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From: Karl Mehltretter <kmehltretter@gmail.com>
To: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
	Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>,
	Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>,
	Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>,
	Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>,
	Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>,
	linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	Karl Mehltretter <kmehltretter@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH 6.6.y] arm64: mm: clear extra idmap level before use
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2026 07:42:47 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260831054247.33352-1-kmehltretter@gmail.com> (raw)

The 6.6.y adaptation of commit 0e9df1c905d8 ("arm64: mm: Don't remap
pgtables for allocate vs populate") removes the clearing performed by
early_pgtable_alloc().  Its replacement clears allocations made by the
generic page-table walkers, but 6.6's create_idmap() still allocates an
extra root level directly when a sub-48-bit VA kernel is loaded
sufficiently high in physical memory.

memblock_phys_alloc_range() does not zero the returned memory.  The direct
caller therefore publishes an uncleared root page and passes it to
__create_pgd_mapping().  A stale nonzero entry can trip the bad-descriptor
BUG_ON or be followed as a page-table descriptor, preventing the kernel
from booting.

Clear the direct allocation through its linear alias before publishing it.
init_clear_pgtable() also supplies the barrier required before the table
descriptor becomes visible.

Mainline is not affected because commit e6128a8e523c ("arm64: mm: Use
48-bit virtual addressing for the permanent ID map") removed the dynamic
extra level before page-table initialization moved out of the allocator.

Fixes: 54322d95309d ("arm64: mm: Don't remap pgtables for allocate vs populate")
---
A deterministic QEMU A/B used 16 KiB pages, a 36-bit VA, a 48-bit PA, an
Image loaded at 0x1000200000, and test-only instrumentation that filled the
extra root with 0x02.  The affected kernel hit the expected bad-descriptor
BUG_ON.  With this patch, the same poisoned allocation survived
create_idmap() before the test stopped deliberately.

The injected contents make the allocator's permitted nonzero return
deterministic; they do not estimate real-world incidence.

Tested on:
  6.6.y a4a971135a2ff64382ae4235b3ae60503bb1036a (Linux 6.6.155)

 arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
index e075792d722575d38488e8352df8947c6aaddd2b..4e9e997e08daf543e5c09799563f991a9f8a7cc0 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
@@ -777,9 +777,10 @@ static void __init create_idmap(void)
 	/* check if we need an additional level of translation */
 	if (VA_BITS < 48 && idmap_t0sz < (64 - VA_BITS_MIN)) {
 		pgd_phys = early_pgtable_alloc(PAGE_SHIFT);
+		pgd = __va(pgd_phys);
+		init_clear_pgtable(pgd);
 		set_pgd(&idmap_pg_dir[start >> VA_BITS],
 			__pgd(pgd_phys | P4D_TYPE_TABLE));
-		pgd = __va(pgd_phys);
 	}
 	__create_pgd_mapping(pgd, start, start, size, PAGE_KERNEL_ROX,
 			     early_pgtable_alloc, 0);
-- 
2.39.5 (Apple Git-154)


             reply	other threads:[~2026-08-31  5:43 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-08-31  5:42 Karl Mehltretter [this message]
2026-08-31  5:54 ` [PATCH 6.6.y] arm64: mm: clear extra idmap level before use Greg Kroah-Hartman
2026-08-31  6:15   ` Ard Biesheuvel
2026-08-31 11:00     ` Karl Mehltretter
2026-08-31 11:47       ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
2026-08-31 15:29         ` [PATCH 6.6.y v2] Revert "arm64: mm: Don't remap pgtables for allocate vs populate" Karl Mehltretter
2026-09-01  1:21           ` Sasha Levin

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