Thread (38 messages) 38 messages, 3 authors, 2026-01-27

Re: [PATCH v2 01/10] arm64: Move the zero page to rodata

From: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Date: 2026-01-27 09:34:17
Also in: linux-hardening, lkml

On 26/01/2026 09:26, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
From: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>

The zero page should contain only zero bytes, and so mapping it
read-write is unnecessary. Combine it with reserved_pg_dir, which lives
in the read-only region of the kernel, and already serves a similar
purpose.

Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>
---
 arch/arm64/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S | 1 +
 arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c             | 3 +--
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S b/arch/arm64/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
index ad6133b89e7a..b2a093f5b3fc 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
@@ -229,6 +229,7 @@ SECTIONS
 #endif
 
 	reserved_pg_dir = .;
+	empty_zero_page = .;
 	. += PAGE_SIZE;
 
 	swapper_pg_dir = .;
Isn't there a magic macro for getting from swapper to reserved? That will need
updating?

/*
 *  Open-coded (swapper_pg_dir - reserved_pg_dir) as this cannot be calculated
 *  until link time.
 */
#define RESERVED_SWAPPER_OFFSET	(PAGE_SIZE)

quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
index 9ae7ce00a7ef..c36422a3fae2 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
@@ -66,9 +66,8 @@ long __section(".mmuoff.data.write") __early_cpu_boot_status;
 
 /*
  * Empty_zero_page is a special page that is used for zero-initialized data
- * and COW.
+ * and COW. Defined in the linker script.
  */
-unsigned long empty_zero_page[PAGE_SIZE / sizeof(unsigned long)] __page_aligned_bss;
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(empty_zero_page);
What's the benefit of giving it it's own place in the linker script vs just
declaring it as const and having it placed in the rodata?

Thanks,
Ryan
 
 static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(swapper_pgdir_lock);
  
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