From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
To: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
	patches@lists.linux.dev,
	Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>,
	Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>,
	Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH 5.15 164/272] KVM: x86/mmu: Document the "rules" for using host_pfn_mapping_level()
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:55:48 +0200
Message-ID: <20260820145236.272863997@linuxfoundation.org>
In-Reply-To: <20260820145231.229664293@linuxfoundation.org>
References: <20260820145231.229664293@linuxfoundation.org>
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5.15-stable review patch.  If anyone has any objections, please let me know.

------------------

From: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>

[ Upstream commit 65e3b446bcceaac7448cb25a2a5bf4adbcf25fe6 ]

Add a comment to document how host_pfn_mapping_level() can be used safely,
as the line between safe and dangerous is quite thin.  E.g. if KVM were
to ever support in-place promotion to create huge pages, consuming the
level is safe if the caller holds mmu_lock and checks that there's an
existing _leaf_ SPTE, but unsafe if the caller only checks that there's a
non-leaf SPTE.

Opportunistically tweak the existing comments to explicitly document why
KVM needs to use READ_ONCE().

No functional change intended.

Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
Message-Id: <20220715232107.3775620-3-seanjc@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Stable-dep-of: 2abd5287f083 ("KVM: x86: Check for invalid/obsolete root *after* making MMU pages available")
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
---
 arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c |   25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+)

--- a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c
@@ -2869,6 +2869,31 @@ static void direct_pte_prefetch(struct k
 	__direct_pte_prefetch(vcpu, sp, sptep);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Lookup the mapping level for @gfn in the current mm.
+ *
+ * WARNING!  Use of host_pfn_mapping_level() requires the caller and the end
+ * consumer to be tied into KVM's handlers for MMU notifier events!
+ *
+ * There are several ways to safely use this helper:
+ *
+ * - Check mmu_notifier_retry_hva() after grabbing the mapping level, before
+ *   consuming it.  In this case, mmu_lock doesn't need to be held during the
+ *   lookup, but it does need to be held while checking the MMU notifier.
+ *
+ * - Hold mmu_lock AND ensure there is no in-progress MMU notifier invalidation
+ *   event for the hva.  This can be done by explicit checking the MMU notifier
+ *   or by ensuring that KVM already has a valid mapping that covers the hva.
+ *
+ * - Do not use the result to install new mappings, e.g. use the host mapping
+ *   level only to decide whether or not to zap an entry.  In this case, it's
+ *   not required to hold mmu_lock (though it's highly likely the caller will
+ *   want to hold mmu_lock anyways, e.g. to modify SPTEs).
+ *
+ * Note!  The lookup can still race with modifications to host page tables, but
+ * the above "rules" ensure KVM will not _consume_ the result of the walk if a
+ * race with the primary MMU occurs.
+ */
 static int host_pfn_mapping_level(struct kvm *kvm, gfn_t gfn, kvm_pfn_t pfn,
 				  const struct kvm_memory_slot *slot)
 {