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

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Message-ID: <0ABAE11C-1DF4-4E76-AEE5-CE5E8ADFDC15@nvidia.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2025 13:15:18 -0400
From: Zi Yan <ziy@...dia.com>
To: Qiuxu Zhuo <qiuxu.zhuo@...el.com>
Cc: akpm@...ux-foundation.org, david@...hat.com, lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com,
 linmiaohe@...wei.com, tony.luck@...el.com, baolin.wang@...ux.alibaba.com,
 Liam.Howlett@...cle.com, npache@...hat.com, ryan.roberts@....com,
 dev.jain@....com, baohua@...nel.org, nao.horiguchi@...il.com,
 farrah.chen@...el.com, jiaqiyan@...gle.com, lance.yang@...ux.dev,
 linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 1/1] mm: prevent poison consumption when splitting THP

On 11 Oct 2025, at 3:55, 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. ]
>
> 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>
> ---
> v1 -> v2:
>   - Apply David Hildenbrand's fix suggestion.
>
>   - Update the commit message to reflect the new fix.
>
>   - Add David Hildenbrand's "Suggested-by:" tag.
>
>   - Remove Andrew Zaborowski's SoB but add credits to him in the commit message.
>     [ I cannot reach him to get his SoB for the completely rewritten commit
>       message and new fix approach. ]
>
>  mm/huge_memory.c | 3 +++
>  mm/migrate.c     | 3 ++-
>  2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
LGTM. Acked-by: Zi Yan <ziy@...dia.com>

--
Best Regards,
Yan, Zi