[PATCH] userfaultfd: fix UFFDIO_MOVE livelock on large folio with extra references
From: Cen Zhang (Microsoft)
Date: Mon Oct 12 2026 - 16:15:38 EST
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.
Fixes: adef440691ba ("userfaultfd: UFFDIO_MOVE uABI")
Reported-by: AutonomousCodeSecurity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Cen Zhang (Microsoft) <cenzhang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/userfaultfd.c | 6 +++++-
1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/mm/userfaultfd.c b/mm/userfaultfd.c
index 74f04c323c50..500962be1162 100644
--- a/mm/userfaultfd.c
+++ b/mm/userfaultfd.c
@@ -1663,8 +1663,12 @@ static long move_pages_ptes(struct mm_struct *mm, pmd_t *dst_pmd, pmd_t *src_pmd
pte_unmap(dst_pte);
src_pte = dst_pte = NULL;
ret = split_folio(src_folio);
- if (ret)
+ if (ret) {
+ /* do not retry, extra refs may be held forever */
+ if (ret == -EAGAIN)
+ ret = -EBUSY;
goto out;
+ }
/* have to reacquire the folio after it got split */
folio_unlock(src_folio);
folio_put(src_folio);
--
2.55.0