From: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@oracle.com>
To: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Liam.Howlett@oracle.com, akpm@linux-foundation.org,
baohua@kernel.org, baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com,
david@kernel.org, dev.jain@arm.com, hughd@google.com,
jane.chu@oracle.com, jannh@google.com, kas@kernel.org,
lance.yang@linux.dev, linux-mm@kvack.org,
lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com, npache@redhat.com, pfalcato@suse.de,
ryan.roberts@arm.com, vbabka@suse.cz, ziy@nvidia.com,
Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@oracle.com>
Subject: [PATCH V1 5.15.y 0/2] Fix bad pmd due to race between change_prot_numa() and THP migration
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2025 13:46:44 +0900 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20251125044646.1074524-1-harry.yoo@oracle.com> (raw)
# TL;DR
previous discussion: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20250921232709.1608699-1-harry.yoo@oracle.com/
A "bad pmd" error occurs due to race condition between
change_prot_numa() and THP migration. The mainline kernel does not have
this bug as commit 670ddd8cdc fixes the race condition. 6.1.y, 5.15.y,
5.10.y, 5.4.y are affected by this bug.
Fixing this in -stable kernels is tricky because pte_map_offset_lock()
has different semantics in pre-6.5 and post-6.5 kernels. I am trying to
backport the same mechanism we have in the mainline kernel.
# Testing
I verified that the bug described below is not reproduced anymore
(on a downstream kernel) after applying this patch series. It used to
trigger in few days of intensive numa balancing testing, but it survived
2 weeks with this applied.
# Bug Description
It was reported that a bad pmd is seen when automatic NUMA
balancing is marking page table entries as prot_numa:
[2437548.196018] mm/pgtable-generic.c:50: bad pmd 00000000af22fc02(dffffffe71fbfe02)
[2437548.235022] Call Trace:
[2437548.238234] <TASK>
[2437548.241060] dump_stack_lvl+0x46/0x61
[2437548.245689] panic+0x106/0x2e5
[2437548.249497] pmd_clear_bad+0x3c/0x3c
[2437548.253967] change_pmd_range.isra.0+0x34d/0x3a7
[2437548.259537] change_p4d_range+0x156/0x20e
[2437548.264392] change_protection_range+0x116/0x1a9
[2437548.269976] change_prot_numa+0x15/0x37
[2437548.274774] task_numa_work+0x1b8/0x302
[2437548.279512] task_work_run+0x62/0x95
[2437548.283882] exit_to_user_mode_loop+0x1a4/0x1a9
[2437548.289277] exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0xf4/0xfc
[2437548.294751] ? sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x34/0x81
[2437548.300677] irqentry_exit_to_user_mode+0x5/0x25
[2437548.306153] asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x16/0x1b
This is due to a race condition between change_prot_numa() and
THP migration because the kernel doesn't check is_swap_pmd() and
pmd_trans_huge() atomically:
change_prot_numa() THP migration
======================================================================
- change_pmd_range()
-> is_swap_pmd() returns false,
meaning it's not a PMD migration
entry.
- do_huge_pmd_numa_page()
-> migrate_misplaced_page() sets
migration entries for the THP.
- change_pmd_range()
-> pmd_none_or_clear_bad_unless_trans_huge()
-> pmd_none() and pmd_trans_huge() returns false
- pmd_none_or_clear_bad_unless_trans_huge()
-> pmd_bad() returns true for the migration entry!
The upstream commit 670ddd8cdcbd ("mm/mprotect: delete
pmd_none_or_clear_bad_unless_trans_huge()") closes this race condition
by checking is_swap_pmd() and pmd_trans_huge() atomically.
# Backporting note
commit a79390f5d6a7 ("mm/mprotect: use long for page accountings and retval")
is backported to return an error code (negative value) in
change_pte_range().
Unlike the mainline, pte_offset_map_lock() does not check if the pmd
entry is a migration entry or a hugepage; acquires PTL unconditionally
instead of returning failure. Therefore, it is necessary to keep the
!is_swap_pmd() && !pmd_trans_huge() && !pmd_devmap() checks in
change_pmd_range() before acquiring the PTL.
After acquiring the lock, open-code the semantics of
pte_offset_map_lock() in the mainline kernel; change_pte_range() fails
if the pmd value has changed. This requires adding pmd_old parameter
(pmd_t value that is read before calling the function) to
change_pte_range().
Hugh Dickins (1):
mm/mprotect: delete pmd_none_or_clear_bad_unless_trans_huge()
Peter Xu (1):
mm/mprotect: use long for page accountings and retval
include/linux/hugetlb.h | 4 +-
include/linux/mm.h | 2 +-
mm/hugetlb.c | 4 +-
mm/mempolicy.c | 2 +-
mm/mprotect.c | 121 ++++++++++++++++++----------------------
5 files changed, 59 insertions(+), 74 deletions(-)
--
2.43.0
next reply other threads:[~2025-11-25 4:47 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-11-25 4:46 Harry Yoo [this message]
2025-11-25 4:46 ` [PATCH V1 5.15.y 1/2] mm/mprotect: use long for page accountings and retval Harry Yoo
2025-11-26 14:15 ` Sasha Levin
2025-11-25 4:46 ` [PATCH V1 5.15.y 2/2] mm/mprotect: delete pmd_none_or_clear_bad_unless_trans_huge() Harry Yoo
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