linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH 1/3] mm/huge_memory: prevent NULL pointer dereference in try_folio_split_to

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Message-ID: <73075A18-3C07-46F5-B8C8-9018D2CD22DE@nvidia.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2025 11:41:54 -0500
From: Zi Yan <ziy@...dia.com>
To: "David Hildenbrand (Red Hat)" <david@...nel.org>
Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com>,
 Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
 Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@...ux.alibaba.com>,
 "Liam R. Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@...cle.com>, Nico Pache <npache@...hat.com>,
 Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@....com>, Dev Jain <dev.jain@....com>,
 Barry Song <baohua@...nel.org>, Lance Yang <lance.yang@...ux.dev>,
 Miaohe Lin <linmiaohe@...wei.com>, Naoya Horiguchi <nao.horiguchi@...il.com>,
 linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH 1/3] mm/huge_memory: prevent NULL pointer dereference
 in try_folio_split_to_order()

On 20 Nov 2025, at 14:56, David Hildenbrand (Red Hat) wrote:

> On 11/20/25 15:41, Zi Yan wrote:
>> On 20 Nov 2025, at 4:25, David Hildenbrand (Red Hat) wrote:
>>
>>> On 11/20/25 04:59, Zi Yan wrote:
>>>> folio_split_supported() used in try_folio_split_to_order() requires
>>>> folio->mapping to be non NULL, but current try_folio_split_to_order() does
>>>> not check it. Add the check to prevent NULL pointer dereference.
>>>>
>>>> There is no issue in the current code, since try_folio_split_to_order() is
>>>> only used in truncate_inode_partial_folio(), where folio->mapping is not
>>>> NULL.
>>>>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Zi Yan <ziy@...dia.com>
>>>> ---
>>>>    include/linux/huge_mm.h | 7 +++++++
>>>>    1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)
>>>>
>>>> diff --git a/include/linux/huge_mm.h b/include/linux/huge_mm.h
>>>> index 1d439de1ca2c..0d55354e3a34 100644
>>>> --- a/include/linux/huge_mm.h
>>>> +++ b/include/linux/huge_mm.h
>>>> @@ -407,6 +407,13 @@ static inline int split_huge_page_to_order(struct page *page, unsigned int new_o
>>>>    static inline int try_folio_split_to_order(struct folio *folio,
>>>>    		struct page *page, unsigned int new_order)
>>>>    {
>>>> +	/*
>>>> +	 * Folios that just got truncated cannot get split. Signal to the
>>>> +	 * caller that there was a race.
>>>> +	 */
>>>> +	if (!folio_test_anon(folio) && !folio->mapping)
>>>> +		return -EBUSY;
>>>> +
>>>>    	if (!folio_split_supported(folio, new_order, SPLIT_TYPE_NON_UNIFORM, /* warns= */ false))
>>>>    		return split_huge_page_to_order(&folio->page, new_order);
>>>>    	return folio_split(folio, new_order, page, NULL);
>>>
>>> I guess we'll take the one from Wei
>>>
>>> https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20251119235302.24773-1-richard.weiyang@gmail.com
>>>
>>> right?
>>
>> This is different. Wei’s fix is to __folio_split(), but mine is to
>> try_folio_split_to_order(). Both call folio_split_supported(), thus
>> both need the folio->mapping check.
>
> Ah, good that I double-checked :)
>
>>
>> That is also my question in the cover letter on whether we should
>> move folio->mapping check to folio_split_supported() and return
>> error code instead of bool. Otherwise, any folio_split_supported()
>> caller needs to check folio->mapping.
>
> I think the situation with truncation (-that shmem swapcache thing, let's ignore that for now) is that the folio cannot be split until fully freed. But we don't want to return -EINVAL to the caller, the assumption is that the folio will soon get resolved -- folio freed -- and the caller will be able to make progress. So it's not really expected to be persistent.
>
> -EINVAL rather signals "this cannot possibly work, so fail whatever you are trying".
>
> We rather want to indicate "there was some race situation, if you try again later it might work or might have resolved itself".
>
> Not sure I like returning an error from folio_split_supported(), as it's rather a boolean check (supported vs. not supported).

Right. My current idea (from the cover letter) is to rename it to
folio_split_can_split (or folio_split_check, so that it does not sound like
a bool return is needed).

>
> Likely we could just return "false" for truncated folios in folio_split_supported(), but then state that that case must be handled upfront.
>
> We could provide another helper to wrap the truncation check, hmmm

Yeah, that sounds complicated too. Putting this truncated folio check outside
of folio_split_supported() looks really error prone and anonying.

>
>
> BTW, I wonder if the is_huge_zero_folio() check should go into folio_split_supported() and just return in -EINVAL. (we shouldn't really trigger that). Similarly we could add a hugetlb sanity check.

Yeah, is_huge_zero_folio() should return -EINVAL not -EBUSY, except
the case the split happens before a process writes 0 to a zero large folio
and gets a new writable large folio, in which we can kinda say it looks like
-EBUSY. But it is still a stretch.

Ack on adding hugetlb sanity check.

OK, just to reiterate my above idea on renaming folio_split_supported().
Are you OK with renaming it to folio_split_check(), so that returning -EBUSY
and -EINVAL looks more reasonable? The benefit is that we no longer need
to worry about we need to always do folio->mapping check before
folio_split_supported(). (In addition, I would rename can_split_folio()
to folio_split_refcount_check() for clarification)

Best Regards,
Yan, Zi