Re: [PATCH RFC v3 2/4] mm/pgtable: Make pfn_pte() filter out huge page attributes
From: Jürgen Groß <jgross@suse.com>
Date: 2026-03-04 07:52:45
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linux-mm, lkml
On 28.02.26 08:09, Yin Tirui wrote:
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
A fundamental principle of page table type safety is that `pte_t` represents the lowest level page table entry and should never carry huge page attributes. Currently, passing a pgprot with huge page bits (e.g., extracted via pmd_pgprot()) into pfn_pte() creates a malformed PTE that retains the huge attribute, leading to the necessity of the ugly `pte_clrhuge()` anti-pattern. Enforce type safety by making `pfn_pte()` inherently filter out huge page attributes: - On x86: Strip the `_PAGE_PSE` bit. - On ARM64: Mask out the block descriptor bits in `PTE_TYPE_MASK` and enforce the `PTE_TYPE_PAGE` format. - On RISC-V: No changes required, as RISC-V leaf PMDs and PTEs share the exact same hardware format and do not use a distinct huge bit. Signed-off-by: Yin Tirui <redacted> --- arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h | 4 +++- arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h | 4 ++++ 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h index b3e58735c49b..f2a7a40106d2 100644 --- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h +++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h@@ -141,7 +141,9 @@ static inline pteval_t __phys_to_pte_val(phys_addr_t phys) #define pte_pfn(pte) (__pte_to_phys(pte) >> PAGE_SHIFT) #define pfn_pte(pfn,prot) \ - __pte(__phys_to_pte_val((phys_addr_t)(pfn) << PAGE_SHIFT) | pgprot_val(prot)) + __pte(__phys_to_pte_val((phys_addr_t)(pfn) << PAGE_SHIFT) | \ + ((pgprot_val(prot) & ~(PTE_TYPE_MASK & ~PTE_VALID)) | \ + (PTE_TYPE_PAGE & ~PTE_VALID))) #define pte_none(pte) (!pte_val(pte)) #define pte_page(pte) (pfn_to_page(pte_pfn(pte)))diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h index 1662c5a8f445..a4dbd81d42bf 100644 --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h@@ -738,6 +738,10 @@ static inline pgprotval_t check_pgprot(pgprot_t pgprot) static inline pte_t pfn_pte(unsigned long page_nr, pgprot_t pgprot) { phys_addr_t pfn = (phys_addr_t)page_nr << PAGE_SHIFT; + + /* Filter out _PAGE_PSE to ensure PTEs never carry the huge page bit */ + pgprot = __pgprot(pgprot_val(pgprot) & ~_PAGE_PSE);
Is it really a good idea to silently drop the bit? Today it can either be used for a large page (which should be a pmd, of course), or - much worse - you'd strip the _PAGE_PAT bit, which is at the same position in PTEs. So basically you are removing the ability to use some cache modes. NACK! Juergen
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