[RFC PATCH v2 0/4] arm64: mm: Map fixmap page tables read-only

Ard Biesheuvel ardb+git at google.com
Thu Aug 27 09:44:10 PDT 2026


From: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb at kernel.org>

This v2 now covers intermediate level page tables as well as the PTE
level page table for the fixmap. The latter is a special case, as it

a) is only accessed via the kernel image's mapping, and never via the
   linear map (except for ptdump etc)

b) must be accessible via a read-write mapping, as all manipulation of
   read-only page table descriptors relies on the fixmap itself

and so it is treated separately. The intermediate page tables may be
shared with other mappings in the upper kernel/vmalloc region, so they
must be updatable using the ordinary APIs.

Build tested and boot tested on a Lenovo Yoga C630 using 16k pages.

v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260805104042.1107678-2-ardb+git@google.com/

Cc: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts at arm.com>
Cc: Anshuman Khandual <anshuman.khandual at arm.com>
Cc: Kevin Brodsky <kevin.brodsky at arm.com>
Cc: Liz Prucka <lizprucka at google.com>
Cc: Seth Jenkins <sethjenkins at google.com>
Cc: Kees Cook <kees at kernel.org>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh at google.com>
Cc: linux-hardening at vger.kernel.org

Ard Biesheuvel (4):
  arm64: mm: Map fixmap PTE tables r/o in the linear map
  arm64: mm: Use fault handler to permit swapper_pg_dir updates
  arm64: mm: Create r/o page table region that permits updates
  arm64: mm: Move fixmap intermediate page tables into .rodata

 arch/arm64/include/asm/fixmap.h  |  4 ++
 arch/arm64/include/asm/linkage.h |  1 +
 arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h | 55 ++++++++------------
 arch/arm64/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S  |  6 +++
 arch/arm64/mm/fixmap.c           | 12 +++--
 arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c              | 48 +++++++++++++----
 6 files changed, 78 insertions(+), 48 deletions(-)

-- 
2.55.0.887.g758fc8c411-goog




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