linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 1/1] mm: prevent poison consumption when splitting THP

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Message-ID: <ba6767a4-8211-45b0-bf37-5a0bb303866d@linux.dev>
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2025 17:09:14 +0800
From: Lance Yang <lance.yang@...ux.dev>
To: Qiuxu Zhuo <qiuxu.zhuo@...el.com>
Cc: ziy@...dia.com, baolin.wang@...ux.alibaba.com, akpm@...ux-foundation.org,
 Liam.Howlett@...cle.com, npache@...hat.com, ryan.roberts@....com,
 dev.jain@....com, baohua@...nel.org, lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com,
 nao.horiguchi@...il.com, farrah.chen@...el.com, jiaqiyan@...gle.com,
 linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, tony.luck@...el.com,
 linmiaohe@...wei.com, david@...hat.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 1/1] mm: prevent poison consumption when splitting THP



On 2025/10/11 15:55, Qiuxu Zhuo wrote:
> When performing memory error injection on a THP (Transparent Huge Page)
> mapped to userspace on an x86 server, the kernel panics with the following
> trace. The expected behavior is to terminate the affected process instead
> of panicking the kernel, as the x86 Machine Check code can recover from an
> in-userspace #MC.
> 
>    mce: [Hardware Error]: CPU 0: Machine Check Exception: f Bank 3: bd80000000070134
>    mce: [Hardware Error]: RIP 10:<ffffffff8372f8bc> {memchr_inv+0x4c/0xf0}
>    mce: [Hardware Error]: TSC afff7bbff88a ADDR 1d301b000 MISC 80 PPIN 1e741e77539027db
>    mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:d06d0 TIME 1758093249 SOCKET 0 APIC 0 microcode 80000320
>    mce: [Hardware Error]: Run the above through 'mcelog --ascii'
>    mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check: Data load in unrecoverable area of kernel
>    Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal local machine check
> 
> The root cause of this panic is that handling a memory failure triggered by
> an in-userspace #MC necessitates splitting the THP. The splitting process
> employs a mechanism, implemented in try_to_map_unused_to_zeropage(), which
> reads the sub-pages of the THP to identify zero-filled pages. However,
> reading the sub-pages results in a second in-kernel #MC, occurring before
> the initial memory_failure() completes, ultimately leading to a kernel
> panic. See the kernel panic call trace on the two #MCs.
> 
>    First Machine Check occurs // [1]
>      memory_failure()         // [2]
>        try_to_split_thp_page()
>          split_huge_page()
>            split_huge_page_to_list_to_order()
>              __folio_split()  // [3]
>                remap_page()
>                  remove_migration_ptes()
>                    remove_migration_pte()
>                      try_to_map_unused_to_zeropage()  // [4]
>                        memchr_inv()                   // [5]
>                          Second Machine Check occurs  // [6]
>                            Kernel panic
> 
> [1] Triggered by accessing a hardware-poisoned THP in userspace, which is
>      typically recoverable by terminating the affected process.
> 
> [2] Call folio_set_has_hwpoisoned() before try_to_split_thp_page().
> 
> [3] Pass the RMP_USE_SHARED_ZEROPAGE remap flag to remap_page().
> 
> [4] Try to map the unused THP to zeropage.
> 
> [5] Re-access sub-pages of the hw-poisoned THP in the kernel.
> 
> [6] Triggered in-kernel, leading to a panic kernel.
> 
> In Step[2], memory_failure() sets the poisoned flag on the sub-page of the
> THP by TestSetPageHWPoison() before calling try_to_split_thp_page().
> 
> As suggested by David Hildenbrand, fix this panic by not accessing to the
> poisoned sub-page of the THP during zeropage identification, while
> continuing to scan unaffected sub-pages of the THP for possible zeropage
> mapping. This prevents a second in-kernel #MC that would cause kernel
> panic in Step[4].
> 
> [ Credits to Andrew Zaborowski <andrew.zaborowski@...el.com> for his
>    original fix that prevents passing the RMP_USE_SHARED_ZEROPAGE flag
>    to remap_page() in Step[3] if the THP has the has_hwpoisoned flag set,
>    avoiding access to the entire THP for zero-page identification. ]
> 

Thanks for the fix!

But one thing is missing: a "Fixes:" tag here. And also add:

Cc: <stable@...r.kernel.org>

> Reported-by: Farrah Chen <farrah.chen@...el.com>
> Suggested-by: David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
> Tested-by: Farrah Chen <farrah.chen@...el.com>
> Tested-by: Qiuxu Zhuo <qiuxu.zhuo@...el.com>
> Signed-off-by: Qiuxu Zhuo <qiuxu.zhuo@...el.com>
> ---

Well, I think this fix should work ;)

Acked-by: Lance Yang <lance.yang@...ux.dev>