= RMM_PAGE_SIZE;
> +
> + rmi_data_destroy(rd, ipa, NULL, NULL);
> +
> + if (WARN_ON(rmi_granule_undelegate(dst_phys)))
> + undelegate_failed = true;
> + }
> +
> + if (undelegate_failed) {
> + /*
> + * A granule could not be undelegated,
> + * so the page has to be leaked
> + */
> + get_page(pfn_to_page(dst_pfn));
> + }
> +
> + return -ENXIO;
> +}
> +
> +static int populate_region_cb(struct kvm *kvm, gfn_t gfn, kvm_pfn_t pfn,
> + void __user *src, int order, void *opaque)
> +{
> + struct realm *realm = &kvm->arch.realm;
> + unsigned long data_flags = *(unsigned long *)opaque;
> + phys_addr_t ipa = gfn_to_gpa(gfn);
> + int npages = (1 << order);
> + int i;
> +
> + for (i = 0; i < npages; i++) {
> + struct page *src_page;
> + int ret;
> +
> + ret = get_user_pages((unsigned long)src, 1, 0, &src_page);
> + if (ret < 0)
> + return ret;
> + if (ret != 1)
> + return -ENOMEM;
> +
> + ret = realm_create_protected_data_page(realm, ipa, pfn,
> + page_to_pfn(src_page),
> + data_flags);
> +
> + put_page(src_page);
> +
> + if (ret)
> + return ret;
> +
> + ipa += PAGE_SIZE;
> + pfn++;
> + src += PAGE_SIZE;
> + }
> +
> + return 0;
> +}
> +
> +static long populate_region(struct kvm *kvm,
> + gfn_t base_gfn,
> + unsigned long pages,
> + u64 uaddr,
> + unsigned long data_flags)
> +{
> + long ret = 0;
> +
> + mutex_lock(&kvm->slots_lock);
> + mmap_read_lock(current->mm);
> + ret = kvm_gmem_populate(kvm, base_gfn, u64_to_user_ptr(uaddr), pages,
> + populate_region_cb, &data_flags);
> + mmap_read_unlock(current->mm);
> + mutex_unlock(&kvm->slots_lock);
> +
> + return ret;
> +}
> +
> enum ripas_action {
> RIPAS_INIT,
> RIPAS_SET,
> @@ -655,6 +799,37 @@ static int realm_ensure_created(struct kvm *kvm)
> return -ENXIO;
> }
>
> +int kvm_arm_rmi_populate(struct kvm *kvm,
> + struct kvm_arm_rmi_populate *args)
> +{
> + unsigned long data_flags = 0;
> + unsigned long ipa_start = args->base;
> + unsigned long ipa_end = ipa_start + args->size;
> + int ret;
> +
> + if (args->reserved ||
> + (args->flags & ~KVM_ARM_RMI_POPULATE_FLAGS_MEASURE) ||
> + !IS_ALIGNED(ipa_start, PAGE_SIZE) ||
> + !IS_ALIGNED(ipa_end, PAGE_SIZE))
> + return -EINVAL;
> +
> + ret = realm_ensure_created(kvm);
> + if (ret)
> + return ret;
> +
> + if (args->flags & KVM_ARM_RMI_POPULATE_FLAGS_MEASURE)

This flag isn't documented.

> + data_flags |= RMI_MEASURE_CONTENT;
> +
> + ret = populate_region(kvm, gpa_to_gfn(ipa_start),
> + args->size >> PAGE_SHIFT,
> + args->source_uaddr, args->flags);
> +
> + if (ret < 0)
> + return ret;
> +
> + return ret * PAGE_SIZE;

Bits of the code works on PAGE_SIZE, other bits on RMM_PAGE_SIZE. It
is pretty confusing. Are you in the middle of reworking this?

Thanks,

M.

--
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.