[PATCH] arm64: pageattr: Explicitly bail out when changing permissions for vmalloc_huge mappings

[Ryan Roberts]

Hi Yang,


On 09/10/2025 21:26, Yang Shi wrote:
> 
> 
> On 3/27/25 11:21 PM, Dev Jain wrote:
>> arm64 uses apply_to_page_range to change permissions for kernel VA mappings,
>> which does not support changing permissions for leaf mappings. This function
>> will change permissions until it encounters a leaf mapping, and will bail
>> out. To avoid this partial change, explicitly disallow changing permissions
>> for VM_ALLOW_HUGE_VMAP mappings.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Dev Jain <dev.jain at arm.com>
>> ---
>>   arch/arm64/mm/pageattr.c | 4 ++--
>>   1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/pageattr.c b/arch/arm64/mm/pageattr.c
>> index 39fd1f7ff02a..8337c88eec69 100644
>> --- a/arch/arm64/mm/pageattr.c
>> +++ b/arch/arm64/mm/pageattr.c
>> @@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ static int change_memory_common(unsigned long addr, int
>> numpages,
>>        * we are operating on does not result in such splitting.
>>        *
>>        * Let's restrict ourselves to mappings created by vmalloc (or vmap).
>> -     * Those are guaranteed to consist entirely of page mappings, and
>> +     * Disallow VM_ALLOW_HUGE_VMAP vmalloc mappings so that
>>        * splitting is never needed.
>>        *
>>        * So check whether the [addr, addr + size) interval is entirely
>> @@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ static int change_memory_common(unsigned long addr, int
>> numpages,
>>       area = find_vm_area((void *)addr);
>>       if (!area ||
>>           end > (unsigned long)kasan_reset_tag(area->addr) + area->size ||
>> -        !(area->flags & VM_ALLOC))
>> +        ((area->flags & (VM_ALLOC | VM_ALLOW_HUGE_VMAP)) != VM_ALLOC))
>>           return -EINVAL;
> 
> I happened to find this patch when I was looking into fixing "splitting is never
> needed" comment to reflect the latest change with BBML2_NOABORT and tried to
> relax this restriction. I agree with the justification for this patch to make
> the code more robust for permission update on partial range. But the following
> linear mapping permission update code seems still assume partial range update
> never happens:
> 
> for (i = 0; i < area->nr_pages; i++) {
> 
> It iterates all pages for this vm area from the first page then update their
> permissions. So I think we should do the below to make it more robust to partial
> range update like this patch did:

Ahh so the issue is that [addr, addr + numpages * PAGE_SIZE) may only cover a
portion of the vm area? But the current code updates the permissions for the
whole vm area? Ouch...

> 
> --- a/arch/arm64/mm/pageattr.c
> +++ b/arch/arm64/mm/pageattr.c
> @@ -185,8 +185,9 @@ static int change_memory_common(unsigned long addr, int
> numpages,
>          */
>         if (rodata_full && (pgprot_val(set_mask) == PTE_RDONLY ||
>                             pgprot_val(clear_mask) == PTE_RDONLY)) {
> -               for (i = 0; i < area->nr_pages; i++) {
> -  __change_memory_common((u64)page_address(area->pages[i]),
> +               unsigned long idx = (start - (unsigned long)area->addr) >>
> PAGE_SHIFT;
> +               for (i = 0; i < numpages; i++) {
> +  __change_memory_common((u64)page_address(area->pages[idx++]),
>                                                PAGE_SIZE, set_mask, clear_mask);
>                 }
>         }
> 
> Just build tested. Does it look reasonable?

Yes that looks correct to me! Will you submit a patch?

Thanks,
Ryan

> 
> Thanks,
> Yang
> 
> 
>>         if (!numpages)
>