Currently it is possible that the final put of a KVM reference comes from vfio during its device close operation. This occurs while the vfio group lock is held; however, if the vfio device is still in the kvm device list, then the following call chain could result in a deadlock: VFIO holds group->group_lock/group_rwsem -> kvm_put_kvm -> kvm_destroy_vm -> kvm_destroy_devices -> kvm_vfio_destroy -> kvm_vfio_file_set_kvm -> vfio_file_set_kvm -> try to hold group->group_lock/group_rwsem The key function is the kvm_destroy_devices() which triggers destroy cb of kvm_device_ops. It calls back to vfio and try to hold group_lock. So if this path doesn't call back to vfio, this dead lock would be fixed. Actually, there is a way for it. KVM provides another point to free the kvm-vfio device which is the point when the device file descriptor is closed. This can be achieved by providing the release cb instead of the destroy cb. Also rename kvm_vfio_destroy() to be kvm_vfio_release(). /* * Destroy is responsible for freeing dev. * * Destroy may be called before or after destructors are called * on emulated I/O regions, depending on whether a reference is * held by a vcpu or other kvm component that gets destroyed * after the emulated I/O. */ void (*destroy)(struct kvm_device *dev); /* * Release is an alternative method to free the device. It is * called when the device file descriptor is closed. Once * release is called, the destroy method will not be called * anymore as the device is removed from the device list of * the VM. kvm->lock is held. */ void (*release)(struct kvm_device *dev); Fixes: 421cfe6596f6 ("vfio: remove VFIO_GROUP_NOTIFY_SET_KVM") Reported-by: Alex Williamson <alex.williamson@xxxxxxxxxx> Suggested-by: Kevin Tian <kevin.tian@xxxxxxxxx> Reviewed-by: Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@xxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Yi Liu <yi.l.liu@xxxxxxxxx> --- virt/kvm/vfio.c | 4 ++-- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/virt/kvm/vfio.c b/virt/kvm/vfio.c index 495ceabffe88..e94f3ea718e5 100644 --- a/virt/kvm/vfio.c +++ b/virt/kvm/vfio.c @@ -336,7 +336,7 @@ static int kvm_vfio_has_attr(struct kvm_device *dev, return -ENXIO; } -static void kvm_vfio_destroy(struct kvm_device *dev) +static void kvm_vfio_release(struct kvm_device *dev) { struct kvm_vfio *kv = dev->private; struct kvm_vfio_group *kvg, *tmp; @@ -363,7 +363,7 @@ static int kvm_vfio_create(struct kvm_device *dev, u32 type); static struct kvm_device_ops kvm_vfio_ops = { .name = "kvm-vfio", .create = kvm_vfio_create, - .destroy = kvm_vfio_destroy, + .release = kvm_vfio_release, .set_attr = kvm_vfio_set_attr, .has_attr = kvm_vfio_has_attr, }; -- 2.34.1