In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

KVM: Use dedicated mutex to protect kvm_usage_count to avoid deadlock

Use a dedicated mutex to guard kvm_usage_count to fix a potential deadlock
on x86 due to a chain of locks and SRCU synchronizations. Translating the
below lockdep splat, CPU1 #6 will wait on CPU0 #1, CPU0 #8 will wait on
CPU2 #3, and CPU2 #7 will wait on CPU1 #4 (if there's a writer, due to the
fairness of r/w semaphores).

CPU0 CPU1 CPU2
1 lock(&kvm->slots_lock);
2 lock(&vcpu->mutex);
3 lock(&kvm->srcu);
4 lock(cpu_hotplug_lock);
5 lock(kvm_lock);
6 lock(&kvm->slots_lock);
7 lock(cpu_hotplug_lock);
8 sync(&kvm->srcu);

Note, there are likely more potential deadlocks in KVM x86, e.g. the same
pattern of taking cpu_hotplug_lock outside of kvm_lock likely exists with
__kvmclock_cpufreq_notifier():

cpuhp_cpufreq_online()
|
-> cpufreq_online()
|
-> cpufreq_gov_performance_limits()
|
-> __cpufreq_driver_target()
|
-> __target_index()
|
-> cpufreq_freq_transition_begin()
|
-> cpufreq_notify_transition()
|
-> ... __kvmclock_cpufreq_notifier()

But, actually triggering such deadlocks is beyond rare due to the
combination of dependencies and timings involved. E.g. the cpufreq
notifier is only used on older CPUs without a constant TSC, mucking with
the NX hugepage mitigation while VMs are running is very uncommon, and
doing so while also onlining/offlining a CPU (necessary to generate
contention on cpu_hotplug_lock) would be even more unusual.

The most robust solution to the general cpu_hotplug_lock issue is likely
to switch vm_list to be an RCU-protected list, e.g. so that x86's cpufreq
notifier doesn't to take kvm_lock. For now, settle for fixing the most
blatant deadlock, as switching to an RCU-protected list is a much more
involved change, but add a comment in locking.rst to call out that care
needs to be taken when walking holding kvm_lock and walking vm_list.

======================================================
WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected
6.10.0-smp--c257535a0c9d-pip #330 Tainted: G S O
------------------------------------------------------
tee/35048 is trying to acquire lock:
ff6a80eced71e0a8 (&kvm->slots_lock){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: set_nx_huge_pages+0x179/0x1e0 [kvm]

but task is already holding lock:
ffffffffc07abb08 (kvm_lock){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: set_nx_huge_pages+0x14a/0x1e0 [kvm]

which lock already depends on the new lock.

the existing dependency chain (in reverse order) is:

-> #3 (kvm_lock){+.+.}-{3:3}:
__mutex_lock+0x6a/0xb40
mutex_lock_nested+0x1f/0x30
kvm_dev_ioctl+0x4fb/0xe50 [kvm]
__se_sys_ioctl+0x7b/0xd0
__x64_sys_ioctl+0x21/0x30
x64_sys_call+0x15d0/0x2e60
do_syscall_64+0x83/0x160
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

-> #2 (cpu_hotplug_lock){++++}-{0:0}:
cpus_read_lock+0x2e/0xb0
static_key_slow_inc+0x16/0x30
kvm_lapic_set_base+0x6a/0x1c0 [kvm]
kvm_set_apic_base+0x8f/0xe0 [kvm]
kvm_set_msr_common+0x9ae/0xf80 [kvm]
vmx_set_msr+0xa54/0xbe0 [kvm_intel]
__kvm_set_msr+0xb6/0x1a0 [kvm]
kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl+0xeca/0x10c0 [kvm]
kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x485/0x5b0 [kvm]
__se_sys_ioctl+0x7b/0xd0
__x64_sys_ioctl+0x21/0x30
x64_sys_call+0x15d0/0x2e60
do_syscall_64+0x83/0x160
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

-> #1 (&kvm->srcu){.+.+}-{0:0}:
__synchronize_srcu+0x44/0x1a0

---truncated---