[RFC v2 PATCH] mm/cma: don't release CMA pages still in use

From: Rik van Riel

Date: Mon Aug 10 2026 - 12:28:50 EST


When a driver calls dma_free_contiguous() before quiescing DMA, the
page still has a reference from the device. put_page_testzero() there
returns false, WARN fires, but the code proceeds to
free_contig_frozen_range() putting a live page onto buddy and clearing
the bitmap. Later cma_alloc() hands the same PFN to a new owner while
the original holder still references it.

A concurrent put_page() that drops the last reference between the
testzero loop and free_contig_frozen_range() can double-queue the page
via page->lru, corrupting buddy lists.

Fix by freeing already-frozen pages in contiguous runs, while keeping
still-referenced pages. When any live page exists, a future cma_alloc()
on this address range will fail until whoever holds the extra references
frees those pages.

This change should be safe because nothing can get reallocated while it
is still in use.

Fixes: 9bda131c6093 ("mm: cma: add cma_alloc_frozen{_compound}()")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Assisted-by: Hermes:muse-spark-1.2 syzkaller
Reported-by: Chris Mason <clm@xxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Rik van Riel <riel@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
v2:
- don't play clever games with the CMA bitmap, the page allocator
alone will prevent re-use of not-free-yet pages
- v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260809210608.06b5ccb9@fangorn/

mm/cma.c | 39 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------
1 file changed, 33 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/cma.c b/mm/cma.c
index a13ce4999b39..cbf8dba8f077 100644
--- a/mm/cma.c
+++ b/mm/cma.c
@@ -998,7 +998,6 @@ static void __cma_release_frozen(struct cma *cma, struct cma_memrange *cmr,

pr_debug("%s(page %p, count %lu)\n", __func__, (void *)pages, count);

- free_contig_frozen_range(pfn, count);
cma_clear_bitmap(cma, cmr, pfn, count);
cma_sysfs_account_release_pages(cma, count);
trace_cma_release(cma->name, pfn, pages, count);
@@ -1018,18 +1017,45 @@ bool cma_release(struct cma *cma, const struct page *pages,
unsigned long count)
{
struct cma_memrange *cmr;
- unsigned long ret = 0;
+ unsigned long skipped = 0;
unsigned long i, pfn;
+ unsigned long base_pfn;
+ unsigned long run_start = 0;
+ unsigned long run_len = 0;

cmr = find_cma_memrange(cma, pages, count);
if (!cmr)
return false;

- pfn = page_to_pfn(pages);
- for (i = 0; i < count; i++, pfn++)
- ret += !put_page_testzero(pfn_to_page(pfn));
+ base_pfn = page_to_pfn(pages);
+ pfn = base_pfn;
+ for (i = 0; i < count; i++, pfn++) {
+ if (put_page_testzero(pfn_to_page(pfn))) {
+ /* Add it to the batch. */
+ if (run_len == 0)
+ run_start = pfn;
+ run_len++;
+ } else {
+ /*
+ * This page is still in use! Free the freeable
+ * pages encountered so far, but skip this page.
+ */
+ if (run_len) {
+ free_contig_frozen_range(run_start, run_len);
+ run_len = 0;
+ }
+ skipped++;
+ }
+ }
+ if (run_len)
+ free_contig_frozen_range(run_start, run_len);

- WARN(ret, "%lu pages are still in use!\n", ret);
+ /*
+ * Some pages were still in use! This should not happen.
+ * Subsequent cma_alloc() calls to the same range will fail
+ * until whoever grabbed the extra refcounts frees the pages.
+ */
+ WARN(skipped, "%lu pages are still in use!\n", skipped);

__cma_release_frozen(cma, cmr, pages, count);

@@ -1046,6 +1072,7 @@ bool cma_release_frozen(struct cma *cma, const struct page *pages,
if (!cmr)
return false;

+ free_contig_frozen_range(page_to_pfn(pages), count);
__cma_release_frozen(cma, cmr, pages, count);

return true;
--
2.55.0