Re: [PATCH v4 16/19] PCI: liveupdate: Add feature header to struct pci_dev_ser

[David Matlack]

On Tue Nov 10, 2026 at 5:01 AM UTC, Tarun Sahu wrote:
> Precede each serialized PCI device entry in the PCI Live Update KHO block
> set with struct kho_ser_hdr via DECLARE_KHO_SER so future per-device PCI
> Live Update features can append fields to struct pci_dev_ser without
> breaking compatibility between adjacent kernels.

Elements of a collection should not have their own feature headers. This
applies to patches 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. I raised this during the v2
discussion [1][2], but I don't think it was addressed.

All entries in a KHO block set are written by the same kernel using the
same struct, and the block set has a single entry_size, so every entry
header is necessarily identical. They don't convey anything that the
header of the struct that owns the collection can't. In this case,
struct pci_ser's header can define features that describe fields in
struct pci_dev_ser, and the PCI core checks them once before iterating.
If a feature only applies to some devices, the field's value in each
entry says whether that device uses it.

Per-entry headers also cost a lot for small entries. struct pci_dev_ser
goes from 8 to 16 bytes, and to 24 bytes once the first feature is
added. Patch 18 does the same for every preserved memfd folio, which for
a large guest backed by 4K pages adds gigabytes of preserved metadata.

They also add new ways to read out of bounds. kho_ser_payload() trusts
nr_required/nr_optional in each entry, and nothing checks that the entry
header plus payload fit within entry_size. In patches 14 and 18 the walk
uses each entry's fhdr->size to find the next entry, so one bad header
throws off every entry after it.

Instead I would keep struct pci_dev_ser as a plain struct, take the
entry size from the KHO block header (patch 2), and in pci_flb_retrieve()
check once that the entry size covers the base fields, plus the fields
of any features set in struct pci_ser's header, e.g.:

	entry_size = kho_block_set_entry_size(&incoming->block_set);
	if (entry_size < offsetofend(struct pci_dev_ser, refcount))
		panic(...);

That also restores the minimum entry size check that the v10 PCI series
had with PCI_DEV_SER_MIN_SIZE, which this version drops.

[...]

> -	kho_block_set_init(&incoming->block_set, sizeof(struct pci_dev_ser));
> +	kho_block_set_init(&incoming->block_set, kho_ser_size(pci_dev_ser));

This size is never used. kho_block_set_restore() overwrites it with the
entry size recorded by the previous kernel. Passing this kernel's size
here is misleading: pci_flb_retrieve() (and the LUO session/file restore
paths) read as if they iterate incoming entries with the outgoing entry
size, which would be a bug.

Incoming block sets should not take an entry size at all.
kho_block_set_restore() should initialize the block set itself from the
incoming block headers, and the incoming paths should drop the
kho_block_set_init() call.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/kexec/atl6K2Juy6Bh29lh@xxxxxxxxxx/
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/kexec/at-8vkVpN2SF3XgB@xxxxxxxxxx/