Re: [PATCH v2] KVM: Don't treat reserved xarray entries as having memory attributes

[Sean Christopherson]

On Fri, Aug 28, 2026, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> So after way, waaay too much fiddling, this?  As a bonus, the changelog can call
> out that xas_next_entry() is essentially an optimized version of xas_find(),
> e.g. to communicate that the effective diff is actually just adding xas_retry().
> 
> diff --git a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
> index 65eb26a0520d..cc94d9881582 100644
> --- a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
> +++ b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
> @@ -2447,14 +2447,39 @@ bool kvm_range_has_memory_attributes(struct kvm *kvm, gfn_t start, gfn_t end,
>  		return (kvm_get_memory_attributes(kvm, start) & mask) == attrs;
>  
>  	guard(rcu)();
> -	if (!attrs)
> -		return !xas_find(&xas, end - 1);
>  
> +	/*
> +	 * Lookup the entry for each index instead of iterating over the xarray
> +	 * as KVM deletes/nullifies entries to represent "no attributes", and
> +	 * the xas index is effectively invalid when no entry is found.  I.e.
> +	 * matching non-zero attributes for *every* entry effectively requires
> +	 * a manually lookup for each index.
> +	 *
> +	 * Skip pre-allocated, reserved entries, or restart the lookup if the
> +	 * xarray was concurrently modified, via xas_retry() ("retry" means the
> +	 * entry holds an internal xarray value, i.e. is either invalid or NULL
> +	 * from the caller's perspective.
> +	 *
> +	 * Use xas_next() when looking for non-zero attributes to optimize for
> +	 * the case where the start of the range (or the entire range) doesn't
> +	 * have any attributes, as xas_next() returns literally the next entry,
> +	 * whereas xas_next_entry() returns the next non-NULL entry (bounded by
> +	 * a maximum index).
> +	 */
>  	for (index = start; index < end; index++) {
>  		do {
> -			entry = xas_next(&xas);
> +			entry = attrs ? xas_next(&xas) :
> +					xas_next_entry(&xas, end - 1);
>  		} while (xas_retry(&xas, entry));
>  
> +		/*
> +		 * Don't check the index if there's no entry; as above, the xas
> +		 * index is invalid (and if no entry was found, then the entire
> +		 * range has no attributes).
> +		 */
> +		if (!entry)
> +			return !attrs;

One "flaw" with this exact code is that if KVM managed to get a non-null, '0'
entry into the xarray, the index check could mismatch and this function could
technically get a false negative.

Swapping the checks would also work:

		if (!attrs)
			return !entry;

but I don't love that that violates the "don't check the index because it's bogus"
statement above.  And practically speaking, KVM should *never* observe a non-NULL
entry with a value of zero, assuming xas_retry() works as I think it does.  So to
harden against KVM changes/goofs, maybe do this as well?

diff --git a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
index cc94d9881582..f009cb3e687d 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
@@ -2480,6 +2480,8 @@ bool kvm_range_has_memory_attributes(struct kvm *kvm, gfn_t start, gfn_t end,
 		if (!entry)
 			return !attrs;
 
+		WARN_ON_ONCE(!xa_to_value(entry));
+
 		if (xas.xa_index != index ||
 		    (xa_to_value(entry) & mask) != attrs)
 			return false;


> +
>  		if (xas.xa_index != index ||
>  		    (xa_to_value(entry) & mask) != attrs)
>  			return false;
>