Re: [PATCH 05/21] KVM: x86/mmu: Try to avoid crashing KVM if a MMU memory cache is empty

[Ben Gardon <bgardon@google.com>]

On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 5:53 PM Sean Christopherson
<sean.j.christopherson@intel.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 03:12:04PM -0700, Ben Gardon wrote:
> > On Fri, Jun 5, 2020 at 2:39 PM Sean Christopherson
> > <sean.j.christopherson@intel.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Attempt to allocate a new object instead of crashing KVM (and likely the
> > > kernel) if a memory cache is unexpectedly empty.  Use GFP_ATOMIC for the
> > > allocation as the caches are used while holding mmu_lock.  The immediate
> > > BUG_ON() makes the code unnecessarily explosive and led to confusing
> > > minimums being used in the past, e.g. allocating 4 objects where 1 would
> > > suffice.
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <sean.j.christopherson@intel.com>
Reviewed-by: Ben Gardon <bgardon@google.com>
> > > ---
> > >  arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c | 21 +++++++++++++++------
> > >  1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> > >
> > > diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c
> > > index ba70de24a5b0..5e773564ab20 100644
> > > --- a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c
> > > +++ b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c
> > > @@ -1060,6 +1060,15 @@ static void walk_shadow_page_lockless_end(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
> > >         local_irq_enable();
> > >  }
> > >
> > > +static inline void *mmu_memory_cache_alloc_obj(struct kvm_mmu_memory_cache *mc,
> > > +                                              gfp_t gfp_flags)
> > > +{
> > > +       if (mc->kmem_cache)
> > > +               return kmem_cache_zalloc(mc->kmem_cache, gfp_flags);
> > > +       else
> > > +               return (void *)__get_free_page(gfp_flags);
> > > +}
> > > +
> > >  static int mmu_topup_memory_cache(struct kvm_mmu_memory_cache *mc, int min)
> > >  {
> > >         void *obj;
> > > @@ -1067,10 +1076,7 @@ static int mmu_topup_memory_cache(struct kvm_mmu_memory_cache *mc, int min)
> > >         if (mc->nobjs >= min)
> > >                 return 0;
> > >         while (mc->nobjs < ARRAY_SIZE(mc->objects)) {
> > > -               if (mc->kmem_cache)
> > > -                       obj = kmem_cache_zalloc(mc->kmem_cache, GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT);
> > > -               else
> > > -                       obj = (void *)__get_free_page(GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT);
> > > +               obj = mmu_memory_cache_alloc_obj(mc, GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT);
> > >                 if (!obj)
> > >                         return mc->nobjs >= min ? 0 : -ENOMEM;
> > >                 mc->objects[mc->nobjs++] = obj;
> > > @@ -1118,8 +1124,11 @@ static void *mmu_memory_cache_alloc(struct kvm_mmu_memory_cache *mc)
> > >  {
> > >         void *p;
> > >
> > > -       BUG_ON(!mc->nobjs);
> > > -       p = mc->objects[--mc->nobjs];
> > > +       if (WARN_ON(!mc->nobjs))
> > > +               p = mmu_memory_cache_alloc_obj(mc, GFP_ATOMIC | __GFP_ACCOUNT);
> > Is an atomic allocation really necessary here? In most cases, when
> > topping up the memory cache we are handing a guest page fault. This
> > bug could also be removed by returning null if unable to allocate from
> > the cache, and then re-trying the page fault in that case.
>
> The whole point of these caches is to avoid having to deal with allocation
> errors in the low level MMU paths, e.g. propagating an error up from
> pte_list_add() would be a mess.
>
> > I don't know if this is necessary to handle other, non-x86 architectures more
> > easily, but I worry this could cause some unpleasantness if combined with
> > some other bug or the host was in a low memory situation and then this
> > consumed the atomic pool. Perhaps this is a moot point since we log a warning
> > and consider the atomic allocation something of an error.
>
> Yeah, it's the latter.  If we reach this point it's a guaranteed KVM bug.
> Because it's likely that the caller holds a lock, triggering the BUG_ON()
> has a high chance of hanging the system.  The idea is to take the path that
> _may_ crash the kernel instead of killing the VM and more than likely
> crashing the kernel.  And hopefully this code will never be exercised on a
> production kernel.

That makes sense to me. I agree it's definitely positive to replace a
BUG_ON with something else.

>
> > > +       else
> > > +               p = mc->objects[--mc->nobjs];
> > > +       BUG_ON(!p);
> > >         return p;
> > >  }
> > >
> > > --
> > > 2.26.0
> > >
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