[PATCH v2] mm/highmem: refuse to copy hwpoisoned folios in the !copy_mc fallbacks
From: Yuanhe Shu
Date: Wed Oct 28 2026 - 23:44:02 EST
The !copy_mc fallbacks of copy_mc_user_highpage() and
copy_mc_highpage() return 0 after a plain copy. With PG_hwpoison
set while the data stays readable, there is no fault to recover
from: the copy completes, the destination folio carries no poison
marker, and the poison is consumed silently.
Check the source page with is_page_hwpoison() in both fallbacks,
before and after the copy, and return PAGE_SIZE, the
not-copied-bytes convention of the real copy_mc paths, so the
callers take their existing error paths. On archs with copy_mc
this code does not compile.
Measured on arm64, where the fallback code compiles (10 rounds
each): COW copy throughput 1043.67 MB/s before and 1043.26 MB/s
after the patch, fork latency 348 vs 359 us, forced migration 57396
vs 57654 MB/s - all within run-to-run noise.
Suggested-by: "Huang, Ying" <ying.huang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Suggested-by: Kaitao Cheng <kaitao.cheng@xxxxxxxxx>
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Yuanhe Shu <xiangzao@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/877bjowf9i.fsf@DESKTOP-5N7EMDA/
---
Changes since v1:
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20261026025724.1430747-1-xiangzao@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
- Check before the copy as well, so data the flag already
condemns is not read (Huang Ying, David Hildenbrand).
- Use is_page_hwpoison() instead of folio_contain_hwpoisoned_page()
(sashiko review, Shivank Garg): the folio-level predicate misses a
poisoned tail page in the memory_failure() window, and refuses
clean siblings of a poisoned subpage.
include/linux/highmem.h | 12 ++++++++++++
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+)
diff --git a/include/linux/highmem.h b/include/linux/highmem.h
index d7aac9de1c8a..d0e33cacae90 100644
--- a/include/linux/highmem.h
+++ b/include/linux/highmem.h
@@ -473,13 +473,25 @@ static inline int copy_mc_highpage(struct page *to, struct page *from)
static inline int copy_mc_user_highpage(struct page *to, struct page *from,
unsigned long vaddr, struct vm_area_struct *vma)
{
+ /* Don't touch data that is already marked poisoned. */
+ if (is_page_hwpoison(from))
+ return PAGE_SIZE;
copy_user_highpage(to, from, vaddr, vma);
+ /* The flag can also land while the copy runs. */
+ if (is_page_hwpoison(from))
+ return PAGE_SIZE;
return 0;
}
static inline int copy_mc_highpage(struct page *to, struct page *from)
{
+ /* Don't touch data that is already marked poisoned. */
+ if (is_page_hwpoison(from))
+ return PAGE_SIZE;
copy_highpage(to, from);
+ /* The flag can also land while the copy runs. */
+ if (is_page_hwpoison(from))
+ return PAGE_SIZE;
return 0;
}
#endif
--
2.43.7