Re: [PATCH v2 1/1] mm: prevent poison consumption when splitting THP

From: Miaohe Lin

Date: Mon Oct 13 2025 - 22:42:49 EST


On 2025/10/11 15:55, Qiuxu Zhuo wrote:
> When performing memory error injection on a THP (Transparent Huge Page)
> mapped to userspace on an x86 server, the kernel panics with the following
> trace. The expected behavior is to terminate the affected process instead
> of panicking the kernel, as the x86 Machine Check code can recover from an
> in-userspace #MC.
>
> mce: [Hardware Error]: CPU 0: Machine Check Exception: f Bank 3: bd80000000070134
> mce: [Hardware Error]: RIP 10:<ffffffff8372f8bc> {memchr_inv+0x4c/0xf0}
> mce: [Hardware Error]: TSC afff7bbff88a ADDR 1d301b000 MISC 80 PPIN 1e741e77539027db
> mce: [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:d06d0 TIME 1758093249 SOCKET 0 APIC 0 microcode 80000320
> mce: [Hardware Error]: Run the above through 'mcelog --ascii'
> mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check: Data load in unrecoverable area of kernel
> Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal local machine check
>
> The root cause of this panic is that handling a memory failure triggered by
> an in-userspace #MC necessitates splitting the THP. The splitting process
> employs a mechanism, implemented in try_to_map_unused_to_zeropage(), which
> reads the sub-pages of the THP to identify zero-filled pages. However,
> reading the sub-pages results in a second in-kernel #MC, occurring before
> the initial memory_failure() completes, ultimately leading to a kernel
> panic. See the kernel panic call trace on the two #MCs.
>
> First Machine Check occurs // [1]
> memory_failure() // [2]
> try_to_split_thp_page()
> split_huge_page()
> split_huge_page_to_list_to_order()
> __folio_split() // [3]
> remap_page()
> remove_migration_ptes()
> remove_migration_pte()
> try_to_map_unused_to_zeropage() // [4]
> memchr_inv() // [5]
> Second Machine Check occurs // [6]
> Kernel panic
>
> [1] Triggered by accessing a hardware-poisoned THP in userspace, which is
> typically recoverable by terminating the affected process.
>
> [2] Call folio_set_has_hwpoisoned() before try_to_split_thp_page().
>
> [3] Pass the RMP_USE_SHARED_ZEROPAGE remap flag to remap_page().
>
> [4] Try to map the unused THP to zeropage.
>
> [5] Re-access sub-pages of the hw-poisoned THP in the kernel.
>
> [6] Triggered in-kernel, leading to a panic kernel.
>
> In Step[2], memory_failure() sets the poisoned flag on the sub-page of the
> THP by TestSetPageHWPoison() before calling try_to_split_thp_page().
>
> As suggested by David Hildenbrand, fix this panic by not accessing to the
> poisoned sub-page of the THP during zeropage identification, while
> continuing to scan unaffected sub-pages of the THP for possible zeropage
> mapping. This prevents a second in-kernel #MC that would cause kernel
> panic in Step[4].
>
> [ Credits to Andrew Zaborowski <andrew.zaborowski@xxxxxxxxx> for his
> original fix that prevents passing the RMP_USE_SHARED_ZEROPAGE flag
> to remap_page() in Step[3] if the THP has the has_hwpoisoned flag set,
> avoiding access to the entire THP for zero-page identification. ]
>
> Reported-by: Farrah Chen <farrah.chen@xxxxxxxxx>
> Suggested-by: David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Tested-by: Farrah Chen <farrah.chen@xxxxxxxxx>
> Tested-by: Qiuxu Zhuo <qiuxu.zhuo@xxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Qiuxu Zhuo <qiuxu.zhuo@xxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> v1 -> v2:
> - Apply David Hildenbrand's fix suggestion.
>
> - Update the commit message to reflect the new fix.
>
> - Add David Hildenbrand's "Suggested-by:" tag.
>
> - Remove Andrew Zaborowski's SoB but add credits to him in the commit message.
> [ I cannot reach him to get his SoB for the completely rewritten commit
> message and new fix approach. ]
>
> mm/huge_memory.c | 3 +++
> mm/migrate.c | 3 ++-
> 2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>

LGTM. Thanks for your fix.

Reviewed-by: Miaohe Lin <linmiaohe@xxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks.
.