+ mm-vma-fix-self-merge-check-in-copy_vma.patch added to mm-unstable branch

[Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>]

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The patch titled
     Subject: mm/vma: fix self-merge check in copy_vma()
has been added to the -mm mm-unstable branch.  Its filename is
     mm-vma-fix-self-merge-check-in-copy_vma.patch

This patch will shortly appear at
     https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/25-new.git/tree/patches/mm-vma-fix-self-merge-check-in-copy_vma.patch

This patch will later appear in the mm-unstable branch at
    git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm

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------------------------------------------------------
From: "Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)" <ljs@kernel.org>
Subject: mm/vma: fix self-merge check in copy_vma()
Date: Thu, 06 Aug 2026 21:21:32 +0100

The existing logic is very confusing so improve things.  Firstly rename
the confusing faulted_in_anon_vma variable to can_self_merge and update
this when the page offset is updated.

What is being checked for is a 'self-merge' - that is between the VMA
being remapped and its prior VMA (remember that this is copy_vma() - if a
non-MREMAP_DONTUNMAP remap the original VMA is only removed afterwards).

This can happen if the VMA is moved immediately adjacent to itself, either
before or after it:

		|----------------|----------------|
		|		 |                |
		v		 |		  v
	|...............||---------------||...............|
	|      new      ||      old      ||      new      |
	|...............||---------------||---------------|

In these cases the old VMA is simply expanded to cover the new range.

It is also possible for the move to both self-merge and merge with a prior
VMA if it is placed between a preceding VMA and its old self:

				|---------------|
				|		|
				v		|
	|---------------||...............||---------------|
	|      prev     ||     new       ||     old       |
	|---------------||...............||---------------|

In this case, the old VMA is removed and 'prev' is expanded and replaces
it.

Since copy_vma_and_data() which calls copy_vma() intends to reference the
old VMA after the merge, it must have this pointer updated.

This kind of self-merge is not possible with a succeeding merge, as the
merge always prefers to expand the preceding VMA if possible.

copy_vma() accounts for this by explicitly checking to see if a self-merge
occurred and updating the vmap pointer if so.  However it incorrect did so
even for a subsequent merge (this is simply a noop so it had no impact).

So change this to only check for the case which matters - a backwards
merge - and rearrange the parameters to make it clearer we're doing that -
i.e.  check new_vma->vm_start < old_vma_start (having already renamed
vma_start to old_vma_start to make it clear this is the previous VMA).

Also update the existing wall-of-text comment to be a lot clearer.

While we're here, replace the VM_BUG_ON_VMA() with a VM_WARN_ON_ONCE_VMA()
and update the VMA userland tests accordingly.

No functional change intended.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260806-b4-scalable-cow-virt-pgoff-v4-7-ab318a350404@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>
Cc: Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@intel.com>
Cc: Alexander Deucher <alexander.deucher@amd.com>
Cc: Alexander Gordeev <agordeev@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Alistair Popple <apopple@nvidia.com>
Cc: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@kernel.org>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Cc: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>
Cc: Baoquan He <baoquan.he@linux.dev>
Cc: Barry Song <baohua@kernel.org>
Cc: Boris Brezillon <boris.brezillon@collabora.com>
Cc: Byungchul Park <byungchul@sk.com>
Cc: Chengming Zhou <chengming.zhou@linux.dev>
Cc: Chris Li <chrisl@kernel.org>
Cc: Christan König <christian.koenig@amd.com>
Cc: Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Claudio Imbrenda <imbrenda@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Dave Airlie <airlied@gmail.com>
Cc: David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@kernel.org>
Cc: Dev Jain <dev.jain@arm.com>
Cc: Gerald Schaefer <gerald.schaefer@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Cc: Gregory Price (Meta) <gourry@gourry.net>
Cc: Harry Yoo <harry@kernel.org>
Cc: Heiko Carstens <hca@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Huang Ray <Ray.Huang@amd.com>
Cc: "Huang, Ying" <ying.huang@linux.alibaba.com>
Cc: Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
Cc: James Clark <james.clark@linaro.org>
Cc: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: Janosch Frank <frankja@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@ziepe.ca>
Cc: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@kernel.org>
Cc: John Hubbard <jhubbard@nvidia.com>
Cc: Joshua Hahn <joshua.hahnjy@gmail.com>
Cc: Kairui Song <kasong@tencent.com>
Cc: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
Cc: Kemeng Shi <shikemeng@huaweicloud.com>
Cc: Lance Yang <lance.yang@linux.dev>
Cc: Liam R. Howlett <liam@infradead.org>
Cc: Liviu Dudau <liviu.dudau@arm.com>
Cc: Maarten Lankhorst <maarten.lankhorst@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Marc Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Cc: "Masami Hiramatsu (Google)" <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Cc: Matthew Auld <matthew.auld@intel.com>
Cc: Matthew Brost <matthew.brost@intel.com>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org>
Cc: Maxime Ripard <mripard@kernel.org>
Cc: Miaohe Lin <linmiaohe@huawei.com>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
Cc: Muchun Song <muchun.song@linux.dev>
Cc: Namhyung kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Naoya Horiguchi <nao.horiguchi@gmail.com>
Cc: Nhat Pham <nphamcs@gmail.com>
Cc: Nico Pache <npache@redhat.com>
Cc: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>
Cc: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>
Cc: Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>
Cc: Peter Xu <peterx@redhat.com>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Rakie Kim <rakie.kim@sk.com>
Cc: Rik van Riel <riel@surriel.com>
Cc: Rodrigo Vivi <rodrigo.vivi@intel.com>
Cc: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Cc: Steven Price <steven.price@arm.com>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
Cc: Sven Schnelle <svens@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: <syzbot@syzkaller.appspotmail.com>
Cc: Thomas Hellström <thomas.hellstrom@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Thomas Zimemrmann <tzimmermann@suse.de>
Cc: Vasily Gorbik <gor@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>
Cc: Xu Xin <xu.xin16@zte.com.cn>
Cc: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
---

 mm/vma.c                         |   35 +++++++++++++----------------
 tools/testing/vma/vma_internal.h |    1 
 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)

--- a/mm/vma.c~mm-vma-fix-self-merge-check-in-copy_vma
+++ a/mm/vma.c
@@ -1911,10 +1911,10 @@ struct vm_area_struct *copy_vma(struct v
 	bool *need_rmap_locks)
 {
 	struct vm_area_struct *vma = *vmap;
-	unsigned long vma_start = vma->vm_start;
+	unsigned long old_vma_start = vma->vm_start;
 	struct mm_struct *mm = vma->vm_mm;
 	struct vm_area_struct *new_vma;
-	bool faulted_in_anon_vma = true;
+	bool can_self_merge = false;
 	VMA_ITERATOR(vmi, mm, addr);
 	VMG_VMA_STATE(vmg, &vmi, NULL, vma, addr, addr + len);
 
@@ -1924,7 +1924,7 @@ struct vm_area_struct *copy_vma(struct v
 	 */
 	if (unlikely(vma_is_anonymous(vma) && !vma->anon_vma)) {
 		pgoff = addr >> PAGE_SHIFT;
-		faulted_in_anon_vma = false;
+		can_self_merge = true;
 	}
 
 	/*
@@ -1944,24 +1944,21 @@ struct vm_area_struct *copy_vma(struct v
 	new_vma = vma_merge_copied_range(&vmg);
 
 	if (new_vma) {
-		/*
-		 * Source vma may have been merged into new_vma
-		 */
-		if (unlikely(vma_start >= new_vma->vm_start &&
-			     vma_start < new_vma->vm_end)) {
+		/* Self-merged and VMA replaced. */
+		if (unlikely(new_vma->vm_start < old_vma_start &&
+			     new_vma->vm_end > old_vma_start)) {
 			/*
-			 * The only way we can get a vma_merge with
-			 * self during an mremap is if the vma hasn't
-			 * been faulted in yet and we were allowed to
-			 * reset the dst vma->vm_pgoff to the
-			 * destination address of the mremap to allow
-			 * the merge to happen. mremap must change the
-			 * vm_pgoff linearity between src and dst vmas
-			 * (in turn preventing a vma_merge) to be
-			 * safe. It is only safe to keep the vm_pgoff
-			 * linear if there are no pages mapped yet.
+			 * The only way a VMA can both self-merge and be
+			 * replaced is if the remap places the new VMA
+			 * immediately prior to its old self ('next') and
+			 * immediately after another VMA ('prev') causing the
+			 * next to be removed and prev to be expanded to cover
+			 * the entire range.
+			 *
+			 * This should only be possible if the page offset was
+			 * updated, i.e. the VMA is unfaulted.
 			 */
-			VM_BUG_ON_VMA(faulted_in_anon_vma, new_vma);
+			VM_WARN_ON_ONCE_VMA(!can_self_merge, new_vma);
 			*vmap = vma = new_vma;
 		}
 		*need_rmap_locks =
--- a/tools/testing/vma/vma_internal.h~mm-vma-fix-self-merge-check-in-copy_vma
+++ a/tools/testing/vma/vma_internal.h
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ typedef __bitwise unsigned int vm_fault_
 
 #define VM_WARN_ON(_expr) (WARN_ON(_expr))
 #define VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(_expr) (WARN_ON_ONCE(_expr))
+#define VM_WARN_ON_ONCE_VMA(_expr, _vma) (WARN_ON_ONCE(_expr))
 #define VM_WARN_ON_VMG(_expr, _vmg) (WARN_ON(_expr))
 #define VM_BUG_ON(_expr) (BUG_ON(_expr))
 #define VM_BUG_ON_VMA(_expr, _vma) (BUG_ON(_expr))
_

Patches currently in -mm which might be from ljs@kernel.org are

x86-mm-pat-acquire-init_mm-write-lock-on-collapse-to-avoid-uaf.patch
x86-mm-pat-acquire-init_mm-read-lock-on-attribute-change-to-avoid-uaf.patch
x86-mm-pat-allocate-split-page-tables-as-kernel-page-tables.patch
mm-introduce-vma_flags_can_grow-and-vma_can_grow.patch
mm-vma-update-do_mmap-to-use-vma_flags_t.patch
mm-convert-__get_unmapped_area-to-use-vma_flags_t.patch
mm-update-generic_get_unmapped_area-to-use-vma_flags_t.patch
mm-prefer-mm-def_vma_flags-in-mm-logic.patch
mm-vma-convert-vm_pgprot_modify-to-use-vma_flags_t-and-rename.patch
mm-vma-rename-vma_get_page_prot-to-vma_flags_to_page_prot.patch
mm-introduce-vma_get_page_prot-and-use-it.patch
mm-vma-update-create_init_stack_vma-to-use-vma_flags_t.patch
mm-vma-convert-miscellaneous-uses-of-vma-flags-in-core-mm.patch
mm-mlock-convert-mlock-code-to-use-vma_flags_t.patch
mm-mprotect-convert-mprotect-code-to-use-vma_flags_t.patch
mm-mremap-convert-mremap-code-to-use-vma_flags_t.patch
mm-mseal-remove-superfluous-comments-fix-confusion-around-mm.patch
mm-mseal-limit-scope-of-mseal-address-zero-to-address-zero.patch
mm-mseal-remove-further-superfluous-comments-do_mseal.patch
mm-vma-introduce-vma-anon-page-offset-field-and-add-helpers.patch
mm-provide-vma_is_cow_mapping-and-remove-is_cow_mapping.patch
mm-introduce-linear_anon_page_index.patch
mm-abstract-vma_address-and-introduce-vma_anon_address.patch
mm-update-print_bad_page_map-to-show-anon-index-if-appropriate.patch
mm-introduce-and-use-vma_filebacked_address.patch
mm-vma-fix-self-merge-check-in-copy_vma.patch
tools-testing-vma-add-tests-for-copy_vma-self-merge.patch
mm-propagate-vma-anonymous-page-offset-on-map-remap-split-merge.patch
mm-rmap-track-whether-the-page-vma-mapped-pgoff-is-anonymous.patch
mm-clean-up-vma_address_end.patch
mm-huge_memory-update-remove_migration_pmd-to-accept-a-folio.patch
mm-migrate-calculate-large-folio-page-index-using-pfn.patch
mm-rmap-use-anon-pgoff-to-track-map_private-file-backed-anon-folios.patch
tools-testing-vma-expand-vma-merge-tests-to-assert-anon-pgoff.patch
tools-testing-selftests-mm-test-anonymous-page-offset-merge-behaviour.patch
mm-vma-only-permit-map_private-dev-zero-to-be-mapped-anonymous.patch
mm-vma-make-map_private-mapped-dev-zero-mappings-truly-anonymous.patch
tools-testing-vma-add-test-to-assert-map_private-dev-zero-is-anon.patch
tools-testing-selftests-mm-add-map_private-dev-zero-merge-tests.patch
mm-add-some-missing-includes-to-mm-local-headers.patch