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[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] [xen staging-4.17] x86: SHADOW_PAGING is deprecated
commit 05e373691b9a377050a8a4aaf27f6a9a3adcd6d1
Author: Jan Beulich <jbeulich@xxxxxxxx>
AuthorDate: Mon Jul 20 16:45:10 2026 +0100
Commit: Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@xxxxxxxxxx>
CommitDate: Tue Jul 28 13:10:38 2026 +0100
x86: SHADOW_PAGING is deprecated
Addressing certain issues, in particular related to operations which may
take excessively long and therefore would need preemption, has turned out
overly costly. Since alternatives (HVM/PVH: HAP, PV: shim) are commonly
available, the decision was to deprecate the functionality, while still
retaining it for people to use at their own (security) risk. Memory-wise
small enough guests may still be okay to run.
Some CI testing depends on SHADOW_PAGING. Explicitly enable it when needed.
This is CVE-2026-42493 / XSA-495.
Signed-off-by: Jan Beulich <jbeulich@xxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Juergen Gross <jgross@xxxxxxxx>
(cherry picked from commit f2cac32029e639a0974ca6752fbc3fafdd4f139a)
---
SUPPORT.md | 12 +++++++++++-
automation/gitlab-ci/build.yaml | 4 ++++
xen/arch/x86/Kconfig | 4 ++--
3 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/SUPPORT.md b/SUPPORT.md
index a55910fcce..b040f95242 100644
--- a/SUPPORT.md
+++ b/SUPPORT.md
@@ -286,6 +286,16 @@ This is typically done by a guest kernel agent known as a
"balloon driver".
Status: Supported
+### Shadow paging
+
+Allows fully virtualized guests (HVM / PVH) to be run without (host side) page
+translation support by hardware (AMD: NPT, Intel: EPT).
+
+It is also required to migrate PV guests, and to allow L1TF-vulnerable guests
+to continue to run without compromising host security.
+
+ Status: Supported, not security supported
+
### Populate-on-demand memory
This is a mechanism that allows normal operating systems with only a balloon
driver
@@ -411,7 +421,7 @@ This feature is independent
of the ARM "page granularity" feature (see below).
Status, x86 HVM/PVH, HAP: Supported
- Status, x86 HVM/PVH, Shadow, 2MiB: Supported
+ Status, x86 HVM/PVH, Shadow, 2MiB: Supported, not security supported
Status, ARM: Supported
On x86 in shadow mode, only 2MiB (L2) superpages are available;
diff --git a/automation/gitlab-ci/build.yaml b/automation/gitlab-ci/build.yaml
index 1b27e5c01b..34490488d0 100644
--- a/automation/gitlab-ci/build.yaml
+++ b/automation/gitlab-ci/build.yaml
@@ -238,6 +238,8 @@ debian-stretch-gcc-debug:
extends: .gcc-x86-64-build-debug
variables:
CONTAINER: debian:stretch
+ EXTRA_XEN_CONFIG: |
+ CONFIG_SHADOW_PAGING=y
debian-stretch-32-clang-debug:
extends: .clang-x86-32-build-debug
@@ -266,6 +268,8 @@ debian-bookworm-clang-debug:
extends: .clang-x86-64-build-debug
variables:
CONTAINER: debian:bookworm
+ EXTRA_XEN_CONFIG: |
+ CONFIG_SHADOW_PAGING=y
debian-bookworm-gcc:
extends: .gcc-x86-64-build
diff --git a/xen/arch/x86/Kconfig b/xen/arch/x86/Kconfig
index 370558756f..f4e38588c6 100644
--- a/xen/arch/x86/Kconfig
+++ b/xen/arch/x86/Kconfig
@@ -151,7 +151,6 @@ config XEN_IBT
config SHADOW_PAGING
bool "Shadow Paging"
- default !PV_SHIM_EXCLUSIVE
depends on PV || HVM
---help---
@@ -167,7 +166,8 @@ config SHADOW_PAGING
Under a small number of specific workloads, shadow paging may be
deliberately used as a performance optimisation.
- If unsure, say Y.
+ NOTE: This feature is now deprecated. It is in particular no longer
+ security supported.
config BIGMEM
bool "big memory support"
--
generated by git-patchbot for /home/xen/git/xen.git#staging-4.17
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