Re: [PATCH] mm: Add new vma flag VM_LOCAL_CPU

[Christopher Lameter]

On Tue, 15 May 2018, Boaz Harrosh wrote:

> > I don't think page tables work the way you think they work.
> >
> > +               err = vm_insert_pfn_prot(zt->vma, zt_addr, pfn, prot);
> >
> > That doesn't just insert it into the local CPU's page table.  Any CPU
> > which directly accesses or even prefetches that address will also get
> > the translation into its cache.
> >
>
> Yes I know, but that is exactly the point of this flag. I know that this
> address is only ever accessed from a single core. Because it is an mmap (vma)
> of an O_TMPFILE-exclusive file created in a core-pinned thread and I allow
> only that thread any kind of access to this vma. Both the filehandle and the
> mmaped pointer are kept on the thread stack and have no access from outside.
>
> So the all point of this flag is the kernel driver telling mm that this
> address is enforced to only be accessed from one core-pinned thread.

But there are no provisions for probhiting accesses from other cores?

This means that a casual accidental write from a thread executing on
another core can lead to arbitrary memory corruption because the cache
flushing has been bypassed.