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From: Stepan Ionichev <sozdayvek@gmail.com>
To: akpm@linux-foundation.org
Cc: david@kernel.org, jgg@ziepe.ca, jhubbard@nvidia.com,
	peterx@redhat.com, linux-mm@kvack.org,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	Stepan Ionichev <sozdayvek@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH] mm/gup: tolerate NULL unlocked in fixup_user_fault()
Date: Thu,  7 May 2026 13:30:50 +0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260507083050.416-1-sozdayvek@gmail.com> (raw)

fixup_user_fault() takes a "bool *unlocked" output parameter that
callers may set to NULL when they do not want the retry/unlock
machinery. The function honours that contract on the way in:

	if (unlocked)
		fault_flags |= FAULT_FLAG_ALLOW_RETRY | FAULT_FLAG_KILLABLE;

so callers passing NULL never set FAULT_FLAG_ALLOW_RETRY. In return,
handle_mm_fault() is not expected to produce VM_FAULT_RETRY or
VM_FAULT_COMPLETED for them, which is why the dereferences of
unlocked further down used to be considered unreachable.

That invariant is implicit, not enforced. At least one caller in
arch/s390/pci/pci_mmio.c does pass NULL:

	fixup_user_fault(current->mm, mmio_addr, FAULT_FLAG_WRITE, NULL);

If a future change in handle_mm_fault() ever returned
VM_FAULT_COMPLETED or VM_FAULT_RETRY without ALLOW_RETRY having been
requested, the unconditional "*unlocked = true" stores would
NULL-deref and crash the kernel for this path.

smatch flags both stores:

  mm/gup.c:1597 fixup_user_fault() error: we previously assumed
    'unlocked' could be null (see line 1573)
  mm/gup.c:1612 fixup_user_fault() error: we previously assumed
    'unlocked' could be null (see line 1573)

Make the NULL handling consistent on both sides of the function:
guard the two stores with "if (unlocked)" so fixup_user_fault()
tolerates a NULL output pointer regardless of which fault outcome
handle_mm_fault() returns.

No functional change for callers that already pass a non-NULL
pointer.

Signed-off-by: Stepan Ionichev <sozdayvek@gmail.com>
---
 mm/gup.c | 6 ++++--
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/gup.c b/mm/gup.c
index ad9ded396..1a8d7c7c8 100644
--- a/mm/gup.c
+++ b/mm/gup.c
@@ -1594,7 +1594,8 @@ int fixup_user_fault(struct mm_struct *mm,
 		 * could tell the callers so they do not need to unlock.
 		 */
 		mmap_read_lock(mm);
-		*unlocked = true;
+		if (unlocked)
+			*unlocked = true;
 		return 0;
 	}
 
@@ -1608,7 +1609,8 @@ int fixup_user_fault(struct mm_struct *mm,
 
 	if (ret & VM_FAULT_RETRY) {
 		mmap_read_lock(mm);
-		*unlocked = true;
+		if (unlocked)
+			*unlocked = true;
 		fault_flags |= FAULT_FLAG_TRIED;
 		goto retry;
 	}
-- 
2.43.0


             reply	other threads:[~2026-05-07  8:30 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-05-07  8:30 Stepan Ionichev [this message]
2026-05-08  8:33 ` [PATCH] mm/gup: tolerate NULL unlocked in fixup_user_fault() David Hildenbrand (Arm)
2026-05-08 11:18   ` Stepan Ionichev

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