Re: [PATCH v4 13/17] KVM: arm64: Alloc pkvm_hyp_vm using pKVM heap allocator
[email protected] Fri, 31 Jul 2026 15:06:42 +0000
| Newsgroups | dev.linux.lists.kvmarm |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Thank you for your contribution! Sashiko AI review found 1 potential issue(s) to consider: - [High] Memory allocated for the hypervisor heap is not accounted to the memcg of the container creating the VM, creating a memory limit bypass. Prior to this patch, `hyp_vm` was allocated on the host using `GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT`, correctly attributing the memory to the calling process's memcg. With the shift to EL2 dynamic allocation via `hyp_alloc()`, when the heap requires more memory, EL2 requests a top-up from the host via `PKVM_HYP_REQ_HYP_ALLOC`. The host handles this in `pkvm_hyp_topup()` by creating a temporary memcache and initializing it with `init_hyp_memcache(&mc)`. However, `init_hyp_memcache()` zeroes the memcache flags, meaning `HYP_MEMCACHE_ACCOUNT_KMEMCG` is not set. Consequently, when `topup_hyp_memcache()` allocates host pages, `hyp_mc_alloc_fn()` falls back to `GFP_KERNEL` instead of `GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT`. This hides the hypervisor heap allocations from memcg limits, allowing a container to exhaust host memory by creating VMs with maximum vCPUs without being charged. -- --- Patch [13]: [PATCH v4 13/17] KVM: arm64: Alloc pkvm_hyp_vm using pKVM heap allocator --- commit 3a3fbdf527ba4d3c04e2e5d3272e58f6042e8822 Author: Vincent Donnefort <[email protected]> KVM: arm64: Alloc pkvm_hyp_vm using pKVM heap allocator This commit transitions the allocation of the hypervisor VM state structure (pkvm_hyp_vm) to the pKVM heap allocator at EL2. The host now uses pkvm_call_hyp_req() to invoke __pkvm_init_vm, handling any EL2 heap top-up requests dynamically instead of donating pre-allocated host memory. > diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/pkvm.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/pkvm.c > index bfbb1266491d1..a9b85ad37787a 100644 > --- a/arch/arm64/kvm/pkvm.c > +++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/pkvm.c [ ... ] > @@ -209,28 +209,15 @@ static int __pkvm_create_hyp_vm(struct kvm *kvm) > if (!pgd) > return -ENOMEM; > > - /* Allocate memory to donate to hyp for vm and vcpu pointers. */ > - hyp_vm_sz = PAGE_ALIGN(size_add(PKVM_HYP_VM_SIZE, > - size_mul(sizeof(void *), > - kvm->created_vcpus))); > - hyp_vm = alloc_pages_exact(hyp_vm_sz, GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT); > - if (!hyp_vm) { > - ret = -ENOMEM; > - goto free_pgd; > - } > - > - /* Donate the VM memory to hyp and let hyp initialize it. */ > - ret = kvm_call_hyp_nvhe(__pkvm_init_vm, kvm, hyp_vm, pgd); > + ret = pkvm_call_hyp_req(__pkvm_init_vm, kvm, pgd); [Severity: High] Does this new allocation path lose the memcg accounting for the hyp_vm structure? Previously, hyp_vm was allocated on the host using GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT, which correctly attributed the memory to the calling process's memcg. With the shift to EL2 dynamic allocation, when the heap requires more memory, EL2 requests a top-up via PKVM_HYP_REQ_HYP_ALLOC. When the host handles this in pkvm_hyp_topup(), it creates a temporary memcache using init_hyp_memcache(), which leaves the HYP_MEMCACHE_ACCOUNT_KMEMCG flag cleared. Because of this, when topup_hyp_memcache() allocates host pages, hyp_mc_alloc_fn() falls back to GFP_KERNEL instead of GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT. This hides the hypervisor heap allocations from memcg limits. -- Sashiko AI review ยท https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/[email protected]?part=13