[PATCH v3 1/2] KVM: arm64: ptdump: Check the page tables aren't freed when accessing

From: Wei-Lin Chang

Date: Wed Sep 16 2026 - 19:05:10 EST


An open debugfs file keeps the KVM structure alive, but does not prevent
mmu notifier release from freeing the stage-2 page tables when the VMM’s
address space is torn down. Therefore page tables belonging to the mmus
could have been freed when a thread opens or reads the ptdump files.
Take the mmu_lock and check mmu->pgt is still alive before accessing the
page tables.

Also for the ipa_range file and stage2_levels file, switch from keeping
the pointer to the page tables to keeping the pointer to the mmu.

Fixes: 7c4f73548ed1 ("KVM: arm64: Register ptdump with debugfs on guest creation")
Reported-by: Sashiko AI <sashiko-bot@xxxxxxxxxx>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/kvmarm/20260623144054.B91D21F000E9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
Signed-off-by: Wei-Lin Chang <weilin.chang@xxxxxxx>
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---
arch/arm64/kvm/ptdump.c | 43 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
1 file changed, 33 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/ptdump.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/ptdump.c
index 69899797dbad..4ead856c181a 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/ptdump.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/ptdump.c
@@ -115,15 +115,28 @@ static int kvm_ptdump_build_levels(struct ptdump_pg_level *level, u32 start_lvl)

static struct kvm_ptdump_guest_state *kvm_ptdump_parser_create(struct kvm_s2_mmu *mmu)
{
+ struct kvm *kvm = kvm_s2_mmu_to_kvm(mmu);
struct kvm_ptdump_guest_state *st;
- struct kvm_pgtable *pgtable = mmu->pgt;
+ s8 start_level;
int ret;

+ /*
+ * We only need the pgt start level to initialize the ptdump, get it
+ * while holding the mmu_lock. It's fine if the pgt gets freed
+ * afterwards, we'll check again when doing the actual dump.
+ */
+ scoped_guard(write_lock, &kvm->mmu_lock) {
+ if (mmu->pgt)
+ start_level = mmu->pgt->start_level;
+ else
+ return ERR_PTR(-ENOENT);
+ }
+
st = kzalloc_obj(struct kvm_ptdump_guest_state, GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT);
if (!st)
return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);

- ret = kvm_ptdump_build_levels(&st->level[0], pgtable->start_level);
+ ret = kvm_ptdump_build_levels(&st->level[0], start_level);
if (ret) {
kfree(st);
return ERR_PTR(ret);
@@ -149,6 +162,9 @@ static int kvm_ptdump_guest_show(struct seq_file *m, void *unused)
};

guard(write_lock)(&kvm->mmu_lock);
+ if (!mmu->pgt)
+ return 0;
+
st->parser_state = (struct ptdump_pg_state) {
.marker = &st->ipa_marker[0],
.end_address = BIT(mmu->pgt->ia_bits),
@@ -211,17 +227,27 @@ static const struct file_operations kvm_ptdump_guest_fops = {

static int kvm_pgtable_range_show(struct seq_file *m, void *unused)
{
- struct kvm_pgtable *pgtable = m->private;
+ struct kvm_s2_mmu *mmu = m->private;
+ struct kvm *kvm = kvm_s2_mmu_to_kvm(mmu);
+
+ guard(write_lock)(&kvm->mmu_lock);
+
+ if (mmu->pgt)
+ seq_printf(m, "%2u\n", mmu->pgt->ia_bits);

- seq_printf(m, "%2u\n", pgtable->ia_bits);
return 0;
}

static int kvm_pgtable_levels_show(struct seq_file *m, void *unused)
{
- struct kvm_pgtable *pgtable = m->private;
+ struct kvm_s2_mmu *mmu = m->private;
+ struct kvm *kvm = kvm_s2_mmu_to_kvm(mmu);
+
+ guard(write_lock)(&kvm->mmu_lock);
+
+ if (mmu->pgt)
+ seq_printf(m, "%1d\n", KVM_PGTABLE_MAX_LEVELS - mmu->pgt->start_level);

- seq_printf(m, "%1d\n", KVM_PGTABLE_MAX_LEVELS - pgtable->start_level);
return 0;
}

@@ -230,15 +256,12 @@ static int kvm_pgtable_debugfs_open(struct inode *m, struct file *file,
{
struct kvm_s2_mmu *mmu = m->i_private;
struct kvm *kvm = kvm_s2_mmu_to_kvm(mmu);
- struct kvm_pgtable *pgtable;
int ret;

if (!kvm_get_kvm_safe(kvm))
return -ENOENT;

- pgtable = mmu->pgt;
-
- ret = single_open(file, show, pgtable);
+ ret = single_open(file, show, mmu);
if (ret < 0)
kvm_put_kvm(kvm);
return ret;
--
2.43.0