Re: [PATCH v1 1/1] KVM: PPC: Book3S: Protect TCE IOMMU table walks with RCU

From: Narayana Murty N

Date: Fri Oct 30 2026 - 23:04:48 EST


Hi Ritesh,

Thanks for the review.

On 30/10/26 7:32 PM, Ritesh Harjani (IBM) wrote:
Hi Narayana,

Narayana Murty N <nnmlinux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Commit cad32d9d42e8 ("KVM: PPC: Book3s: Retire H_PUT_TCE/etc real mode
handlers") moved the TCE hcalls from real mode to preemptible virtual
mode.

The stt->iommu_tables list is RCU managed. Entries are added with
list_add_rcu(), removed with list_del_rcu(), and released after an RCU
grace period with call_rcu().

However, kvmppc_h_put_tce(), kvmppc_h_put_tce_indirect(), and
kvmppc_h_stuff_tce() traverse iommu_tables using
list_for_each_entry_lockless() without an RCU read-side critical
section.

A concurrent IOMMU table detach can therefore remove an entry while a
TCE hcall is traversing or using it, without the traversal preventing
the entry from being reclaimed.

Use list_for_each_entry_rcu() under rcu_read_lock() for these walks so
that an entry removed concurrently is not reclaimed until the reader
has completed.

Fixes: cad32d9d42e8 ("KVM: PPC: Book3s: Retire H_PUT_TCE/etc real mode handlers")

I am not sure if this is the right fix. On doing git blame, I see the
following patch introduced this:

121f80ba ("KVM: PPC: VFIO: Add in-kernel acceleration for VFIO") - Alexey Kardashevskiy

Regarding the Fixes: tag, thanks for pointing this out. I will re-check the history around 121f80ba ("KVM: PPC: VFIO: Add in-kernel acceleration for VFIO") and update the commit message/Fixes tag accordingly, since that appears to be where the lockless iommu_tables traversal was originally introduced rather than cad32d9d42e8.

Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Narayana Murty N <nnmlinux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/powerpc/kvm/book3s_64_vio.c | 18 ++++++++++++++----
1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)


Sashiko pointed out few more bugs around this path:

Thank you for your contribution! Sashiko AI review found 2 potential issue(s) to consider:
- [High] kvm: ppc: UAF of spapr_tce_table due to missing rcu_read_lock()
- [High] kvmppc_clear_tce: pinned memory leak on partial IOMMU map failure

So, even though these looks to be pre-existing bugs - do you think we
can address them in a single patch series itself? This will reduce your
testing/validation as well?
Also since we are anyway fixing RCU specific bugs in patch-1, so I think
we can also fix rcu handling for stt as well?

Do you mind working on v2 and addressing Sashiko review comments please?
Yes, I will address the Sashiko findings in the next version. I will include the stt lifetime/RCU handling along with the existing stt->iommu_tables RCU fix, and handle the partial IOMMU map failure/pinned-memory leak as part of the same series.

I'll rework this as v2 addressing these points.

-ritesh