[PATCH v8 21/46] KVM: guest_memfd: Zero page while getting pfn
From: Ackerley Tng via B4 Relay
Date: Thu Jun 18 2026 - 20:39:49 EST
From: Ackerley Tng <ackerleytng@xxxxxxxxxx>
Move the folio initialization logic from kvm_gmem_get_pfn() into
__kvm_gmem_get_pfn() to also zero pages if the page is to be used in
kvm_gmem_populate().
With in-place conversion, the existing data in a guest_memfd page can be
populated into guest memory through platform-specific ioctls.
Without first zeroing the page obtained using __kvm_gmem_get_pfn(), it
might contain uninitialized host memory, which would leak to the guest if
the populate completes.
guest_memfd pages are zeroed at most once in the page's entire lifetime
with guest_memfd, and that is tracked using the uptodate flag.
Zeroing the page in __kvm_gmem_get_pfn() is chosen over zeroing in
kvm_gmem_get_folio() since other flows, such as a future write() syscall,
can get a page, write to the page and then set page uptodate without
zeroing.
This aligns with the concept of zeroing before first use - the other place
where zeroing happens is in kvm_gmem_fault_user_mapping().
Signed-off-by: Ackerley Tng <ackerleytng@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c | 10 +++++-----
1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c b/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c
index 90bc1a26512b6..86c9f5b0863cb 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c
@@ -1137,6 +1137,11 @@ static struct folio *__kvm_gmem_get_pfn(struct file *file,
return ERR_PTR(-EHWPOISON);
}
+ if (!folio_test_uptodate(folio)) {
+ clear_highpage(folio_page(folio, 0));
+ folio_mark_uptodate(folio);
+ }
+
*pfn = folio_file_pfn(folio, index);
if (max_order)
*max_order = 0;
@@ -1166,11 +1171,6 @@ int kvm_gmem_get_pfn(struct kvm *kvm, struct kvm_memory_slot *slot,
goto out;
}
- if (!folio_test_uptodate(folio)) {
- clear_highpage(folio_page(folio, 0));
- folio_mark_uptodate(folio);
- }
-
if (kvm_gmem_is_private_mem(inode, index))
r = kvm_gmem_prepare_folio(kvm, slot, gfn, folio);
--
2.55.0.rc0.738.g0c8ab3ebcc-goog