Message-ID: <c8b9c805-2760-4b90-951a-3666cad6a4a4@redhat.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2025 13:04:30 +0200
From: David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
To: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
 xen-devel@...ts.xenproject.org, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
 nvdimm@...ts.linux.dev, Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
 Juergen Gross <jgross@...e.com>, Stefano Stabellini
 <sstabellini@...nel.org>,
 Oleksandr Tyshchenko <oleksandr_tyshchenko@...m.com>,
 Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@...el.com>, Matthew Wilcox
 <willy@...radead.org>, Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>,
 Alexander Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
 Christian Brauner <brauner@...nel.org>,
 "Liam R. Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@...cle.com>, Vlastimil Babka
 <vbabka@...e.cz>, Mike Rapoport <rppt@...nel.org>,
 Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@...gle.com>, Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>,
 Zi Yan <ziy@...dia.com>, Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@...ux.alibaba.com>,
 Nico Pache <npache@...hat.com>, Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@....com>,
 Dev Jain <dev.jain@....com>, Barry Song <baohua@...nel.org>,
 Jann Horn <jannh@...gle.com>, Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@...e.de>,
 Hugh Dickins <hughd@...gle.com>, Oscar Salvador <osalvador@...e.de>,
 Lance Yang <lance.yang@...ux.dev>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 6/9] mm/memory: convert print_bad_pte() to
 print_bad_page_map()

> 
> Yeah sorry I was in 'what locks do we need' mode and hadn't shifted back here,
> but I guess the intent is that the caller _must_ hold this lock.
> 
> I know it's nitty and annoying (sorry!) but as asserting seems to not be a
> possibility here, could we spell these out as a series of points like:
> 
> /*
>   * The caller MUST hold the following locks:
>   *
>   * - Leaf page table lock
>   * - Appropriate VMA lock to keep VMA stable
>   */
> 
> I don't _actually_ think you need the rmap lock then, as none of the page tables
> you access would be impacted by any rmap action afaict, with these locks held.

I don't enjoy wrong comments ;)

This can be called from rmap code when doing a vm_normal_page() while 
holding the PTL.

Really, I think we are over-thinking a helper that is triggered in 
specific context when the world is about to collide.

This is not your general-purpose API.

Maybe I should have never added a comment. Maybe I should just not have 
done this patch, because I really don't want to do more than the bare 
minimum to print_bad_page_map().

Because I deeply detest it, and no comments we will add will change that.

[...]

>>> But can you truly be sure of these existing? And we should then assert them
>>> here no? For rmap though we'd need the folio/vma.
>>
>> I hope you realize that this nastiness of a code is called in case our
>> system is already running into something extremely unexpected and will
>> probably be dead soon.
>>
>> So I am not to interested in adding anything more here. If you run into this
>> code you're in big trouble already.
> 
> Yes am aware :) my concern is NULL ptr deref or UAF, but with the locks
> held as stated those won't occur.
> 
> But f it's not sensible to do it then we don't have to :) I am a reasonable
> man, or like to think I am ;)
> 
> But I think we need clarity as per the above.
> 
>>
>>>
>>>> +	pgdp = pgd_offset(mm, addr);
>>>> +	pgdv = pgd_val(*pgdp);
>>>
>>> Before I went and looked again at the commit msg I said:
>>>
>>> 	"Shoudln't we strictly speaking use pgdp_get()? I see you use this
>>> 	 helper for other levels."
>>>
>>> But obviously yeah. You explained the insane reason why not.
>>
>> Had to find out the hard way ... :)
> 
> Pain.
> 
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>>> +/*
>>>> + * This function is called to print an error when a bad page table entry (e.g.,
>>>> + * corrupted page table entry) is found. For example, we might have a
>>>> + * PFN-mapped pte in a region that doesn't allow it.
>>>> + *
>>>> + * The calling function must still handle the error.
>>>> + */
>>>
>>> We have extremely strict locking conditions for the page table traversal... but
>>> no mention of them here?
>>
>> Yeah, I can add that.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
>>
>>>
>>>> +static void print_bad_page_map(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
>>>> +		unsigned long addr, unsigned long long entry, struct page *page)
>>>> +{
>>>> +	struct address_space *mapping;
>>>> +	pgoff_t index;
>>>> +
>>>> +	if (is_bad_page_map_ratelimited())
>>>> +		return;
>>>>
>>>>    	mapping = vma->vm_file ? vma->vm_file->f_mapping : NULL;
>>>>    	index = linear_page_index(vma, addr);
>>>>
>>>> -	pr_alert("BUG: Bad page map in process %s  pte:%08llx pmd:%08llx\n",
>>>> -		 current->comm,
>>>> -		 (long long)pte_val(pte), (long long)pmd_val(*pmd));
>>>> +	pr_alert("BUG: Bad page map in process %s  entry:%08llx", current->comm, entry);
>>>
>>> Sort of wonder if this is even useful if you don't know what the 'entry'
>>> is? But I guess the dump below will tell you.
>>
>> You probably missed in the patch description:
>>
>> "Whether it is a PTE or something else will usually become obvious from the
>> page table dump or from the dumped stack. If ever required in the future, we
>> could pass the entry level type similar to "enum rmap_level". For now, let's
>> keep it simple."
> 
> Yeah sorry I glossed over the commit msg, and now I pay for it ;) OK this
> is fine then.

Let me play with indicating the page table level, but it's the kind of 
stuff I wouldn't want to do in this series here.

>>
>>>
>>> Then we have VM_IO, which strictly must not have an associated page right?
>>
>> VM_IO just means read/write side-effects, I think you could have ones with
>> an memmap easily ... e.g., memory section (128MiB) spanning both memory and
>> MMIO regions.
> 
> Hmm, but why not have two separate VMAs? I guess I need to look into more
> what this flag actually effects.

Oh, I meant, that we might have a "struct page" for MMIO memory 
(pfn_valid() == true).

In a MIXEDMAP that will get refcounted. Not sure if there are users that 
use VM_IO in a MIXEDMAP, I would assume so but didn't check.

So VM_IO doesn't really interact with vm_normal_page(), really. It's all 
about PFNMAP and MIXEDMAP.

-- 
Cheers,

David / dhildenb

Powered by blists - more mailing lists