Re: [PATCH] x86/mm: remove freed init memory from kmemleak in free_init_pages()
From: Borislav Petkov
Date: Wed Jul 22 2026 - 11:15:28 EST
On Thu, Jul 09, 2026 at 08:41:34PM +0800, jiang.kun2@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> From: Jiang Kun <jiang.kun2@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> free_init_pages() already informs kmemleak when init memory is unmapped
> under debug_pagealloc_enabled(), but the normal free path only releases
> the pages through free_reserved_area() without removing the range from
> kmemleak.
>
> This can leave stale kmemleak objects for boot-time init memory such as
> initrd/initramfs buffers. Once the freed range is later reused, kmemleak
> may detect overlapping objects and report:
>
> kmemleak: Cannot insert ... into the object search tree (overlaps existing)
>
> followed by disabling the leak detector.
>
> Make both paths consistent by calling kmemleak_free_part() before
> freeing the range in the normal path as well.
>
> This matches the existing debug_pagealloc behavior and ensures that
> freed init memory is removed from kmemleak before being reused.
>
> Signed-off-by: Jiang Kun <jiang.kun2@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> arch/x86/mm/init.c | 1 +
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>
> diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/init.c b/arch/x86/mm/init.c
> index fb67217fddcd..3bed63ec1568 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/mm/init.c
> +++ b/arch/x86/mm/init.c
> @@ -933,6 +933,7 @@ void free_init_pages(const char *what, unsigned long begin, unsigned long end)
> set_memory_nx(begin, (end - begin) >> PAGE_SHIFT);
> set_memory_rw(begin, (end - begin) >> PAGE_SHIFT);
>
> + kmemleak_free_part((void *)begin, end - begin);
> free_reserved_area((void *)begin, (void *)end,
> POISON_FREE_INITMEM, what);
> }
How about you do not duplicate that call but make it unconditional, regardless
of the if-else?
--
Regards/Gruss,
Boris.
https://people.kernel.org/tglx/notes-about-netiquette