[PATCH v5 2/3] mm: khugepaged: fix folio is used after pte_unmap_unlock()

From: Vernon Yang

Date: Tue Sep 08 2026 - 23:00:05 EST


From: Vernon Yang <yanglincheng@xxxxxxxxxx>

After the page table lock has dropped, the folio can be freed
concurrently. The trace_mm_khugepaged_scan_pmd() is left with
a dangling folio pointer.

So using the folio_pfn() before dropping the page table lock, closing
use-after-free window.

And other pre-existing bug, When the `for (i = 0; i < HPAGE_PMD_NR; i++)`
iteration to terminate and the folio operation preceding is normal, but
pfn will be incorrect. so we really only trace the PFN if it really was
problematic.

Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@xxxxxxxxxx>
Fixes: 7d2eba0557c1 ("mm: add tracepoint for scanning pages")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Vernon Yang <yanglincheng@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
include/trace/events/huge_memory.h | 6 +++---
mm/khugepaged.c | 10 +++++++++-
2 files changed, 12 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/trace/events/huge_memory.h b/include/trace/events/huge_memory.h
index 7b526528f85b..fa828967e1fb 100644
--- a/include/trace/events/huge_memory.h
+++ b/include/trace/events/huge_memory.h
@@ -55,10 +55,10 @@ SCAN_STATUS

TRACE_EVENT(mm_khugepaged_scan_pmd,

- TP_PROTO(struct mm_struct *mm, struct folio *folio,
+ TP_PROTO(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long pfn,
int referenced, int none_or_zero, int status, int unmapped),

- TP_ARGS(mm, folio, referenced, none_or_zero, status, unmapped),
+ TP_ARGS(mm, pfn, referenced, none_or_zero, status, unmapped),

TP_STRUCT__entry(
__field(struct mm_struct *, mm)
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ TRACE_EVENT(mm_khugepaged_scan_pmd,

TP_fast_assign(
__entry->mm = mm;
- __entry->pfn = folio ? folio_pfn(folio) : -1;
+ __entry->pfn = pfn;
__entry->referenced = referenced;
__entry->none_or_zero = none_or_zero;
__entry->status = status;
diff --git a/mm/khugepaged.c b/mm/khugepaged.c
index 6ee0ad13a31f..b352c1330f8e 100644
--- a/mm/khugepaged.c
+++ b/mm/khugepaged.c
@@ -1612,6 +1612,7 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_scan_pmd(struct mm_struct *mm,
enum scan_result result = SCAN_FAIL;
struct page *page = NULL;
struct folio *folio = NULL;
+ unsigned long failed_pfn = -1;
unsigned long addr;
unsigned long enabled_orders;
spinlock_t *ptl;
@@ -1706,11 +1707,13 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_scan_pmd(struct mm_struct *mm,
if (cc->is_khugepaged && !(vma->vm_flags & VM_DROPPABLE) &&
folio_test_lazyfree(folio) && !pte_dirty(pteval)) {
result = SCAN_PAGE_LAZYFREE;
+ failed_pfn = folio_pfn(folio);
goto out_unmap;
}

if (!folio_test_anon(folio)) {
result = SCAN_PAGE_ANON;
+ failed_pfn = folio_pfn(folio);
goto out_unmap;
}

@@ -1721,6 +1724,7 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_scan_pmd(struct mm_struct *mm,
if (folio_maybe_mapped_shared(folio)) {
if (++shared > max_ptes_shared) {
result = SCAN_EXCEED_SHARED_PTE;
+ failed_pfn = folio_pfn(folio);
count_collapse_event(HPAGE_PMD_ORDER, THP_SCAN_EXCEED_SHARED_PTE,
MTHP_STAT_COLLAPSE_EXCEED_SHARED);
goto out_unmap;
@@ -1738,15 +1742,18 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_scan_pmd(struct mm_struct *mm,
node = folio_nid(folio);
if (collapse_scan_abort(node, cc)) {
result = SCAN_SCAN_ABORT;
+ failed_pfn = folio_pfn(folio);
goto out_unmap;
}
cc->node_load[node]++;
if (!folio_test_lru(folio)) {
result = SCAN_PAGE_LRU;
+ failed_pfn = folio_pfn(folio);
goto out_unmap;
}
if (folio_test_locked(folio)) {
result = SCAN_PAGE_LOCK;
+ failed_pfn = folio_pfn(folio);
goto out_unmap;
}

@@ -1759,6 +1766,7 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_scan_pmd(struct mm_struct *mm,
*/
if (folio_expected_ref_count(folio) != folio_ref_count(folio)) {
result = SCAN_PAGE_COUNT;
+ failed_pfn = folio_pfn(folio);
goto out_unmap;
}

@@ -1784,7 +1792,7 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_scan_pmd(struct mm_struct *mm,
*lock_dropped = true;
}
out:
- trace_mm_khugepaged_scan_pmd(mm, folio, referenced,
+ trace_mm_khugepaged_scan_pmd(mm, failed_pfn, referenced,
none_or_zero, result, unmapped);
return result;
}
--
2.53.0