Re: [PATCH v2] mm/memory_hotplug: don't offline a hwpoisoned page still in the page cache
From: David Hildenbrand (Arm)
Date: Fri Nov 06 2026 - 15:59:09 EST
On 11/5/26 21:50, Mani Tofigh via B4 Relay wrote:
> From: Mani Tofigh <mt4022@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Memory offline skips hwpoisoned pages, assuming nobody uses them
> anymore. memory_failure() however sets PG_hwpoison before it takes the
> page, and taking it waits on pcp_batch_high_lock, which offline_pages()
> holds for the whole offline. A memory error during the offline thus
> marks the page and then waits while the offline skips it:
>
> Task A (offline_pages) Task B (memory_failure)
> zone_pcp_disable()
> TestSetPageHWPoison(P)
> get_hwpoison_page()
> /* waits for Task A */
> do_migrate_range()
> /* P is poisoned (not migrated) */
> test_pages_isolated()
> /* P is poisoned (accepted) */
> zone_pcp_enable()
> /* P is off the LRU (Ignored) */
>
> The block goes offline while the file still points to P, and the next
> walk of the file's pages (here drop_caches on ext4) crashes on a struct
> page of offlined memory:
>
> [ 11.710348] Memory failure: 0x24224: unhandlable page.
> [ 11.710372] Memory failure: 0x24224: recovery action for get hwpoison page: Ignored
> [ 11.765371] page:000000008c304eee is uninitialized and poisoned
> [ 11.765389] page dumped because: VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(page_ref_count(page) == 0)
> [ 11.765440] kernel BUG at include/linux/mm.h:1990!
> [ 11.765458] Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI
> [ 11.772284] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 85 Comm: mfoffline Tainted: G W 7.3.0-17087-gd865f2677c44 #1 PREEMPT
> [ 11.777970] RIP: 0010:find_lock_entries+0x8ee/0xad0
> [ 11.798761] Call Trace:
> [ 11.799297] <TASK>
> [ 11.803284] mapping_try_invalidate+0xfd/0x2c0
> [ 11.810571] drop_pagecache_sb+0x111/0x330
> [ 11.811572] __iterate_supers+0x2e2/0x370
> [ 11.815863] drop_caches_sysctl_handler+0x74/0xb0
> [ 11.816994] proc_sys_call_handler+0x2ec/0x440
> [ 11.821360] vfs_write+0x545/0x1250
> [ 11.825220] ksys_write+0xfa/0x200
> [ 11.830202] do_syscall_64+0xfb/0x590
> [ 11.832084] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
> [ 11.848423] </TASK>
>
> Once the memory is also removed it's a use-after-free of the memory map.
> tmpfs and the swap cache can end up the same way without the race.
> Since commit a76054266661 ("mm: shmem: don't truncate page if memory
> failure happens"), memory_failure() leaves a poisoned tmpfs folio in the
> page cache on purpose, and it does the same for a dirty folio in the
> swap cache.
>
> Treat a hwpoisoned page whose folio is still in a page cache or swap
> cache as busy in scan_movable_pages() and
> __test_page_isolated_in_pageblock() so that the offline fails and a
> waiting memory_failure() can go on. Also have do_migrate_range() leave
> such a folio alone instead of taking it off the LRU, so that
> memory_failure() can still remove it from the cache. A later offline
> succeeds once the page is out of the cache. With the fix, the offline
> fails with -EBUSY and the file doesn't point to offlined memory anymore.
>
> This bug was identified and confirmed with the help of a deterministic
> hypervisor currently under development. The C reproducer below however
> hits it within about 10s.
>
> Fixes: b023f46813cd ("memory-hotplug: skip HWPoisoned page when offlining pages")
> Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Mani Tofigh <mt4022@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> Changes in v2:
> - Leave a hwpoisoned folio that is still in a page cache or swap cache
> alone in do_migrate_range(), so that a waiting memory_failure() can
> still remove it from the cache (Sashiko)
> - Rebase onto current mm-new
> - Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20261101-memhp-hwpoison-pagecache-v1-1-ed8785ca44eb@xxxxxxxxxxxx/
>
> A pinned hwpoisoned page still isn't covered. I'll send the refcount
> check David suggested as a follow-up.
I didn't understand why just checking for the refcount is not sufficient. Can
you elaborate once more (and please not send a new revision before the
discussion is over).
Memory poisoning must grab a reference when setting the folio hwpoison. Any
other reference (pin, pagecache, swapcache, mapping) keeps it alive.
Why can't we build on and?
--
Cheers,
David