linux-kernel - [PATCH 4/7] Documentation/mm: Avoid invalid use of addresses from kmap_local

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Message-Id: <20220721210206.13774-5-fmdefrancesco@gmail.com>
Date:   Thu, 21 Jul 2022 23:02:03 +0200
From:   "Fabio M. De Francesco" <fmdefrancesco@...il.com>
To:     Ira Weiny <ira.weiny@...el.com>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@....com>,
        "Matthew Wilcox (Oracle)" <willy@...radead.org>,
        Will Deacon <will@...nel.org>,
        Peter Collingbourne <pcc@...gle.com>,
        Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>,
        Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@...utronix.de>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-doc@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     "Fabio M. De Francesco" <fmdefrancesco@...il.com>,
        Mike Rapoport <rppt@...ux.ibm.com>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Subject: [PATCH 4/7] Documentation/mm: Avoid invalid use of addresses from kmap_local_page()

Users of kmap_local_page() must be absolutely sure to not hand kernel
virtual address obtained calling kmap_local_page() on highmem pages to
other contexts because those pointers are thread local, therefore, they
are no longer valid across different contexts.

Extend the documentation of kmap_local_page() to warn users about the
above-mentioned potential invalid use of pointers returned by
kmap_local_page().

Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@...radead.org>
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@...ux.ibm.com>
Cc: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@...utronix.de>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Suggested-by: Ira Weiny <ira.weiny@...el.com>
Signed-off-by: Fabio M. De Francesco <fmdefrancesco@...il.com>
---
 Documentation/vm/highmem.rst | 7 +++++++
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/vm/highmem.rst b/Documentation/vm/highmem.rst
index f266354c82ab..50d2b1fac24a 100644
--- a/Documentation/vm/highmem.rst
+++ b/Documentation/vm/highmem.rst
@@ -77,6 +77,13 @@ list shows them in order of preference of use.
   page_address() for getting the address of memory pages which, depending
   on the GFP_* flags, cannot come from ZONE_HIGHMEM.
 
+  While it is significantly faster than kmap(), for the higmem case it
+  comes with restrictions about the pointers validity. Contrary to kmap()
+  mappings, the local mappings are only valid in the context of the caller
+  and cannot be handed to other contexts. This implies that users must
+  be absolutely sure to keep the use of the return address local to the
+  thread which mapped it.
+
   Nesting kmap_local_page() and kmap_atomic() mappings is allowed to a certain
   extent (up to KMAP_TYPE_NR) but their invocations have to be strictly ordered
   because the map implementation is stack based. See kmap_local_page() kdocs
-- 
2.37.1