[PATCH 0/3] KVM: Fix KVM-owned file refcounting of KVM module(s)

From: Sean Christopherson
Date: Wed Oct 18 2023 - 16:46:38 EST


Clean up a KVM module refcounting mess that Al pointed out in the context
of the guest_memfd series. The worst behavior was recently introduced by
an ill-fated attempt to fix a bug in x86's async #PF code. Instead of
fixing the underlying bug of not flushing a workqueue (see patch 2), KVM
fudged around the bug by gifting every VM a reference to the KVM module.

That made the reproducer happy (hopefully there was actually a reproducer
at one point), but it didn't fully fix the use-after-free bug, it just made
the bug harder to hit. E.g. as pointed out by Al, if kvm_destroy_vm() is
preempted after putting the last KVM module reference, KVM can be unloaded
before kvm_destroy_vm() completes, and scheduling back in the associated
task will explode (preemption isn't strictly required, it's just the most
obvious path to failure).

Then after applying that "fix", we/I made an even bigger goof by relying on
the nonexistent "protection" provided by the VM's reference and removed the
code which guaranteed that the KVM module would be pinned until *after* the
last reference to a KVM-owned file was put.

Undo the mess we created and fix the original async #PF workqueue bug.

Sean Christopherson (3):
KVM: Set file_operations.owner appropriately for all such structures
KVM: Always flush async #PF workqueue when vCPU is being destroyed
Revert "KVM: Prevent module exit until all VMs are freed"

arch/x86/kvm/debugfs.c | 1 +
virt/kvm/async_pf.c | 15 ++++++++++++---
virt/kvm/kvm_main.c | 18 ++++++++----------
3 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)


base-commit: 437bba5ad2bba00c2056c896753a32edf80860cc
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2.42.0.655.g421f12c284-goog