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From: Kenta Akagi <k@mgml.me>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, kvm@vger.kernel.org,
	stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>, Kenta Akagi <k@mgml.me>
Subject: [PATCH 5.15.y v4 03/11] KVM: MMU: update comment on the number of page role combinations
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2026 01:44:19 +0900	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260928164427.4699-4-k@mgml.me> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260928164427.4699-1-k@mgml.me>

From: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>

commit dc1ce45575b3401102568dd60ba8894849d1d64b upstream.

Fix the number of bits in the role, and simplify the explanation of
why several bits or combinations of bits are redundant.

Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Kenta Akagi <k@mgml.me>
---
 arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h | 30 ++++++++++++++++++------------
 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
index 710c9c87cdf2..2c378064a1db 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
@@ -292,19 +292,25 @@ struct kvm_kernel_irq_routing_entry;
  * the number of unique SPs that can theoretically be created is 2^n, where n
  * is the number of bits that are used to compute the role.
  *
- * But, even though there are 18 bits in the mask below, not all combinations
- * of modes and flags are possible.  The maximum number of possible upper-level
- * shadow pages for a single gfn is in the neighborhood of 2^13.
+ * But, even though there are 19 bits in the mask below, not all combinations
+ * of modes and flags are possible:
  *
- *   - invalid shadow pages are not accounted.
- *   - level is effectively limited to four combinations, not 16 as the number
- *     bits would imply, as 4k SPs are not tracked (allowed to go unsync).
- *   - level is effectively unused for non-PAE paging because there is exactly
- *     one upper level (see 4k SP exception above).
- *   - quadrant is used only for non-PAE paging and is exclusive with
- *     gpte_is_8_bytes.
- *   - execonly and ad_disabled are used only for nested EPT, which makes it
- *     exclusive with quadrant.
+ *   - invalid shadow pages are not accounted, so the bits are effectively 18
+ *
+ *   - quadrant will only be used if gpte_is_8_bytes=0 (non-PAE paging);
+ *     execonly and ad_disabled are only used for nested EPT which has
+ *     gpte_is_8_bytes=1.  Therefore, 2 bits are always unused.
+ *
+ *   - the 4 bits of level are effectively limited to the values 2/3/4/5,
+ *     as 4k SPs are not tracked (allowed to go unsync).  In addition non-PAE
+ *     paging has exactly one upper level, making level completely redundant
+ *     when gpte_is_8_bytes=0.
+ *
+ *   - on top of this, smep_andnot_wp and smap_andnot_wp are only set if
+ *     cr0_wp=0, therefore these three bits only give rise to 5 possibilities.
+ *
+ * Therefore, the maximum number of possible upper-level shadow pages for a
+ * single gfn is a bit less than 2^13.
  */
 union kvm_mmu_page_role {
 	u32 word;
-- 
2.53.0


  parent reply	other threads:[~2026-09-28 16:44 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 14+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-09-28 16:44 [PATCH 5.15.y v4 00/11] KVM: fixes for CVE-2026-46113 and related issues Kenta Akagi
2026-09-28 16:44 ` [PATCH 5.15.y v4 01/11] KVM: x86/mmu: Use a bool for direct Kenta Akagi
2026-09-28 16:44 ` [PATCH 5.15.y v4 02/11] KVM: x86/mmu: Stop passing "direct" to mmu_alloc_root() Kenta Akagi
2026-09-28 16:44 ` Kenta Akagi [this message]
2026-09-28 16:44 ` [PATCH 5.15.y v4 04/11] KVM: X86: Remove useless code to set role.gpte_is_8_bytes when role.direct Kenta Akagi
2026-09-28 16:44 ` [PATCH 5.15.y v4 05/11] KVM: X86: Calculate quadrant when !role.gpte_is_8_bytes Kenta Akagi
2026-09-28 16:44 ` [PATCH 5.15.y v4 06/11] KVM: X86: Rename gpte_is_8_bytes to has_4_byte_gpte and invert the direction Kenta Akagi
2026-09-28 16:44 ` [PATCH 5.15.y v4 07/11] KVM: x86/mmu: Derive shadow MMU page role from parent Kenta Akagi
2026-09-28 16:44 ` [PATCH 5.15.y v4 08/11] KVM: x86/mmu: Always pass 0 for @quadrant when gptes are 8 bytes Kenta Akagi
2026-09-28 16:44 ` [PATCH 5.15.y v4 09/11] KVM: x86/mmu: pull call to drop_large_spte() into __link_shadow_page() Kenta Akagi
2026-09-28 16:44 ` [PATCH 5.15.y v4 10/11] KVM: x86: Fix shadow paging use-after-free due to unexpected GFN Kenta Akagi
2026-09-28 16:44 ` [PATCH 5.15.y v4 11/11] KVM: x86: Fix shadow paging use-after-free due to unexpected role Kenta Akagi
2026-09-28 18:28 ` [PATCH 5.15.y v4 00/11] KVM: fixes for CVE-2026-46113 and related issues Sean Christopherson
2026-09-28 22:39 ` Sasha Levin

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