[PATCH v4 13/16] WIP: Reproducer for allocation failure due to cgroup v2 memory limits
From: Ackerley Tng via B4 Relay
Date: Wed Jul 22 2026 - 19:50:05 EST
From: Ackerley Tng <ackerleytng@xxxxxxxxxx>
(This reproducer was hacked up and not meant to be merged.)
cgroup_v2_allocation_failure.c triggers HugeTLB allocation failure by exploiting
cgroup v2 memory limits. This allows testing the error paths in the kernel when
memory control charging fails, even when physical huge pages are available.
The program performs the following steps to trigger the failure:
1. Enable hugetlb accounting in cgroup v2.
+ The program checks if memory_hugetlb_accounting is enabled in the cgroup2
mount options. If not, it remounts /sys/fs/cgroup with this option
enabled. This ensures that HugeTLB allocations are charged against the
cgroup memory limits.
2. Create a test cgroup and set limits.
+ The program creates a new cgroup subdirectory named test_reproducer under
/sys/fs/cgroup.
+ It sets the memory.max limit of this cgroup to 1MB (which is less than
the 2MB huge page size).
3. Fork a child process and move it to the test cgroup.
+ The program forks a child process.
+ The child process moves itself into the test_reproducer cgroup by writing
its PID (using 0 for current process) to cgroup.procs in the test cgroup
directory.
4. Attempt to allocate and touch a 2MB huge page.
+ The child process maps a 2MB anonymous huge page using mmap with
MAP_PRIVATE, MAP_ANONYMOUS, and MAP_HUGETLB.
+ The child process writes to the mapped address, triggering a page fault.
5. Triggering the kernel bugs.
+ The page fault handler calls alloc_hugetlb_folio to allocate the huge
page.
+ The allocation of the physical page from buddy allocator succeeds
(assuming nr_hugepages is sufficient).
+ The kernel then attempts to charge this allocation to the child process's
cgroup by calling mem_cgroup_charge_hugetlb.
+ Since the child's cgroup memory limit is 1MB and the page is 2MB, the
charge fails and mem_cgroup_charge_hugetlb returns -ENOMEM.
+ This triggers the error path in alloc_hugetlb_folio where the bugs (folio
refcount mismatch, infinite loop on ENOMEM, and reservation leaks) are
handled.
Signed-off-by: Ackerley Tng <ackerleytng@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
cgroup_v2_allocation_failure.c | 169 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 169 insertions(+)
diff --git a/cgroup_v2_allocation_failure.c b/cgroup_v2_allocation_failure.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..1a813678d8cd2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cgroup_v2_allocation_failure.c
@@ -0,0 +1,169 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+#define _GNU_SOURCE
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+#include <fcntl.h>
+#include <sys/mman.h>
+#include <sys/stat.h>
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <sys/wait.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <errno.h>
+
+#define CGROUP_PATH "/sys/fs/cgroup"
+#define TEST_CGROUP "test_reproducer"
+#define TEST_CGROUP_PATH CGROUP_PATH "/" TEST_CGROUP
+
+static void write_file_val(const char *path, const char *val)
+{
+ int fd = open(path, O_WRONLY);
+
+ if (fd < 0) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Failed to open %s: %s\n", path, strerror(errno));
+ exit(1);
+ }
+ if (write(fd, val, strlen(val)) < 0) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Failed to write %s to %s: %s\n", val, path, strerror(errno));
+ close(fd);
+ exit(1);
+ }
+ close(fd);
+}
+
+static int is_hugetlb_accounting_enabled(void)
+{
+ char spec[256], file[256], type[256], opts[512];
+ char line[1024];
+ int enabled = 0;
+ FILE *fp;
+
+ fp = fopen("/proc/mounts", "r");
+ if (!fp) {
+ perror("fopen /proc/mounts");
+ return -1;
+ }
+
+ while (fgets(line, sizeof(line), fp)) {
+ if (sscanf(line, "%255s %255s %255s %511s", spec, file, type, opts) == 4) {
+ if (strcmp(file, CGROUP_PATH) == 0 && strcmp(type, "cgroup2") == 0) {
+ if (strstr(opts, "memory_hugetlb_accounting") != NULL)
+ enabled = 1;
+ break;
+ }
+ }
+ }
+ fclose(fp);
+ return enabled;
+}
+
+static int enable_hugetlb_accounting(void)
+{
+ int ret;
+
+ printf("Attempting to remount cgroup2 with memory_hugetlb_accounting...\n");
+ ret = system("mount -o remount,memory_hugetlb_accounting " CGROUP_PATH);
+ if (ret != 0) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Failed to remount: system() returned %d\n", ret);
+ return -1;
+ }
+ return 0;
+}
+
+int main(int argc, char **argv)
+{
+ struct stat st;
+ size_t size;
+ void *addr;
+ pid_t pid;
+ int enabled;
+ int status;
+ int fd;
+
+ if (stat(CGROUP_PATH, &st) != 0 || !S_ISDIR(st.st_mode)) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "cgroup v2 not mounted at %s\n", CGROUP_PATH);
+ return 1;
+ }
+
+ enabled = is_hugetlb_accounting_enabled();
+ if (enabled < 0)
+ return 1;
+
+ if (!enabled) {
+ if (enable_hugetlb_accounting() != 0) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Could not enable memory_hugetlb_accounting\n");
+ return 1;
+ }
+ /* Re-check */
+ enabled = is_hugetlb_accounting_enabled();
+ if (enabled <= 0) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Failed to enable memory_hugetlb_accounting (re-check failed)\n");
+ return 1;
+ }
+ printf("Successfully enabled memory_hugetlb_accounting\n");
+ } else {
+ printf("memory_hugetlb_accounting is already enabled\n");
+ }
+
+ /* Enable memory controller in subtree */
+ fd = open(CGROUP_PATH "/cgroup.subtree_control", O_WRONLY);
+ if (fd >= 0) {
+ (void)write(fd, "+memory", 7);
+ close(fd);
+ }
+
+ if (mkdir(TEST_CGROUP_PATH, 0755) != 0) {
+ if (errno != EEXIST) {
+ perror("mkdir test_reproducer");
+ return 1;
+ }
+ }
+
+ /* Set memory limit to 1MB (less than 2MB hugepage) */
+ write_file_val(TEST_CGROUP_PATH "/memory.max", "1M");
+
+ pid = fork();
+ if (pid < 0) {
+ perror("fork");
+ return 1;
+ }
+
+ if (pid == 0) {
+ /* Child: Move to cgroup */
+ write_file_val(TEST_CGROUP_PATH "/cgroup.procs", "0");
+
+ printf("Child: Attempting to allocate and touch 2MB hugepage...\n");
+ /* Allocate 2MB hugepage */
+ size = 2 * 1024 * 1024;
+ addr = mmap(NULL, size, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,
+ MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_HUGETLB, -1, 0);
+ if (addr == MAP_FAILED) {
+ perror("Child: mmap MAP_HUGETLB");
+ exit(1);
+ }
+
+ printf("Child: mmap succeeded at %p, touching it now...\n", addr);
+ *(char *)addr = 1;
+
+ printf("Child: Successfully touched page (bug not triggered?).\n");
+ munmap(addr, size);
+ exit(0);
+ }
+
+ /* Parent */
+ waitpid(pid, &status, 0);
+
+ printf("Parent: Child exited. Cleaning up.\n");
+ rmdir(TEST_CGROUP_PATH);
+
+ if (WIFSIGNALED(status)) {
+ printf("Parent: Child killed by signal %d (%s)\n",
+ WTERMSIG(status), strsignal(WTERMSIG(status)));
+ if (WTERMSIG(status) == SIGBUS)
+ printf("Parent: Child got SIGBUS as expected.\n");
+ } else if (WIFEXITED(status)) {
+ printf("Parent: Child exited with status %d\n", WEXITSTATUS(status));
+ }
+
+ return 0;
+}
--
2.55.0.229.g6434b31f56-goog