Re: [PATCH] arm64: mm: fix accidental linear mapping of no-map reserved memory

[Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>]

On Tue, Aug 04, 2026 at 05:24:33PM +0300, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 16 Jul 2026, at 17:01, Will Deacon wrote:
> > [+Ard]
> >
> > On Wed, May 13, 2026 at 09:02:55AM +0800, liulhong617@163.com wrote:
> >> From: liulhong617 <liulhong617@gmail.com>
> >> 
> >> When reserved-memory regions with the "no-map" property are not
> >> page-aligned, the kernel may accidentally map them into the linear
> >> mapping, contradicting the no-map semantics.
> >
> > Crikey, I wonder what the semantics are for "no-map" if the region isn't
> > page aligned? If the remaining part of the page is advertised as memory
> > but doesn't have the "no-map" property, then we can't really satisfy
> > what we're being asked to do.
> >
> >> The root cause is a mismatch between /proc/iomem's address boundaries
> >> and the actual page table mapping boundaries:
> >> 
> >> 1. /proc/iomem derives its ranges from memblock via
> >>    memblock_region_reserved_base_pfn/memblock_region_reserved_end_pfn,
> >>    which perform PFN rounding so the displayed boundaries are
> >>    page-aligned. This gives the impression that the no-map region
> >>    occupies whole pages.
> >> 
> >> 2. However, memblock_mark_nomap() splits memblock.memory regions at
> >>    exact byte boundaries (memblock_isolate_range preserves raw DT
> >>    base/size with no alignment). When for_each_mem_range iterates the
> >>    non-NOMAP regions adjacent to a no-map region, it returns start/end
> >>    values that are NOT page-aligned — they are the precise byte
> >>    boundaries from the memblock split.
> >> 
> >> 3. These sub-page-aligned values are passed to
> >>    __create_pgd_mapping_locked(), which does:
> >>      phys &= PAGE_MASK;
> >>      addr = virt & PAGE_MASK;
> >>      end = PAGE_ALIGN(virt + size);
> >>    The downward rounding of phys via PAGE_MASK extends the mapped
> >>    range backward into the adjacent no-map region, effectively
> >>    including no-map memory in the linear mapping.
> >> 
> >> For example, with 64K pages, reserved_region@A2000000 (base=0xA2000000,
> >> size=0x8000, no-map) causes for_each_mem_range to return
> >> start=0xA2008000 for the next mappable region. After phys &= PAGE_MASK,
> >> the actual mapping starts at 0xA2000000 — the entire no-map region is
> >> incorrectly mapped.
> >> 
> >> Fix this by rounding the mappable range inward to PAGE_SIZE boundaries
> >> before passing it to __map_memblock: start is rounded UP and end is
> >> rounded DOWN. This ensures the mapped area never overlaps with adjacent
> >> no-map regions. The cost is at most one page of unmapped gap at each
> >> boundary, which is preferable to violating no-map semantics.
> >> 
> >> Signed-off-by: liulhong617 <liulhong617@gmail.com>
> >> ---
> >>  arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c | 14 ++++++++++++++
> >>  1 file changed, 14 insertions(+)
> >> 
> >> diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
> >> index dd85e093f..bc8ac7622 100644
> >> --- a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
> >> +++ b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
> >> @@ -1175,6 +1175,20 @@ static void __init map_mem(pgd_t *pgdp)
> >>  	for_each_mem_range(i, &start, &end) {
> >>  		if (start >= end)
> >>  			break;
> >> +		/*
> >> +		 * for_each_mem_range may return sub-page-aligned boundaries
> >> +		 * after memblock_mark_nomap() splits regions at byte precision.
> >> +		 * __create_pgd_mapping_locked aligns phys down to PAGE_MASK,
> >> +		 * which could accidentally map no-map memory on the boundary.
> >> +		 * Round the mappable range inward: start UP, end DOWN, so
> >> +		 * that the mapped area never overlaps with adjacent no-map
> >> +		 * regions. The cost is at most one page of unmapped gap at
> >> +		 * each boundary.
> >> +		 */
> >> +		start = PAGE_ALIGN(start);
> >> +		end = end & PAGE_MASK;
> >> +		if (start >= end)
> >> +			continue;
> >
> > Maybe I'm over-worrying here, but I've seen firmware describe parts of
> > memory as lots of small, adjacent regions in some cases and so I'm
> > worried we'd fail to map the pages with this change.
> >
> > I'd be more in favour of detecting sub-page sized "no-map" regions that
> > are adjacent to normal memory regions, emitting a warning/firmware taint
> > and then doing... precisely nothing about it. What practical issues are
> > you seeing on your system?
> >
> 
> I think this change is conceptually sound: for_each_mem_range() will present
> a set of coalesced memory ranges, so any sub-[OS-]page regions will have
> been stitched together by this time.

Aha, thanks, that's the part I was missing.

> I do wonder if it wouldn't be better if __create_pgd_mapping_locked() did
> inward rounding, or even better, did no rounding at all, and left it to the
> callers to perform the rounding.

I can take this patch for now but maybe somebody can have a play with
that in the future.

Will