linux-kernel - [PATCH v2] mm/memfd: fix information leak in hugetlb folios

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Message-ID: <20251112145034.2320452-1-kartikey406@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2025 20:20:34 +0530
From: Deepanshu Kartikey <kartikey406@...il.com>
To: hughd@...gle.com,
	baolin.wang@...ux.alibaba.com,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org,
	david@...hat.com,
	muchun.song@...ux.dev,
	osalvador@...e.de
Cc: kraxel@...hat.com,
	airlied@...hat.com,
	jgg@...pe.ca,
	linux-mm@...ck.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	vivek.kasireddy@...el.com,
	Deepanshu Kartikey <kartikey406@...il.com>,
	syzbot+f64019ba229e3a5c411b@...kaller.appspotmail.com,
	stable@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH v2] mm/memfd: fix information leak in hugetlb folios

When allocating hugetlb folios for memfd, three initialization steps
are missing:

1. Folios are not zeroed, leading to kernel memory disclosure to userspace
2. Folios are not marked uptodate before adding to page cache
3. hugetlb_fault_mutex is not taken before hugetlb_add_to_page_cache()

The memfd allocation path bypasses the normal page fault handler
(hugetlb_no_page) which would handle all of these initialization steps.
This is problematic especially for udmabuf use cases where folios are
pinned and directly accessed by userspace via DMA.

Fix by matching the initialization pattern used in hugetlb_no_page():
- Zero the folio using folio_zero_user() which is optimized for huge pages
- Mark it uptodate with folio_mark_uptodate()
- Take hugetlb_fault_mutex before adding to page cache to prevent races

The folio_zero_user() change also fixes a potential security issue where
uninitialized kernel memory could be disclosed to userspace through
read() or mmap() operations on the memfd.

Reported-by: syzbot+f64019ba229e3a5c411b@...kaller.appspotmail.com
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20251112031631.2315651-1-kartikey406@gmail.com/ [v1]
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=f64019ba229e3a5c411b
Fixes: 89c1905d9c14 ("mm/gup: introduce memfd_pin_folios() for pinning memfd folios")
Cc: stable@...r.kernel.org
Suggested-by: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@...e.de>
Suggested-by: David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
Tested-by: syzbot+f64019ba229e3a5c411b@...kaller.appspotmail.com
Signed-off-by: Deepanshu Kartikey <kartikey406@...il.com>
---

v1 -> v2:
- Use folio_zero_user() instead of folio_zero_range() (optimized for huge pages)
- Add folio_mark_uptodate() before adding to page cache
- Add hugetlb_fault_mutex locking around hugetlb_add_to_page_cache()
- Add Fixes: tag and Cc: stable for backporting
- Add Suggested-by: tags for Oscar and David
---
 mm/memfd.c | 27 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 27 insertions(+)

diff --git a/mm/memfd.c b/mm/memfd.c
index 1d109c1acf21..d32eef58d154 100644
--- a/mm/memfd.c
+++ b/mm/memfd.c
@@ -96,9 +96,36 @@ struct folio *memfd_alloc_folio(struct file *memfd, pgoff_t idx)
 						    NULL,
 						    gfp_mask);
 		if (folio) {
+			u32 hash;
+
+			/*
+			 * Zero the folio to prevent information leaks to userspace.
+			 * Use folio_zero_user() which is optimized for huge/gigantic
+			 * pages. Pass 0 as addr_hint since this is not a faulting path
+			 *  and we don't have a user virtual address yet.
+			 */
+			folio_zero_user(folio, 0);
+
+			/*
+			 * Mark the folio uptodate before adding to page cache,
+			 * as required by filemap.c and other hugetlb paths.
+			 */
+			__folio_mark_uptodate(folio);
+
+			/*
+			 * Serialize hugepage allocation and instantiation to prevent
+			 * races with concurrent allocations, as required by all other
+			 * callers of hugetlb_add_to_page_cache().
+			 */
+			hash = hugetlb_fault_mutex_hash(memfd->f_mapping, idx);
+			mutex_lock(&hugetlb_fault_mutex_table[hash]);
+
 			err = hugetlb_add_to_page_cache(folio,
 							memfd->f_mapping,
 							idx);
+
+			mutex_unlock(&hugetlb_fault_mutex_table[hash]);
+
 			if (err) {
 				folio_put(folio);
 				goto err_unresv;
-- 
2.43.0