linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 1/1] mm/thp: fix MTE tag mismatch when replacing zero-filled subpages

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Message-ID: <9471bd83-911f-433d-8ce2-f83f080ed264@linux.dev>
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2025 09:48:45 +0800
From: Lance Yang <lance.yang@...ux.dev>
To: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@....com>,
 David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
Cc: akpm@...ux-foundation.org, lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com,
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Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/1] mm/thp: fix MTE tag mismatch when replacing
 zero-filled subpages



On 2025/9/23 01:59, David Hildenbrand wrote:
> On 22.09.25 19:24, Catalin Marinas wrote:
>> On Mon, Sep 22, 2025 at 10:14:58AM +0800, Lance Yang wrote:
>>> From: Lance Yang <lance.yang@...ux.dev>
>>>
>>> When both THP and MTE are enabled, splitting a THP and replacing its
>>> zero-filled subpages with the shared zeropage can cause MTE tag mismatch
>>> faults in userspace.
>>>
>>> Remapping zero-filled subpages to the shared zeropage is unsafe, as the
>>> zeropage has a fixed tag of zero, which may not match the tag 
>>> expected by
>>> the userspace pointer.
>>>
>>> KSM already avoids this problem by using memcmp_pages(), which on arm64
>>> intentionally reports MTE-tagged pages as non-identical to prevent 
>>> unsafe
>>> merging.
>>>
>>> As suggested by David[1], this patch adopts the same pattern, 
>>> replacing the
>>> memchr_inv() byte-level check with a call to pages_identical(). This
>>> leverages existing architecture-specific logic to determine if a page is
>>> truly identical to the shared zeropage.
>>>
>>> Having both the THP shrinker and KSM rely on pages_identical() makes the
>>> design more future-proof, IMO. Instead of handling quirks in generic 
>>> code,
>>> we just let the architecture decide what makes two pages identical.
>>>
>>> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/ 
>>> ca2106a3-4bb2-4457-81af-301fd99fbef4@...hat.com
>>>
>>> Cc: <stable@...r.kernel.org>
>>> Reported-by: Qun-wei Lin <Qun-wei.Lin@...iatek.com>
>>> Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/ 
>>> a7944523fcc3634607691c35311a5d59d1a3f8d4.camel@...iatek.com
>>> Fixes: b1f202060afe ("mm: remap unused subpages to shared zeropage 
>>> when splitting isolated thp")
>>> Suggested-by: David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
>>> Signed-off-by: Lance Yang <lance.yang@...ux.dev>
>>
>> Functionally, the patch looks fine, both with and without MTE.
>>
>> Reviewed-by: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@....com>

Thanks for taking time to review!

>>
>>> diff --git a/mm/huge_memory.c b/mm/huge_memory.c
>>> index 32e0ec2dde36..28d4b02a1aa5 100644
>>> --- a/mm/huge_memory.c
>>> +++ b/mm/huge_memory.c
>>> @@ -4104,29 +4104,20 @@ static unsigned long 
>>> deferred_split_count(struct shrinker *shrink,
>>>   static bool thp_underused(struct folio *folio)
>>>   {
>>>       int num_zero_pages = 0, num_filled_pages = 0;
>>> -    void *kaddr;
>>>       int i;
>>>       for (i = 0; i < folio_nr_pages(folio); i++) {
>>> -        kaddr = kmap_local_folio(folio, i * PAGE_SIZE);
>>> -        if (!memchr_inv(kaddr, 0, PAGE_SIZE)) {
>>> -            num_zero_pages++;
>>> -            if (num_zero_pages > khugepaged_max_ptes_none) {
>>> -                kunmap_local(kaddr);
>>> +        if (pages_identical(folio_page(folio, i), ZERO_PAGE(0))) {
>>> +            if (++num_zero_pages > khugepaged_max_ptes_none)
>>>                   return true;
>>
>> I wonder what the overhead of doing a memcmp() vs memchr_inv() is. The
>> former will need to read from two places. If it's noticeable, it would
>> affect architectures that don't have an MTE equivalent.
>>
>> Alternatively we could introduce something like folio_has_metadata()
>> which on arm64 simply checks PG_mte_tagged.
> 
> We discussed something similar in the other thread (I suggested 
> page_is_mergable()). I'd prefer to use pages_identical() for now, so we 
> have the same logic here and in ksm code.
> 
> (this patch here almost looks like a cleanup :) )

Yeah, let's keep it as-is for now.

Using the same pages_identical() pattern as KSM makes the logic
consistent.

And it's simple enough to be easily backported to stable trees ;)

> 
> If this becomes a problem, what we could do is in pages_identical() 
> would be simply doing the memchr_inv() in case is_zero_pfn(). KSM might 
> benefit from that as well when merging with the shared zeropage through 
> try_to_merge_with_zero_page().

Right, there is room for that optimization. I will look into it as a
follow-up patch after this one is settled and backported, especially if
the performance overhead turns out to be a real concern :)

Cheers,
Lance