Subject: [PATCH 2/3] KVM: arm64: Allow get_pkvm_hyp_vm() to take a reference to a dying VM

From: Will Deacon <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:50:54 +0100

Now that completion of the teardown path requires a refcount of zero for
the target VM, we can allow get_pkvm_hyp_vm() to take a reference on a
dying VM, which is necessary to unshare pages with a non-protected VM
during the teardown process itself.

Note that vCPUs belonging to a dying VM cannot be loaded and pages can
only be reclaimed from a protected VM (via
__pkvm_reclaim_dying_guest_page()) if the target VM is in the dying
state.

Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <[email-masked]>
---
 arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/pkvm.c | 8 +-------
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/pkvm.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/pkvm.c
index 3fd3b930beeb..b955da0e50bc 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/pkvm.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/pkvm.c
@@ -309,14 +309,8 @@ struct pkvm_hyp_vm *get_pkvm_hyp_vm(pkvm_handle_t handle)
 
 	hyp_spin_lock(&vm_table_lock);
 	hyp_vm = get_vm_by_handle(handle);
-	if (!hyp_vm)
-		goto unlock;
-
-	if (hyp_vm->kvm.arch.pkvm.is_dying)
-		hyp_vm = NULL;
-	else
+	if (hyp_vm)
 		hyp_page_ref_inc(hyp_virt_to_page(hyp_vm));
-unlock:
 	hyp_spin_unlock(&vm_table_lock);
 
 	return hyp_vm;
-- 
2.53.0.1118.gaef5881109-goog