Re: [PATCH v3 1/3] vmalloc: add __GFP_SKIP_KASAN support

Catalin Marinas
2026-04-24T18:32:23Z

On Fri, Apr 24, 2026 at 06:31:55PM +0530, Dev Jain wrote:
> From: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
>
> For allocations that will be accessed only with match-all pointers
> (e.g., kernel stacks), setting tags is wasted work. If the caller
> already set __GFP_SKIP_KASAN, skip tag setting of vmalloc pages.
>
> Before this patch, __GFP_SKIP_KASAN wasn't being used with vmalloc
> APIs. So it wasn't being checked. Now its being checked and acted
> upon. Other KASAN modes are unchanged because __GFP_SKIP_KASAN isn't
> defined there.
>
> This is a preparatory patch for optimizing kernel stack allocations.
>
> Co-developed-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
> Co-developed-by: Dev Jain <dev.jain@arm.com>
> Signed-off-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>

Co-developers need to sign off as well. See submitting-patches.rst. Same
comment about your SoB as on patch 3.

> ---
> mm/vmalloc.c | 20 +++++++++++++++++---
> 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/vmalloc.c b/mm/vmalloc.c
> index b31b208f6ecb3..c94fcb2725b6b 100644
> --- a/mm/vmalloc.c
> +++ b/mm/vmalloc.c
> @@ -3939,7 +3939,7 @@ static void *__vmalloc_area_node(struct vm_struct *area, gfp_t gfp_mask,
> __GFP_NOFAIL | __GFP_ZERO |\
> __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_RETRY_MAYFAIL |\
> GFP_NOFS | GFP_NOIO | GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT |\
> - GFP_USER | __GFP_NOLOCKDEP)
> + GFP_USER | __GFP_NOLOCKDEP | __GFP_SKIP_KASAN)
>
> static gfp_t vmalloc_fix_flags(gfp_t flags)
> {
> @@ -3980,6 +3980,9 @@ static gfp_t vmalloc_fix_flags(gfp_t flags)
> *
> * %__GFP_NOWARN can be used to suppress failure messages.
> *
> + * %__GFP_SKIP_KASAN can be used to skip unpoisoning of mapped pages
> + * (when prot=%PAGE_KERNEL).
> + *
> * Can not be called from interrupt nor NMI contexts.
> * Return: the address of the area or %NULL on failure
> */
> @@ -3993,6 +3996,10 @@ void *__vmalloc_node_range_noprof(unsigned long size, unsigned long align,
> kasan_vmalloc_flags_t kasan_flags = KASAN_VMALLOC_NONE;
> unsigned long original_align = align;
> unsigned int shift = PAGE_SHIFT;
> + bool skip_vmalloc_kasan = gfp_mask & __GFP_SKIP_KASAN;
> +
> + /* Don't skip metadata kasan unpoisoning */
> + gfp_mask &= ~__GFP_SKIP_KASAN;
>
> if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!size))
> return NULL;
> @@ -4041,7 +4048,7 @@ void *__vmalloc_node_range_noprof(unsigned long size, unsigned long align,
> * kasan_unpoison_vmalloc().
> */
> if (pgprot_val(prot) == pgprot_val(PAGE_KERNEL)) {
> - if (kasan_hw_tags_enabled()) {
> + if (kasan_hw_tags_enabled() && !skip_vmalloc_kasan) {
> /*
> * Modify protection bits to allow tagging.
> * This must be done before mapping.
> @@ -4054,6 +4061,12 @@ void *__vmalloc_node_range_noprof(unsigned long size, unsigned long align,
> * poisoned and zeroed by kasan_unpoison_vmalloc().
> */
> gfp_mask |= __GFP_SKIP_KASAN | __GFP_SKIP_ZERO;
> + } else if (skip_vmalloc_kasan) {
> + /*
> + * Skip page_alloc unpoisoning physical pages backing
> + * VM_ALLOC mapping, as requested by caller.
> + */
> + gfp_mask |= __GFP_SKIP_KASAN;
> }

This playing around with some of the GFP flags meant for metadata and
the actual page allocation gets confusing. You remove __GFP_SKIP_KASAN
early from gfp_mask, add it back here. You might as well just remove it
when calling __get_vm_area_node() and we won't have to figure out why
it's added back above.

The __GFP_SKIP_ZERO flag is meant for the page allocator and used in
this function later to actually tell kasan to initialise the memory (not
skip this). __GFP_SKIP_KASAN, OTOH, is used to actually tell both
vmalloc() and the underlying page allocator to avoid tagging. I wonder
whether it would be better to have a VM_SKIP_KASAN flag instead and
leave the GFP flags alone.

--
Catalin