Re: [PATCH v7 08/11] KVM: TDX: Get/put PAMT pages when (un)mapping private memory

From: Nikolay Borisov

Date: Wed Jul 22 2026 - 09:59:44 EST




On 7/18/26 04:44, Rick Edgecombe wrote:
From: "Kirill A. Shutemov" <kirill.shutemov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Add Dynamic PAMT support to KVM's S-EPT MMU by "getting" a PAMT page when
adding guest memory (PAGE.ADD or PAGE.AUG), and "putting" the page when
removing guest memory (PAGE.REMOVE).

To access the per-vCPU PAMT caches without plumbing @vcpu throughout the
TDP MMU, begrudgingly use kvm_get_running_vcpu() to get the vCPU, and bug
the VM if KVM attempts to set an S-EPT leaf without an active vCPU. KVM
only supports creating _new_ mappings in page (pre)fault paths, all of
which require an active vCPU.

The PAMT memory holds metadata for TDX protected memory. With Dynamic
PAMT, PAMT_4K is allocated on demand. The kernel supplies the TDX module
with a few pages that cover 2MB of host physical memory.

Releases are balanced via tdx_pamt_put(): every control-page free goes
through tdx_free_control_page(), and guest data pages are put directly on
the successful tdh_mem_page_remove() path and in the
tdx_mem_page_add/aug() error path.

Signed-off-by: Kirill A. Shutemov <kirill.shutemov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Co-developed-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
[rick: enhance log, reviewing, rebase, with help from AI tooling]
Co-developed-by: Rick Edgecombe <rick.p.edgecombe@xxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Rick Edgecombe <rick.p.edgecombe@xxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Binbin Wu <binbin.wu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Tony Lindgren <tony.lindgren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
v7:
- Don't do to_tdx() before NULL check for readability (Binbin, Sean)
- Fixup tags (Sean)
- Export tdx_supports_dynamic_pamt() since it's used in KVM here and no
longer an static inline.
v6:
- Don't have topup op take a min param (Yan, Sean)
- Make log match style of the rest of the series
- Adjustments from dropping error helper patches
---
arch/x86/include/asm/kvm-x86-ops.h | 1 +
arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h | 2 +
arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c | 4 ++
arch/x86/kvm/vmx/tdx.c | 63 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
arch/x86/kvm/vmx/tdx.h | 2 +
arch/x86/virt/vmx/tdx/tdx.c | 1 +
6 files changed, 65 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm-x86-ops.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm-x86-ops.h
index 83dc5086138b3..588563dfe88d5 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm-x86-ops.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm-x86-ops.h
@@ -98,6 +98,7 @@ KVM_X86_OP_OPTIONAL_RET0(tdp_has_smep)
KVM_X86_OP(load_mmu_pgd)
KVM_X86_OP_OPTIONAL_RET0(set_external_spte)
KVM_X86_OP_OPTIONAL(free_external_spt)
+KVM_X86_OP_OPTIONAL_RET0(topup_external_cache)
KVM_X86_OP(has_wbinvd_exit)
KVM_X86_OP(get_l2_tsc_offset)
KVM_X86_OP(get_l2_tsc_multiplier)
diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
index 5f6c1ce9673b7..1c706e2d773b0 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
@@ -1922,6 +1922,8 @@ struct kvm_x86_ops {
/* Update external page tables for page table about to be freed. */
void (*free_external_spt)(struct kvm *kvm, struct kvm_mmu_page *sp);
+ int (*topup_external_cache)(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int min_nr_spts);
+
bool (*has_wbinvd_exit)(void);
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c
index 234d0a95abf53..6dab99654f170 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c
@@ -614,6 +614,10 @@ static int mmu_topup_memory_caches(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, bool maybe_indirect)
PT64_ROOT_MAX_LEVEL);
if (r)
return r;
+
+ r = kvm_x86_call(topup_external_cache)(vcpu, PT64_ROOT_MAX_LEVEL);
+ if (r)
+ return r;
}
r = kvm_mmu_topup_memory_cache(&vcpu->arch.mmu_shadow_page_cache,
PT64_ROOT_MAX_LEVEL);
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/tdx.c b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/tdx.c
index f6c01eab8113b..c3b1d1f056cea 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/tdx.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/tdx.c
@@ -681,6 +681,8 @@ int tdx_vcpu_create(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
if (!irqchip_split(vcpu->kvm))
return -EINVAL;
+ tdx_init_pamt_cache(&tdx->pamt_cache);
+
fpstate_set_confidential(&vcpu->arch.guest_fpu);
vcpu->arch.apic->guest_apic_protected = true;
INIT_LIST_HEAD(&tdx->vt.pi_wakeup_list);
@@ -866,6 +868,8 @@ void tdx_vcpu_free(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
struct vcpu_tdx *tdx = to_tdx(vcpu);
int i;
+ tdx_free_pamt_cache(&tdx->pamt_cache);
+
if (vcpu->cpu != -1) {
KVM_BUG_ON(tdx->state == VCPU_TD_STATE_INITIALIZED, vcpu->kvm);
tdx_flush_vp_on_cpu(vcpu);
@@ -1621,6 +1625,16 @@ void tdx_load_mmu_pgd(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, hpa_t root_hpa, int pgd_level)
td_vmcs_write64(to_tdx(vcpu), SHARED_EPT_POINTER, root_hpa);
}
+static int tdx_topup_external_pamt_cache(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int min_nr_spts)
+{
+ /*
+ * Don't cover the root SPT, but cover a possible 4KB private
+ * page in addition to the SPTs. So -1 to exclude the root
+ * SPT, and +1 for the guest page cancel out.
+ */

That comment here doesn't seem to correspond to the code in anyway. There are no +-1 adjustments.
+ return tdx_topup_pamt_cache(&to_tdx(vcpu)->pamt_cache, min_nr_spts);
+}

<snip>