linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] mm: zswap: add VM_BUG_ON() if large folio swapin is attempted

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2024 06:28:21 +0800
From: Barry Song <21cnbao@...il.com>
To: Yosry Ahmed <yosryahmed@...gle.com>
Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>, Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>, 
	Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>, Nhat Pham <nphamcs@...il.com>, 
	Chengming Zhou <chengming.zhou@...ux.dev>, Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@...ux.alibaba.com>, 
	Chris Li <chrisl@...nel.org>, Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@....com>, 
	Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>, linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] mm: zswap: add VM_BUG_ON() if large folio swapin is attempted

On Sat, Jun 8, 2024 at 7:17 AM Yosry Ahmed <yosryahmed@...gle.com> wrote:
>
> [..]
> > > One problem is that even if zswap was never enabled, the warning will
> > > be emitted just if CONFIG_ZSWAP is on. Perhaps we need a variable or
> > > static key if zswap was "ever" enabled.
> > >
> > > Barry, I suspect your is_zswap_enabled() check is deficient for
> > > similar reasons, zswap could have been enabled before then became
> > > disabled.
> >
> > I don't understand this. if zswap was enabled before but is disabled when
> > I am loading data, will I get corrupted data before zswap was once enabled?
> > If not, it seems nothing important.
>
> If zswap was enabled and then disabled, some pages may still be in
> zswap. We do not load the pages from zswap when it is disabled, we
> just stop storing new pages.
>
> So if you just rely in checking whether zswap is enabled at swapin
> time to decide whether to use large folios, you may end up with a
> situation where zswap is disabled, yet parts of the large folio you
> are trying to swapin (or all of it) is in zswap.
>
> This is why I think we'll need to track whether zswap was ever enabled
> instead (or if a page was ever stored).

Thanks! It doesn't seem good. Do we have a simple way to clean zswap
when it is disabled? seems not easy? Just like we do swapoff, or disable
cache, we ensure they are clean - this is a real "disable".

Thanks
Barry