Re: [PATCH] x86/mm/pat: skip RWX verification until kernel text is set to read only

[Nathan Chancellor <nathan@kernel.org>]

On Tue, Sep 08, 2026 at 12:27:30PM +0300, Mike Rapoport wrote:
> From: "Mike Rapoport (Microsoft)" <rppt@kernel.org>
> 
> Nathan Chancellor reports the following warning:
> 
>   CPA detected W^X violation: 8000000000000123 -> 0000000000000123 range: 0xffffffffc0400000 - 0xffffffffc0400fff PFN 100e00
>   WARNING: arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c:722 at __change_page_attr_set_clr+0xde7/0x1290, CPU#0: swapper/0/0
>   Modules linked in:
>   CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 7.3.0-rc1-debug-00006-g453e78594434 #1 PREEMPT(full)  2950d432dd3910251071a66f3134fe0875432786
>   Hardware name: ASUS System Product Name/PRIME Z590M-PLUS, BIOS 1801 12/26/2022
>   RIP: 0010:__change_page_attr_set_clr+0xdff/0x1290
>   Code: 80 7c 24 42 00 0f 85 3a 04 00 00 48 8d 3d 19 8d 79 02 49 89 d9 4c 89 e1 4c 89 d2 4c 89 f6 4d 8d 84 24 ff 0f 00 00 4c 89 14 24 <67> 48 0f b9 3a 4c 8b 14 24 48 8b 0d 81 44 bf 01 41 f6 c2 01
>   RSP: 0000:ffffffff87003c60 EFLAGS: 00010246
>   RAX: 0000000000000002 RBX: 0000000000100e00 RCX: ffffffffc0400000
>   RDX: 0000000000000123 RSI: 8000000000000123 RDI: ffffffff872e50c0
>   RBP: 8000000100e00123 R08: ffffffffc0400fff R09: 0000000000100e00
>   R10: 0000000000000123 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffffffffc0400000
>   R13: 0000000100e00123 R14: 8000000000000123 R15: ffffffff87003d58
>   FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8ad1777a7000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
>   CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
>   CR2: ffff8ad0a4201000 CR3: 00000007e3022001 CR4: 0000000000770ef0
>   PKRU: 55555554
>   Call Trace:
>    <TASK>
>    ? _vm_unmap_aliases+0x219/0x280
>    change_page_attr_set_clr+0x161/0x250
>    ? events_sysfs_show+0x5d/0x80
>    set_memory_x+0x39/0x50
>    apply_retpolines+0x656/0x6d0
>    ? events_sysfs_show+0x5d/0x80
>    ? events_sysfs_show+0x6c/0x80
>    ? events_sysfs_show+0x62/0x80
>    alternative_instructions+0x3c/0xd0
>    arch_cpu_finalize_init+0x130/0x190
>    start_kernel+0x97d/0xa10
>    x86_64_start_reservations+0x24/0x30
>    x86_64_start_kernel+0xda/0xe0
>    common_startup_64+0x13e/0x151
>    </TASK>
>   ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
> 
> The warning appears because commit 038176c21617f ("x86/mm/pat: fix
> effective RW computation in lookup_address_in_pgd_attr()") fixed the
> effective RW checked by verify_rwx() and it exposed that pages used
> for ITS trampolines temporarily have RWX permissions.
> 
> The permissions are updated in its_fini_core() after all the ITS
> trampolines are generated, but since verify_rwx() detects invalid
> transitions, it warns when its_alloc() makes RW memory executable.
> 
> At the time of alternatives patching the entire kernel text is mapped
> RWX, so the warning is bogus anyway.
> 
> Skip verification of W^X violations in verify_rwx() when they are
> triggered by transitions happening before the kernel text is remapped as
> read-only.
> 
> Reported-by: Nathan Chancellor <nathan@kernel.org>
> Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260905044253.GA3816371@ax162
> Signed-off-by: Mike Rapoport (Microsoft) <rppt@kernel.org>

Tested-by: Nathan Chancellor <nathan@kernel.org>

> ---
>  arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c | 4 ++++
>  1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c b/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
> index 226660973d515..2eecb76703bb4 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
> +++ b/arch/x86/mm/pat/set_memory.c
> @@ -708,6 +708,10 @@ static inline pgprot_t verify_rwx(pgprot_t old, pgprot_t new, unsigned long star
>  	if (!(__supported_pte_mask & _PAGE_NX))
>  		return new;
>  
> +	/* skip verification until kernel text is set to read only */
> +	if (!kernel_set_to_readonly)
> +		return new;
> +
>  	if (!((pgprot_val(old) ^ pgprot_val(new)) & (_PAGE_RW | _PAGE_NX)))
>  		return new;
>  
> 
> base-commit: 038176c21617fcc03ccc1ca43230ffedb712c047
> -- 
> 2.53.0
> 

-- 
Cheers,
Nathan