[RFC PATCH 03/12] drivers: hv: Reserve memory for VSM secure kernel during early boot

From: Thara Gopinath

Date: Tue Sep 01 2026 - 13:49:57 EST


The VSM secure kernel runs in VTL1 and cannot use the normal Linux
kernel memory allocators — its memory must be reserved before the
general-purpose allocator takes ownership of the physical address space.

Add hv_vsm_securekernel.c to handle this early boot reservation. The
driver parses a new "securekernel=<size>[K|M|G][@<addr>]" kernel command
line argument to allow explicit control over the reserved region's size
and base address. If the argument is absent or specifies a region smaller
than the computed minimum, the driver falls back to an automatic
allocation.

The minimum reservation is calculated as:

16 MB (base) + (num_possible_cpus * 4 MB per-CPU)

Memory is reserved via memblock_phys_alloc_range() with 2 MB alignment
(SECKERNEL_ALIGN) and registered as an IORESOURCE_SYSTEM_RAM entry named
"vsm" in the iomem resource tree so it is visible in /proc/iomem and
protected from reuse.

The reservation is skipped if sk_res.start is already set, preventing
duplicate reservations if the setup hook is called more than once.

Co-developed-by: Anna Trikalinou <atrikalinou@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Anna Trikalinou <atrikalinou@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Thara Gopinath <tgopinath@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/hv/Makefile | 1 +
drivers/hv/hv_vsm_securekernel.c | 188 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 189 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 drivers/hv/hv_vsm_securekernel.c

diff --git a/drivers/hv/Makefile b/drivers/hv/Makefile
index 888a748cc7cb9..880c570832381 100644
--- a/drivers/hv/Makefile
+++ b/drivers/hv/Makefile
@@ -25,3 +25,4 @@ obj-$(subst m,y,$(CONFIG_MSHV_ROOT)) += hv_proc.o
ifneq ($(CONFIG_MSHV_ROOT)$(CONFIG_MSHV_VTL),)
obj-y += mshv_common.o
endif
+obj-$(subst m,y,$(CONFIG_HYPERV_VSM)) += hv_vsm_securekernel.o
diff --git a/drivers/hv/hv_vsm_securekernel.c b/drivers/hv/hv_vsm_securekernel.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..f90f6204b4d18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drivers/hv/hv_vsm_securekernel.c
@@ -0,0 +1,188 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2024, Microsoft Corporation.
+ *
+ * Authors:
+ * Anna Trikalinou <atrikalinou@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
+ * Thara Gopinath <tgopinath@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
+ */
+
+#include <linux/memblock.h>
+
+/* Define Memory Reservation for Secure Kernel */
+#define SECKERNEL_ALIGN SZ_2M
+#define SECKERNEL_ADDR_MAX (max_low_pfn_mapped << PAGE_SHIFT)
+/* Secure kernel map (16MB minimum)
+ * Region Offset Size
+ * VSM PAGES 0 < 2MB
+ * SKERNEL ?(ELF) 16MB+ (based on config)
+ */
+#define SECKERNEL_BASE_SIZE (16 * 1024 * 1024)
+#define SECKERNEL_PERCPU_SIZE (4 * 1024 * 1024)
+
+/* Estimate amount of memory needed for Secure Kernel */
+#define SECKERNEL_MIN_SIZE (SECKERNEL_BASE_SIZE + num_possible_cpus() * SECKERNEL_PERCPU_SIZE)
+
+struct resource sk_res = {
+ .name = "vsm",
+ .start = 0,
+ .end = 0,
+ .flags = IORESOURCE_BUSY | IORESOURCE_SYSTEM_RAM,
+ .desc = IORES_DESC_RESERVED
+};
+
+/*
+ * That function parses "simple" securekernel command lines like
+ *
+ * securekernel=size[@offset]
+ *
+ * It returns 0 on success and -EINVAL on failure.
+ */
+static int __init parse_securekernel_simple(char *cmdline,
+ unsigned long long *securekernel_size,
+ unsigned long long *securekernel_base)
+{
+ char *cur = cmdline;
+
+ *securekernel_size = memparse(cmdline, &cur);
+ if (cmdline == cur) {
+ pr_warn("securekernel: memory value expected\n");
+ return -EINVAL;
+ }
+
+ if (*cur == '@') {
+ *securekernel_base = memparse(cur + 1, &cur);
+ } else if (*cur != ' ' && *cur != '\0') {
+ pr_warn("securekernel: unrecognized char: %c\n", *cur);
+ return -EINVAL;
+ }
+
+ return 0;
+}
+
+static __init char *get_last_securekernel(char *cmdline, const char *name)
+{
+ char *p = cmdline, *sk_cmdline = NULL;
+
+ /* find securekernel and use the last one if there are more */
+ p = strstr(p, name);
+ while (p) {
+ sk_cmdline = p;
+ p = strstr(p + 1, name);
+ }
+
+ if (!sk_cmdline)
+ return NULL;
+
+ return sk_cmdline;
+}
+
+static int __init __parse_securekernel(char *cmdline,
+ unsigned long long *securekernel_size,
+ unsigned long long *securekernel_base,
+ const char *name)
+{
+ char *sk_cmdline;
+
+ if (!securekernel_size || !securekernel_base)
+ return -EINVAL;
+
+ *securekernel_size = 0;
+ *securekernel_base = 0;
+
+ sk_cmdline = get_last_securekernel(cmdline, name);
+
+ if (!sk_cmdline)
+ return -EINVAL;
+
+ sk_cmdline += strlen(name);
+
+ return parse_securekernel_simple(sk_cmdline, securekernel_size, securekernel_base);
+}
+
+/*
+ * That function is the entry point for command line parsing and should be
+ * called from the arch-specific code.
+ */
+static int __init parse_securekernel(char *cmdline,
+ unsigned long long *securekernel_size,
+ unsigned long long *securekernel_base)
+{
+ return __parse_securekernel(cmdline, securekernel_size, securekernel_base,
+ "securekernel=");
+}
+
+static int __init hv_vsm_seckernel_mem_init(char *__unused)
+{
+ unsigned long long securekernel_size = 0, securekernel_base = 0;
+ int ret;
+
+ /* Secure Kernel memory is already reserved. Avoid duplicate reservation */
+ if (sk_res.start)
+ return 0;
+ /*
+ * Reserve Secure Kernel memory.
+ * Check command line first, if secure kernel memory was defined
+ */
+ ret = parse_securekernel(boot_command_line, &securekernel_size,
+ &securekernel_base);
+
+ if (ret != 0 || securekernel_size < SECKERNEL_MIN_SIZE) {
+ if (ret != 0)
+ pr_info("%s: securekernel cmd line not defined. Falling back to default.\n",
+ __func__);
+ else if (securekernel_size < SECKERNEL_MIN_SIZE)
+ pr_info("%s: securekernel cmd line too small. Falling back to default.\n",
+ __func__);
+
+ securekernel_size = SECKERNEL_MIN_SIZE;
+ securekernel_base = 0;
+ }
+
+ /* If securekernel_base was specified from command line,
+ * try to reserve memory starting from that address
+ */
+ if (securekernel_base) {
+ unsigned long long start, end;
+
+ end = securekernel_base + securekernel_size;
+ if (end > SECKERNEL_ADDR_MAX || end < securekernel_base) {
+ pr_warn("%s: Invalid Securekernel base address %llx. Falling back to default.\n",
+ __func__, securekernel_base);
+ securekernel_base = 0;
+ } else {
+ start = memblock_phys_alloc_range(securekernel_size, SECKERNEL_ALIGN,
+ securekernel_base,
+ securekernel_base + securekernel_size);
+ if (start != securekernel_base) {
+ pr_warn("%s: memory reservation @ %llx failed-memory is in use\n",
+ __func__, securekernel_base);
+ pr_warn("%s:Falling back to default mem allocation\n", __func__);
+ securekernel_base = 0;
+ }
+ }
+ }
+ /* Default: Find the base address automatically */
+ if (!securekernel_base) {
+ securekernel_base = memblock_phys_alloc_range(securekernel_size, SECKERNEL_ALIGN,
+ 0, SECKERNEL_ADDR_MAX);
+ if (!securekernel_base) {
+ pr_err("%s: Securekernel reservation failed-VSM will not be enabled.\n",
+ __func__);
+ return -EINVAL;
+ }
+ }
+
+ pr_info("Reserving %ldMB of memory at 0x%llx(%ld MB) for securekernel(System RAM:%ldMB)\n",
+ (unsigned long)(securekernel_size >> 20),
+ securekernel_base,
+ (unsigned long)(securekernel_base >> 20),
+ (unsigned long)(memblock_phys_mem_size() >> 20));
+
+ sk_res.start = securekernel_base;
+ sk_res.end = securekernel_base + securekernel_size - 1;
+ insert_resource(&iomem_resource, &sk_res);
+
+ return 0;
+}
+__setup("securekernel", hv_vsm_seckernel_mem_init);
--
2.34.1