[PATCH 16/24] KVM: SEV: Decouple the need to sync the GHCB SA from the need to free the SA

From: Paolo Bonzini

Date: Fri May 29 2026 - 14:45:44 EST


From: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>

Decouple synchronizing the GHCB SA from freeing/unpinning the SA, so that
the free/unpin path can be reused when freeing a vCPU.

Opportunistically add a WARN to harden KVM against stomping over (and thus
leaking) an already-allocated scratch area.

Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Reviewed-by: Tom Lendacky <thomas.lendacky@xxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Michael Roth <michael.roth@xxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID: <20260501202250.2115252-17-seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c | 27 ++++++++++++++-------------
1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
index 437282f0ea94..11d46600cbdc 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c
@@ -3560,20 +3560,17 @@ void sev_es_unmap_ghcb(struct vcpu_svm *svm)
if (!svm->sev_es.ghcb)
return;

- if (svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_free) {
- /*
- * The scratch area lives outside the GHCB, so there is a
- * buffer that, depending on the operation performed, may
- * need to be synced, then freed.
- */
- if (svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_sync) {
- kvm_write_guest(svm->vcpu.kvm,
- svm->sev_es.sw_scratch,
- svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa,
- svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_len);
- svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_sync = false;
- }
+ /*
+ * If the scratch area lives outside the GHCB, there's a buffer that,
+ * depending on the operation performed, may need to be synced.
+ */
+ if (svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_sync) {
+ kvm_write_guest(svm->vcpu.kvm, svm->sev_es.sw_scratch,
+ svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa, svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_len);
+ svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_sync = false;
+ }

+ if (svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_free) {
kvfree(svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa);
svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa = NULL;
svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_free = false;
@@ -3685,6 +3682,8 @@ static int setup_vmgexit_scratch(struct vcpu_svm *svm, bool sync, u64 min_len)
goto e_scratch;
}

+ WARN_ON_ONCE(svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_sync || svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_free);
+
if ((scratch_gpa_beg & PAGE_MASK) == control->ghcb_gpa) {
/* Scratch area begins within GHCB */
ghcb_scratch_beg = control->ghcb_gpa +
@@ -3706,6 +3705,8 @@ static int setup_vmgexit_scratch(struct vcpu_svm *svm, bool sync, u64 min_len)
scratch_va = (void *)svm->sev_es.ghcb;
scratch_va += (scratch_gpa_beg - control->ghcb_gpa);

+ svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_sync = false;
+ svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_free = false;
svm->sev_es.ghcb_sa_len = ghcb_scratch_end - scratch_gpa_beg;
} else {
/* GHCB v2 requires the scratch area to be within the GHCB. */
--
2.54.0