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From: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
To: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Nickolai Zeldovich <nickolai@csail.mit.edu>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>,
	"Liam R. Howlett" <liam@infradead.org>,
	Lorenzo Stoakes <ljs@kernel.org>,
	Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>, Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>,
	Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH 6.1.y] mm/mlock: use a long for the page count in mlock_fixup()
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2026 19:31:24 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261111003109.274925-1-sashal@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261107055436-failed-6.1-3ae91e3079b1@kernel.org>

From: Nickolai Zeldovich <nickolai@csail.mit.edu>

[ Upstream commit 3ae91e3079b1504ef162b2884454d5f1421f4eb9 ]

mlock_fixup() adjusts mm->locked_vm, an unsigned long, by the number of
pages whose VM_LOCKED state it changes, but computes that number in an
int:

	int nr_pages;
	...
	nr_pages = (end - start) >> PAGE_SHIFT;
	...
	mm->locked_vm += nr_pages;

When a single VMA range of 2^31 pages (8 TiB with 4 KiB pages) or more
is locked or unlocked, the count is truncated to 32 bits and then
sign-extended, so locked_vm is changed by the wrong amount, while
munmap(), mremap() and the other paths that maintain locked_vm use the
full unsigned long page count.

Such a range is reachable on 64-bit architectures with a 47-bit or
larger user address space (x86_64, arm64 with 48-bit VA, riscv64 Sv48)
by a task with CAP_IPC_LOCK or a raised RLIMIT_MEMLOCK, which do_mlock()
checks against the full untruncated length.  It costs nothing with
MAP_NORESERVE and MLOCK_ONFAULT/MCL_ONFAULT, since then no page is
populated.  On x86_64, after

	p = mmap(NULL, 8UL << 40, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,
		 MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_NORESERVE, -1, 0);
	mlock2(p, 8UL << 40, MLOCK_ONFAULT);

VmLck in /proc/self/status reads 18446744065119617024 kB instead of
8589934592 kB; munmap() of the region then subtracts the true size and
leaves VmLck at 18446744056529682432 kB instead of 0.  With 16 TiB,
locked_vm is not changed at all, VmLck stays 0 kB, and after the task
drops CAP_IPC_LOCK or lowers RLIMIT_MEMLOCK, mlock(), mmap(MAP_LOCKED)
and the other mlock_future_ok() and account_locked_vm() users enforce
RLIMIT_MEMLOCK against that count, so they let the task lock memory
beyond its limit (or, in the 8 TiB case, refuse every further lock).
The error persists for the life of the mm; unlocking the range in pieces
skews it further.  The wrong count is per-mm accounting only: it does
not change which pages are locked.

The int has been there since before git history (the variable was named
"pages" until it was renamed in 2.6.28); every other updater of
locked_vm uses an unsigned long or long count.  Make nr_pages a long,
which holds the page count of any user range and its negation, so the
existing sign handling is unchanged.

Found by formal verification of mm/mlock.c against the kernel binary.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20261014131358.780240-1-nickolai@csail.mit.edu
Fixes: 1da177e4c3f4 ("Linux-2.6.12-rc2")
Signed-off-by: Nickolai Zeldovich <nickolai@csail.mit.edu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Reviewed-by: Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>
Assisted-by: LLM
Cc: Liam R. Howlett <liam@infradead.org>
Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <ljs@kernel.org>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
[ sashal: adjusted context for the older mlock_fixup() signature and local variable declarations ]
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
---
 mm/mlock.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/mm/mlock.c b/mm/mlock.c
index 0124022f0f379..8fa8e871ccbf8 100644
--- a/mm/mlock.c
+++ b/mm/mlock.c
@@ -406,7 +406,7 @@ static int mlock_fixup(struct vm_area_struct *vma, struct vm_area_struct **prev,
 {
 	struct mm_struct *mm = vma->vm_mm;
 	pgoff_t pgoff;
-	int nr_pages;
+	long nr_pages;
 	int ret = 0;
 	vm_flags_t oldflags = vma->vm_flags;
 
-- 
2.53.0


      reply	other threads:[~2026-11-11  0:31 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-11-07 10:54 FAILED: patch "[PATCH] mm/mlock: use a long for the page count in mlock_fixup()" failed to apply to 6.1-stable tree Sasha Levin
2026-11-11  0:31 ` Sasha Levin [this message]

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