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From: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
To: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: "Cen Zhang (Microsoft)" <cenzhang@linux.microsoft.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	AutonomousCodeSecurity@microsoft.com,
	"David Hildenbrand (Arm)" <david@kernel.org>,
	Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>, Peter Xu <peterx@redhat.com>,
	Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>,
	Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@redhat.com>,
	tgopinath@linux.microsoft.com, Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH 6.12.y] userfaultfd: fix UFFDIO_MOVE livelock on large folio with extra references
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2026 12:31:33 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261110173115.2915038-1-sashal@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261107052613-failed-6.12-454143aeb4c6@kernel.org>

From: "Cen Zhang (Microsoft)" <cenzhang@linux.microsoft.com>

[ Upstream commit 454143aeb4c6c85ca7d50df36d1a66a64d88283e ]

To move one page out of a large folio, move_pages_ptes() first has to
split the folio.  __folio_split() refuses if the folio has any reference
beyond its page table mappings and the caller's own, and it reports the
refusal as -EAGAIN.  move_pages() treats returned -EAGAIN as a transient
race and keeps retrying the same address, holding the VMA read locks the
whole time.  This is incorrect since in some cases userspace can hold such
a reference indefinitely, such as by registering the page as an io_uring
buffer.

An unprivileged user can trigger this with three threads: first holds such
a reference on a page of a THP, second calls UFFDIO_MOVE on another page
of the same THP and spins in the kernel forever holding the VMA read
locks, and third calls fork() or mprotect(), which takes mmap_lock for
writing and then waits forever for those read locks.  From then on every
mmap_lock user of that mm hangs, including other processes inspecting it
through /proc/<pid>/, until the process is SIGKILLed.  The hung task
detector reports the blocked tasks (third one), and with
kernel.hung_task_panic=1 the machine panics:

  INFO: task wedge:95 blocked for more than 122 seconds.
  task:wedge  state:D stack:12528 pid:95 tgid:95 ppid:94
  Call Trace:
   __schedule+0x596/0x1110
   schedule+0x36/0xf0
   __vma_start_exclude_readers+0x100/0x170
   __vma_start_write+0x51/0xd0
   __split_vma+0x208/0x3d0
   vma_modify+0x6a8/0x840
   vma_modify_flags+0xce/0x110
   mprotect_fixup+0xbe/0x480
   do_mprotect_pkey+0x2d9/0x580
   __x64_sys_mprotect+0x1a/0x30

Fix by returning -EBUSY instead of -EAGAIN in move_pages_ptes(), the
caller of split_folio(), when the split fails.  Thus, move_pages() does
not retry -EBUSY and the ioctl drops its locks and returns to userspace
instead of spinning.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20261012201514.97015-1-cenzhang@linux.microsoft.com
Fixes: adef440691ba ("userfaultfd: UFFDIO_MOVE uABI")
Signed-off-by: Cen Zhang (Microsoft) <cenzhang@linux.microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Reported-by: <AutonomousCodeSecurity@microsoft.com>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@kernel.org>
Assisted-by: LLM
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
Cc: Peter Xu <peterx@redhat.com>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
Cc: Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@redhat.com>
Cc: <tgopinath@linux.microsoft.com>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
[ sashal: Adapted upstream’s ret variable to the local err variable in move_pages_pte(). ]
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
---
 mm/userfaultfd.c | 6 +++++-
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/mm/userfaultfd.c b/mm/userfaultfd.c
index 9951b4f42c65a..e2cb788e6ad89 100644
--- a/mm/userfaultfd.c
+++ b/mm/userfaultfd.c
@@ -1323,8 +1323,12 @@ static int move_pages_pte(struct mm_struct *mm, pmd_t *dst_pmd, pmd_t *src_pmd,
 			pte_unmap(dst_pte);
 			src_pte = dst_pte = NULL;
 			err = split_folio(src_folio);
-			if (err)
+			if (err) {
+				/* do not retry, extra refs may be held forever */
+				if (err == -EAGAIN)
+					err = -EBUSY;
 				goto out;
+			}
 			/* have to reacquire the folio after it got split */
 			folio_unlock(src_folio);
 			folio_put(src_folio);
-- 
2.53.0


      reply	other threads:[~2026-11-10 17:31 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-11-07 10:26 FAILED: patch "[PATCH] userfaultfd: fix UFFDIO_MOVE livelock on large folio with extra references" failed to apply to 6.12-stable tree Sasha Levin
2026-11-10 17:31 ` Sasha Levin [this message]

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