Re: [PATCH RFC 00/15] vhost-user: isolated memory

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Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2026 03:07:56 -0400
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Subject: Re: [PATCH RFC 00/15] vhost-user: isolated memory
To: ConKite <[email protected]>, [email protected]
Cc: "Michael S. Tsirkin" <[email protected]>,
 Stefano Garzarella <[email protected]>,
 =?UTF-8?Q?Alex_Benn=C3=A9e?= <[email protected]>,
 Viresh Kumar <[email protected]>, Gerd Hoffmann <[email protected]>,
 Mathieu Poirier <[email protected]>,
 Manos Pitsidianakis <[email protected]>,
 Haixu Cui <[email protected]>, Raphael Norwitz <[email protected]>,
 Kevin Wolf <[email protected]>, Hanna Reitz <[email protected]>,
 =?UTF-8?Q?Marc-Andr=C3=A9_Lureau?= <[email protected]>,
 Paolo Bonzini <[email protected]>, Fam Zheng <[email protected]>,
 Stefan Hajnoczi <[email protected]>, Milan Zamazal <[email protected]>,
 Akihiko Odaki <[email protected]>,
 Dmitry Osipenko <[email protected]>, [email protected],
 [email protected], "Gonglei (Arei)" <[email protected]>,
 zhenwei pi <[email protected]>, =?UTF-8?Q?Daniel_P=2E_Berrang=C3=A9?=
 <[email protected]>, Eric Blake <[email protected]>,
 Markus Armbruster <[email protected]>, Jason Wang <[email protected]>,
 Peter Xu <[email protected]>, =?UTF-8?Q?Eugenio_P=C3=A9rez?=
 <[email protected]>, Alyssa Ross <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>
Content-Language: en-US
From: Demi Marie Obenour <[email protected]>
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In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>

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On 7/23/26 18:29, ConKite wrote:
> This patch series implements a memory isolation mode in vhost-user. The=

> purpose of this mode is to provide the option of additional security by=

> eliminating direct access of guest memory by vhost-user devices.
> At a high level this works by:
>=20
> 1. Adding qdev and qapi properties required to enable isolation mode fo=
r
>    various devices.
> 2. Allocating an isolation memory region in an anonymous file and mappi=
ng it
>    to host memory.  This isolation region will hold the bounce buffers =
and
>    vrings necessary to move data.
> 3. Using a vhost-iova-tree to allocate and track the mapping between
>    guest regions and their corresponding bounce buffers in the isolatio=
n
>    memory.
> 4. Creating shadow virtqueues to intercept request notifications.  As
>    kick and call events are received by an svq, it copies buffer
>    contents and descriptors between isolation and guest memory before
>    notifying the backend or guest.  =20
>=20
> Note: This project is currently in a partially functional state. For
> example, in testing vhost-user-input and a keyboard, keystrokes may
> register correctly or be double counted depending on the combination
> of backend daemon and guest OS used. However, the desire is to make
> this work public at this stage for comment on the overall

Nice!

Does this approach work for a generic vhost-user device, as opposed to
one that knows it is a block/network/etc device?  Also, how much overhead=

is there compared to the normal case?
--=20
Sincerely,
Demi Marie Obenour (she/her/hers)

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