Re: [PATCH v2] mm/swapfile: unuse_pte can map random data if swap read fails

Miaohe Lin
2022-04-19T11:14:48Z

On 2022/4/19 16:08, Alistair Popple wrote:
> David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com> writes:
>
>> On 19.04.22 09:29, Miaohe Lin wrote:
>>> On 2022/4/19 11:51, Alistair Popple wrote:
>>>> Miaohe Lin <linmiaohe@huawei.com> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> There is a bug in unuse_pte(): when swap page happens to be unreadable,
>>>>> page filled with random data is mapped into user address space. In case
>>>>> of error, a special swap entry indicating swap read fails is set to the
>>>>> page table. So the swapcache page can be freed and the user won't end up
>>>>> with a permanently mounted swap because a sector is bad. And if the page
>>>>> is accessed later, the user process will be killed so that corrupted data
>>>>> is never consumed. On the other hand, if the page is never accessed, the
>>>>> user won't even notice it.
>>>>
>>>> Hi Miaohe,
>>>>> It seems we're not actually using the pfn that gets stored in the special swap
>>>> entry here. Is my understanding correct? If so I think it would be better to use
>>>
>>> Yes, you're right. The pfn is not used now. What we need here is a special swap entry
>>> to do the right things. I think we can change to store some debugging information instead
>>> of pfn if needed in the future.
>>>
>>>> the new PTE markers Peter introduced[1] rather than adding another swap entry
>>>> type.
>>>
>>> IIUC, we should not reuse that swap entry here. From definition:
>>>
>>> PTE markers
>>> `========='
>>> ...
>>> PTE marker is a new type of swap entry that is ony applicable to file
>>> backed memories like shmem and hugetlbfs. It's used to persist some
>>> pte-level information even if the original present ptes in pgtable are
>>> zapped.
>>>
>>> It's designed for file backed memories while swapin error entry is for anonymous
>>> memories. And there has some differences in processing. So it's not a good idea
>>> to reuse pte markers. Or am I miss something?
>>
>> I tend to agree. As raised in my other reply, maybe we can simply reuse
>> hwpoison entries and update the documentation of them accordingly.
>
> Unless I've missed something I don't think PTE markers should be restricted
> solely to file backed memory. It's true that the only user of them at the moment
> is UFFD-WP for file backed memory, but PTE markers are just a special swap entry
> same as what is added here.
>
> That said I don't think there has been any attempt to make PTE markers work for
> anything other than UFFD-WP because it was unclear if there ever would be
> another user.

If PTE markers can also handle the swapin error case, I will try to use it if
we can't reuse hwpoison entries.

>
> But I agree re-using hwpoison entries is probably a better fit if possible.

Agree. As David said, "At least from a program POV it's similar "the previously well
defined content at this user space address is no longer readable/writable"."

>
> - Alistair

Many thanks!

>