+ mm-vma-only-permit-map_private-dev-zero-to-be-mapped-anonymous.patch added to mm-unstable branch

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

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 16999 bytes --]


The patch titled
     Subject: mm/vma: only permit MAP_PRIVATE /dev/zero to be mapped anonymous
has been added to the -mm mm-unstable branch.  Its filename is
     mm-vma-only-permit-map_private-dev-zero-to-be-mapped-anonymous.patch

This patch will shortly appear at
     https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/25-new.git/tree/patches/mm-vma-only-permit-map_private-dev-zero-to-be-mapped-anonymous.patch

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

Before you just go and hit "reply", please:
   a) Consider who else should be cc'ed
   b) Prefer to cc a suitable mailing list as well
   c) Ideally: find the original patch on the mailing list and do a
      reply-to-all to that, adding suitable additional cc's

*** Remember to use Documentation/process/submit-checklist.rst when testing your code ***

The -mm tree is included into linux-next via various
branches at git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm
and is updated there most days

------------------------------------------------------
From: "Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)" <ljs@kernel.org>
Subject: mm/vma: only permit MAP_PRIVATE /dev/zero to be mapped anonymous
Date: Thu, 06 Aug 2026 21:21:42 +0100

In order to use mmap_prepare() with MAP_PRIVATE mappings of /dev/zero
without the success_hook hack we explicitly permitted mmap_prepare
handlers to set NULL vm_ops.

However this is dangerous and we really only want to allow this for
MAP_PRIVATE-mapped /dev/zero.

Make it possible to explicitly identify /dev/zero by setting a global
DEVZERO_MINOR device minor number then explicitly check for this in mmap
code for a MAP_PRIVATE mapping and only set the VMA anonymous if we have
positively identified it.

Then remove all ability for mmap_prepare or mmap hooks to set a VMA
anonymous and update mmap_zero_prepare() to leave it to the core mmap code
to mark the VMA anonymous.

Note that this disallows nested MAP_PRIVATE-mappings of /dev/zero regions.
Doing this would be broken in any case.

We therefore do not need to update the mmap_prepare() compatibility layer
to reflect these changes, as the mmap hook check suffices to disallow this
behaviour.

Now we're setting vma->vm_ops to NULL for an mmap_prepare-initialised
MAP_PRIVATE-/dev/zero mapping, we have to avoid a subtle issue when
updating user-defined fields via set_vma_user_defined_fields().

The default for vma->vm_ops for all mmap_prepare-initialised mappings is
vma_dummy_vm_ops, so map->vm_ops will be set to this and setting
vma->vm_ops to this will render the VMA mistakenly non-anon.

In general, we should never be setting user-defined fields for an
anonymous VMA, so explicitly check for this to avoid doing so for the one
case where a mapping can be both mmap_prepare and anonymous.

In the case of legacy ->mmap hooks some drivers may set vma->vm_ops NULL
believing this is the equivalent of setting no VMA operations.  Therefore
update mmap_file() to correct this by setting dummy VMA operations if this
occurs.

An example of this is drm_gem_shmem_mmap() which deliberately clears
vma->vm_ops before handing the VMA to dma-buf.  Cases such as this will be
updated when they are converted to mmap_prepare.

Also, in order to avoid a single commit bisection hazard, add a temporary
workaround to set the VMA anonymous only after vma->vm_file is assigned in
__mmap_new_file_vma().

This is because vma_set_range() calls vma_set_pgoff() and
assert_sane_pgoff() in turn, prior to the vma->vm_file being assigned.  If
we set the VMA anonymous early then this assert will fail.

This is removed in the subsequent commit.

Also update the VMA userland tests to reflect the change.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260806-b4-scalable-cow-virt-pgoff-v4-17-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>
---

 drivers/char/mem.c              |    8 +----
 include/linux/mm.h              |    3 +
 mm/internal.h                   |   17 ++++++-----
 mm/vma.c                        |   46 ++++++++++++++++++++++++------
 mm/vma_internal.h               |    1 
 tools/testing/vma/include/dup.h |   36 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 6 files changed, 90 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)

--- a/drivers/char/mem.c~mm-vma-only-permit-map_private-dev-zero-to-be-mapped-anonymous
+++ a/drivers/char/mem.c
@@ -506,11 +506,7 @@ static int mmap_zero_prepare(struct vm_a
 	if (vma_desc_test(desc, VMA_SHARED_BIT))
 		return shmem_zero_setup_desc(desc);
 
-	/*
-	 * This is a highly unique situation where we mark a MAP_PRIVATE mapping
-	 * of /dev/zero anonymous, despite it not being.
-	 */
-	vma_desc_set_anonymous(desc);
+	/* MAP_PRIVATE semantics are taken care for us by core mm. */
 	return 0;
 }
 
@@ -698,7 +694,7 @@ static const struct memdev {
 #ifdef CONFIG_DEVPORT
 	[4] = { "port", &port_fops, 0, 0 },
 #endif
-	[5] = { "zero", &zero_fops, FMODE_NOWAIT, 0666 },
+	[DEVZERO_MINOR] = { "zero", &zero_fops, FMODE_NOWAIT, 0666 },
 	[7] = { "full", &full_fops, 0, 0666 },
 	[8] = { "random", &random_fops, FMODE_NOWAIT, 0666 },
 	[9] = { "urandom", &urandom_fops, FMODE_NOWAIT, 0666 },
--- a/include/linux/mm.h~mm-vma-only-permit-map_private-dev-zero-to-be-mapped-anonymous
+++ a/include/linux/mm.h
@@ -740,6 +740,9 @@ static inline bool fault_flag_allow_retr
 	{ FAULT_FLAG_INTERRUPTIBLE,	"INTERRUPTIBLE" }, \
 	{ FAULT_FLAG_VMA_LOCK,		"VMA_LOCK" }
 
+/* /dev/zero minor device number. Special due to MAP_PRIVATE semantics. */
+#define DEVZERO_MINOR	5
+
 /*
  * vm_fault is filled by the pagefault handler and passed to the vma's
  * ->fault function. The vma's ->fault is responsible for returning a bitmask
--- a/mm/internal.h~mm-vma-only-permit-map_private-dev-zero-to-be-mapped-anonymous
+++ a/mm/internal.h
@@ -240,15 +240,18 @@ static inline int mmap_file(struct file
 {
 	int err = vfs_mmap(file, vma);
 
-	if (likely(!err))
-		return 0;
-
 	/*
-	 * OK, we tried to call the file hook for mmap(), but an error
-	 * arose. The mapping is in an inconsistent state and we must not invoke
-	 * any further hooks on it.
+	 * Either we tried to call the file hook for mmap() and an error arose
+	 * or a driver set vma->vm_ops = NULL intending there to be no VMA
+	 * operations.
+	 *
+	 * In the former case the VMA is in an inconsistent state and we mustn't
+	 * invoke any further hooks on it, in the latter case the hook actually
+	 * wanted no further hooks to be invoked, so fix both by setting dummy
+	 * VMA ops.
 	 */
-	vma->vm_ops = &vma_dummy_vm_ops;
+	if (unlikely(err || !vma->vm_ops))
+		vma->vm_ops = &vma_dummy_vm_ops;
 
 	return err;
 }
--- a/mm/vma.c~mm-vma-only-permit-map_private-dev-zero-to-be-mapped-anonymous
+++ a/mm/vma.c
@@ -2621,6 +2621,32 @@ static int __mmap_new_file_vma(struct mm
 	return 0;
 }
 
+static bool map_is_dev_zero(const struct mmap_state *map)
+{
+	const struct file *file = map->file;
+	struct inode *inode;
+
+	if (!file)
+		return false;
+	inode = file_inode(file);
+	if (!S_ISCHR(inode->i_mode))
+		return false;
+	return imajor(inode) == MEM_MAJOR && iminor(inode) == DEVZERO_MINOR;
+}
+
+static bool map_is_private(const struct mmap_state *map)
+{
+	return !vma_flags_test(&map->vma_flags, VMA_SHARED_BIT);
+}
+
+static bool map_is_anon(const struct mmap_state *map)
+{
+	if (!map_is_private(map))
+		return false;
+
+	return !map->file || map_is_dev_zero(map);
+}
+
 /*
  * __mmap_new_vma() - Allocate a new VMA for the region, as merging was not
  * possible.
@@ -2634,8 +2660,7 @@ static int __mmap_new_file_vma(struct mm
 static int __mmap_new_vma(struct mmap_state *map, struct vm_area_struct **vmap,
 	struct mmap_action *action)
 {
-	const bool is_anon = !map->file &&
-		!vma_flags_test(&map->vma_flags, VMA_SHARED_BIT);
+	const bool is_anon = map_is_anon(map);
 	struct vma_iterator *vmi = map->vmi;
 	int error = 0;
 	struct vm_area_struct *vma;
@@ -2651,7 +2676,7 @@ static int __mmap_new_vma(struct mmap_st
 
 	vma_iter_config(vmi, map->addr, map->end);
 
-	if (is_anon)
+	if (is_anon && !map->file)
 		vma_set_anonymous(vma);
 
 	vma_set_range(vma, map->addr, map->end, map->pgoff, map->anon_pgoff);
@@ -2669,6 +2694,10 @@ static int __mmap_new_vma(struct mmap_st
 	else if (!is_anon)
 		error = shmem_zero_setup(vma);
 
+	/* Temporary MAP_PRIVATE-/dev/zero workaround. */
+	if (is_anon && map->file)
+		vma_set_anonymous(vma);
+
 	if (error)
 		goto free_iter_vma;
 
@@ -2777,6 +2806,10 @@ static int call_mmap_prepare(struct mmap
 	if (err)
 		return err;
 
+	/* Hooks cannot mark themselves anonymous. */
+	if (!desc->vm_ops)
+		return -EINVAL;
+
 	err = call_action_prepare(map, desc);
 	if (err)
 		return err;
@@ -2799,10 +2832,7 @@ static int call_mmap_prepare(struct mmap
 static void set_vma_user_defined_fields(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 		struct mmap_state *map)
 {
-	if (map->vm_ops)
-		vma->vm_ops = map->vm_ops;
-	else	/* Only /dev/zero should do this. */
-		vma_set_anonymous(vma);
+	vma->vm_ops = map->vm_ops;
 	vma->vm_private_data = map->vm_private_data;
 }
 
@@ -2882,7 +2912,7 @@ static unsigned long __mmap_region(struc
 		allocated_new = true;
 	}
 
-	if (have_mmap_prepare)
+	if (have_mmap_prepare && !map_is_anon(&map))
 		set_vma_user_defined_fields(vma, &map);
 
 	__mmap_complete(&map, vma);
--- a/mm/vma_internal.h~mm-vma-only-permit-map_private-dev-zero-to-be-mapped-anonymous
+++ a/mm/vma_internal.h
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 #include <linux/ksm.h>
 #include <linux/khugepaged.h>
 #include <linux/list.h>
+#include <linux/major.h>
 #include <linux/maple_tree.h>
 #include <linux/mempolicy.h>
 #include <linux/mm.h>
--- a/tools/testing/vma/include/dup.h~mm-vma-only-permit-map_private-dev-zero-to-be-mapped-anonymous
+++ a/tools/testing/vma/include/dup.h
@@ -15,6 +15,20 @@ struct task_struct *get_current(void);
 #define MMF_HAS_MDWE	28
 #define current get_current()
 
+#define MINORBITS	20
+#define MINORMASK	((1U << MINORBITS) - 1)
+
+#define MAJOR(dev)	((unsigned int) ((dev) >> MINORBITS))
+#define MINOR(dev)	((unsigned int) ((dev) & MINORMASK))
+
+#define S_IFMT  00170000
+#define S_IFCHR  0020000
+
+#define S_ISCHR(m)	(((m) & S_IFMT) == S_IFCHR)
+
+#define MEM_MAJOR		1
+#define DEVZERO_MINOR	5
+
 /*
  * Define the task command name length as enum, then it can be visible to
  * BPF programs.
@@ -23,6 +37,8 @@ enum {
 	TASK_COMM_LEN = 16,
 };
 
+typedef unsigned short		umode_t;
+
 /* PARTIALLY implemented types. */
 struct mm_struct {
 	struct maple_tree mm_mt;
@@ -45,6 +61,10 @@ struct address_space {
 	unsigned long		flags;
 	atomic_t		i_mmap_writable;
 };
+struct inode {
+	umode_t			i_mode;
+	dev_t			i_rdev;
+};
 struct file_operations {
 	int (*mmap)(struct file *, struct vm_area_struct *);
 	int (*mmap_prepare)(struct vm_area_desc *);
@@ -52,6 +72,7 @@ struct file_operations {
 struct file {
 	struct address_space	*f_mapping;
 	const struct file_operations	*f_op;
+	struct inode			*f_inode;
 };
 struct anon_vma_chain {
 	struct anon_vma *anon_vma;
@@ -1644,3 +1665,18 @@ static inline pgoff_t linear_anon_page_i
 
 	return pgoff;
 }
+
+static inline struct inode *file_inode(const struct file *f)
+{
+	return f->f_inode;
+}
+
+static inline unsigned iminor(const struct inode *inode)
+{
+	return MINOR(inode->i_rdev);
+}
+
+static inline unsigned imajor(const struct inode *inode)
+{
+	return MAJOR(inode->i_rdev);
+}
_

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