[PATCH v3 1/3] vmalloc: add __GFP_SKIP_KASAN support
From: Dev Jain
Date: Fri Apr 24 2026 - 09:03:38 EST
From: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@xxxxxxx>
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@xxxxxxx>
Co-developed-by: Dev Jain <dev.jain@xxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@xxxxxxx>
---
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;
}
/* Take note that the mapping is PAGE_KERNEL. */
@@ -4078,7 +4091,8 @@ void *__vmalloc_node_range_noprof(unsigned long size, unsigned long align,
(gfp_mask & __GFP_SKIP_ZERO))
kasan_flags |= KASAN_VMALLOC_INIT;
/* KASAN_VMALLOC_PROT_NORMAL already set if required. */
- area->addr = kasan_unpoison_vmalloc(area->addr, size, kasan_flags);
+ if (!skip_vmalloc_kasan)
+ area->addr = kasan_unpoison_vmalloc(area->addr, size, kasan_flags);
/*
* In this function, newly allocated vm_struct has VM_UNINITIALIZED
--
2.34.1