[PATCH] KVM: arm64: Restore the VM's feature bitmap when kvm_setup_vcpu() fails
From: Fuad Tabba
Date: Fri Sep 18 2026 - 08:07:49 EST
__kvm_vcpu_set_target() copies the requested features into the VM-wide
bitmap before kvm_setup_vcpu() runs and doesn't undo it when setup
fails, so a rejected KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT leaves the VM recording features
that were never set up. With HAS_EL2 | HAS_EL2_E2H0 on a host without
FEAT_NV1, kvm_vcpu_init_nested() returns -EINVAL before it allocates any
nested stage-2 MMU, and vcpu_has_nv() is then true with
nested_mmus_size == 0; its -ENOMEM paths do the same on a VM's first
INIT.
Nothing in the tree loads a vCPU whose init failed, so this is latent.
The pending KVM_PRE_FAULT_MEMORY series for arm64 does, and the second
such load NULL-dereferences in get_s2_mmu_nested() under mmu_lock.
Setup reads the VM-wide bitmap, so the copy can't be deferred; restore
the previous value instead when kvm_setup_vcpu() fails.
Fixes: 1de10b7d13a97 ("KVM: arm64: Get rid of vCPU-scoped feature bitmap")
Fixes: 427733579744e ("KVM: arm64: Select default PMU in KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT handler")
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260825-kvm-arm-prefault-v1-0-befe8947702e@xxxxxxxxxx/
Signed-off-by: Fuad Tabba <fuad.tabba@xxxxxxxxx>
---
The series' generic kvm_vcpu_pre_fault_memory() calls vcpu_load()
before any arm64 hook, so there is no arm64 check it can pass through
first. Reproduced on kvmarm/next plus the series under
QEMU (-cpu max with an Apple M2 MIDR, which has_nv1() denies;
kvm-arm.mode=nested): KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT with HAS_EL2 | HAS_EL2_E2H0
returns -EINVAL, then KVM_PRE_FAULT_MEMORY twice. The first call loads
with hw_mmu still the canonical MMU and its vcpu_put() clears hw_mmu;
the second takes the !hw_mmu path into get_s2_mmu_nested(), whose
search over nested_mmus_size == 0 leaves s2_mmu NULL for the
BUG_ON(atomic_read(&s2_mmu->refcnt)):
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000074
Call trace:
kvm_vcpu_load_hw_mmu+0x94/0x2c0 (P)
kvm_arch_vcpu_load+0x2a8/0x5e8
kvm_vcpu_pre_fault_memory+0xa0/0x1b8
kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x40c/0x6d0
The thread dies with mmu_lock held for write and an RCU stall in
queued_write_lock_slowpath() follows. With the fix both calls return
-ENOENT and the host is unaffected. Applies unchanged to v7.3-rc3.
arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c | 9 ++++++++-
1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
index eaf583b771931..c2eb9b6da80f4 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c
@@ -1685,6 +1685,7 @@ static int kvm_setup_vcpu(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
static int __kvm_vcpu_set_target(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu,
const struct kvm_vcpu_init *init)
{
+ DECLARE_BITMAP(old_features, KVM_VCPU_MAX_FEATURES);
unsigned long features = init->features[0];
struct kvm *kvm = vcpu->kvm;
int ret = -EINVAL;
@@ -1695,11 +1696,17 @@ static int __kvm_vcpu_set_target(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu,
kvm_vcpu_init_changed(vcpu, init))
goto out_unlock;
+ /* Setup reads the VM-wide bitmap, so undo the copy if setup fails. */
+ bitmap_copy(old_features, kvm->arch.vcpu_features,
+ KVM_VCPU_MAX_FEATURES);
bitmap_copy(kvm->arch.vcpu_features, &features, KVM_VCPU_MAX_FEATURES);
ret = kvm_setup_vcpu(vcpu);
- if (ret)
+ if (ret) {
+ bitmap_copy(kvm->arch.vcpu_features, old_features,
+ KVM_VCPU_MAX_FEATURES);
goto out_unlock;
+ }
/* Now we know what it is, we can reset it. */
kvm_reset_vcpu(vcpu);
base-commit: 089e4f3c4862ba3f29dff2361caa8084879194fd
--
2.39.5