Techniques are disclosed for implementing direct memory access in a virtualized computing environment. A memory access policy of the virtualized computing environment is applied to a direct memory access connection request received from a first virtual machine via an exception path. The request is flagged to indicate that the request has been processed and the request is forwarded to a network interface device configured to execute offloaded network functions for one or more virtual machines. A memory access policy of the virtualized computing environment is applied to a direct memory access connection reply received from a second virtual machine on the exception path. The reply is flagged to indicate that the reply has been processed and the reply is forwarded to the network interface device. A direct memory access connection is established between first and second virtual machines in accordance with the request.