title: x86/AMD: mismatch in IOMMU quarantine page table levels
description: The current setup of the quarantine page tables assumes that the
quarantine domain (dom_io) has been initialized with an address width
of DEFAULT_DOMAIN_ADDRESS_WIDTH (48) and hence 4 page table levels.
However dom_io being a PV domain gets the AMD-Vi IOMMU page tables
levels based on the maximum (hot pluggable) RAM address, and hence on
systems with no RAM above the 512GB mark only 3 page-table levels are
configured in the IOMMU.
On systems without RAM above the 512GB boundary
amd_iommu_quarantine_init() will setup page tables for the scratch
page with 4 levels, while the IOMMU will be configured to use 3 levels
only, resulting in the last page table directory (PDE) effectively
becoming a page table entry (PTE), and hence a device in quarantine
mode gaining write access to the page destined to be a PDE.
Due to this page table level mismatch, the sink page the device gets
read/write access to is no longer cleared between device assignment,
possibly leading to data leaks.
affected:
{
defaultStatus: unknown
product: Xen
vendor: Xen
versions:
status: unknown, version: consult Xen advisory XSA-445
}
workarounds: Not passing through physical devices to guests will avoid the
vulnerability.
Not using quarantine scratch-page mode will avoid the vulnerability,
but could result in other issues.