[PATCH v4 07/11] KVM: guest_memfd: Add support for freezing mappings

Tarun Sahu <[email protected]> Tue, 28 Jul 2026 12:11:34 +0000
Newsgroups org.infradead.lists.kexec,dev.linux.lists.kvmarm,org.kernel.vger.kvm,org.kernel.vger.linux-doc,org.kernel.vger.linux-kernel,org.kernel.vger.linux-kselftest,org.kvack.linux-mm
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Introduce kvm_gmem_freeze() to freeze a guest_memfd inode's mapping,
which prevents fallocate() operations and new page fault allocations
during preservation.

Use a global SRCU (`kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu`) to synchronize freeze state
checkers without incurring per-fault locking overhead or risking per-CPU
memory exhaustion (as per-CPU structure not counted in cgroup) from
per-inode SRCU structures by faulty/compromised VMM.

Signed-off-by: Tarun Sahu <[email protected]>
---
 virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c | 117 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
 virt/kvm/guest_memfd.h |   5 ++
 2 files changed, 111 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c b/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c
index dd84bba8974b..d522cc34f476 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.c
@@ -7,11 +7,13 @@
 #include <linux/mempolicy.h>
 #include <linux/pseudo_fs.h>
 #include <linux/pagemap.h>
+#include <linux/srcu.h>
 #include "guest_memfd.h"
 
 #include "kvm_mm.h"
 
 static struct vfsmount *kvm_gmem_mnt;
+static struct srcu_struct kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu;
 
 
 #define kvm_gmem_for_each_file(f, inode) \
@@ -96,6 +98,7 @@ static struct folio *kvm_gmem_get_folio(struct inode *inode, pgoff_t index)
 	/* TODO: Support huge pages. */
 	struct mempolicy *policy;
 	struct folio *folio;
+	int idx;
 
 	/*
 	 * Fast-path: See if folio is already present in mapping to avoid
@@ -105,12 +108,20 @@ static struct folio *kvm_gmem_get_folio(struct inode *inode, pgoff_t index)
 	if (!IS_ERR(folio))
 		return folio;
 
+	idx = srcu_read_lock(&kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu);
+	if (kvm_gmem_is_frozen(inode)) {
+		srcu_read_unlock(&kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu, idx);
+		return ERR_PTR(-EPERM);
+	}
+
 	policy = mpol_shared_policy_lookup(&GMEM_I(inode)->policy, index);
 	folio = __filemap_get_folio_mpol(inode->i_mapping, index,
 					 FGP_LOCK | FGP_CREAT,
 					 mapping_gfp_mask(inode->i_mapping), policy);
 	mpol_cond_put(policy);
 
+	srcu_read_unlock(&kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu, idx);
+
 	/*
 	 * External interfaces like kvm_gmem_get_pfn() support dealing
 	 * with hugepages to a degree, but internally, guest_memfd currently
@@ -273,16 +284,30 @@ static long kvm_gmem_allocate(struct inode *inode, loff_t offset, loff_t len)
 static long kvm_gmem_fallocate(struct file *file, int mode, loff_t offset,
 			       loff_t len)
 {
+	struct inode *inode = file_inode(file);
 	int ret;
+	int idx;
 
-	if (!(mode & FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE))
-		return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+	idx = srcu_read_lock(&kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu);
+	if (kvm_gmem_is_frozen(inode)) {
+		srcu_read_unlock(&kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu, idx);
+		return -EPERM;
+	}
 
-	if (mode & ~(FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE | FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE))
-		return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+	if (!(mode & FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE)) {
+		ret = -EOPNOTSUPP;
+		goto out;
+	}
 
-	if (!PAGE_ALIGNED(offset) || !PAGE_ALIGNED(len))
-		return -EINVAL;
+	if (mode & ~(FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE | FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE)) {
+		ret = -EOPNOTSUPP;
+		goto out;
+	}
+
+	if (!PAGE_ALIGNED(offset) || !PAGE_ALIGNED(len)) {
+		ret = -EINVAL;
+		goto out;
+	}
 
 	if (mode & FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE)
 		ret = kvm_gmem_punch_hole(file_inode(file), offset, len);
@@ -291,6 +316,9 @@ static long kvm_gmem_fallocate(struct file *file, int mode, loff_t offset,
 
 	if (!ret)
 		file_modified(file);
+
+out:
+	srcu_read_unlock(&kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu, idx);
 	return ret;
 }
 
@@ -948,7 +976,9 @@ static void kvm_gmem_destroy_inode(struct inode *inode)
 
 static void kvm_gmem_free_inode(struct inode *inode)
 {
-	kmem_cache_free(kvm_gmem_inode_cachep, GMEM_I(inode));
+	struct gmem_inode *gi = GMEM_I(inode);
+
+	kmem_cache_free(kvm_gmem_inode_cachep, gi);
 }
 
 static const struct super_operations kvm_gmem_super_operations = {
@@ -1003,12 +1033,21 @@ int kvm_gmem_init(struct module *module)
 	if (!kvm_gmem_inode_cachep)
 		return -ENOMEM;
 
+	ret = init_srcu_struct(&kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu);
+	if (ret)
+		goto err_cache;
+
 	ret = kvm_gmem_init_mount();
-	if (ret) {
-		kmem_cache_destroy(kvm_gmem_inode_cachep);
-		return ret;
-	}
+	if (ret)
+		goto err_srcu;
+
 	return 0;
+
+err_srcu:
+	cleanup_srcu_struct(&kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu);
+err_cache:
+	kmem_cache_destroy(kvm_gmem_inode_cachep);
+	return ret;
 }
 
 void kvm_gmem_exit(void)
@@ -1016,5 +1055,61 @@ void kvm_gmem_exit(void)
 	kern_unmount(kvm_gmem_mnt);
 	kvm_gmem_mnt = NULL;
 	rcu_barrier();
+	cleanup_srcu_struct(&kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu);
 	kmem_cache_destroy(kvm_gmem_inode_cachep);
 }
+
+/**
+ * kvm_gmem_freeze - Freeze or unfreeze a guest_memfd inode mapping.
+ * @inode: The guest_memfd inode.
+ * @freeze: True to freeze, false to unfreeze.
+ *
+ * This API is used strictly during the live update / preservation transition
+ * window to prevent host userspace and guest-side faults from making any
+ * mapping modifications (such as fallocate or page fault allocation)
+ * to the guest_memfd page cache.
+ *
+ * Synchronization Strategy (Sleepable RCU):
+ * To avoid high-contention VFS locks (like inode_lock or
+ * filemap_invalidate_lock) on the vCPU page fault hot paths, this subsystem
+ * implements a lightweight, system-wide Sleepable RCU (SRCU) mechanism
+ * (`kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu`):
+ *
+ * Global vs. Per-Inode SRCU
+ * ======================
+ * A single system-wide global static `srcu_struct` is used instead of a
+ * per-inode SRCU structure to completely prevent unprivileged users from
+ * exhausting the host's per-CPU memory allocator. Because
+ * `init_srcu_struct()` allocates per-CPU memory via `alloc_percpu()`, which
+ * is not accounted by memory cgroups (memcg),
+ * a per-inode SRCU structure would allow a tenant to bypass cgroup limits and
+ * trigger a system-wide Out-of-Memory (OOM) crash simply by spawning a large
+ * number of guest_memfd file descriptors (bounded only by RLIMIT_NOFILE).
+ *
+ * Flag Modification Note:
+ * Since `GUEST_MEMFD_F_MAPPING_FROZEN` is the ONLY flag in
+ * `GMEM_I(inode)->flags` that is mutated dynamically at runtime (all other
+ * flags are creation-time flags which remain strictly read-only), there is
+ * no possibility of concurrent bit-modification races. Therefore, a standard
+ * `WRITE_ONCE` is fully safe and does not require complex `cmpxchg`
+ * synchronization loops.
+ */
+void kvm_gmem_freeze(struct inode *inode, bool freeze)
+{
+	u64 flags = READ_ONCE(GMEM_I(inode)->flags);
+
+	if (freeze)
+		flags |= GUEST_MEMFD_F_MAPPING_FROZEN;
+	else
+		flags &= ~GUEST_MEMFD_F_MAPPING_FROZEN;
+
+	WRITE_ONCE(GMEM_I(inode)->flags, flags);
+
+	if (freeze)
+		synchronize_srcu(&kvm_gmem_freeze_srcu);
+}
+
+bool kvm_gmem_is_frozen(struct inode *inode)
+{
+	return READ_ONCE(GMEM_I(inode)->flags) & GUEST_MEMFD_F_MAPPING_FROZEN;
+}
diff --git a/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.h b/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.h
index c528b046dd69..028c348a1023 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.h
+++ b/virt/kvm/guest_memfd.h
@@ -29,11 +29,16 @@ struct gmem_inode {
 	u64 flags;
 };
 
+/* Internal kernel-only flags (must not overlap with UAPI flags) */
+#define GUEST_MEMFD_F_MAPPING_FROZEN	(1ULL << 63)
+
 static inline struct gmem_inode *GMEM_I(struct inode *inode)
 {
 	return container_of(inode, struct gmem_inode, vfs_inode);
 }
 
 struct file *__kvm_gmem_create_file(struct kvm *kvm, loff_t size, u64 flags);
+void kvm_gmem_freeze(struct inode *inode, bool freeze);
+bool kvm_gmem_is_frozen(struct inode *inode);
 
 #endif /* __KVM_GUEST_MEMFD_H__ */
-- 
2.55.0.229.g6434b31f56-goog