[PATCH v4 2/9] mm: add atomic VMA flags and set VM_MAYBE_GUARD as such

Lorenzo Stoakes posted 9 patches 1 week, 6 days ago
[PATCH v4 2/9] mm: add atomic VMA flags and set VM_MAYBE_GUARD as such
Posted by Lorenzo Stoakes 1 week, 6 days ago
This patch adds the ability to atomically set VMA flags with only the mmap
read/VMA read lock held.

As this could be hugely problematic for VMA flags in general given that
all other accesses are non-atomic and serialised by the mmap/VMA locks, we
implement this with a strict allow-list - that is, only designated flags
are allowed to do this.

We make VM_MAYBE_GUARD one of these flags.

Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
Reviewed-by: Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>
Reviewed-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
---
 include/linux/mm.h | 44 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 44 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/mm.h b/include/linux/mm.h
index 36b9418c00fc..03776aab3837 100644
--- a/include/linux/mm.h
+++ b/include/linux/mm.h
@@ -518,6 +518,9 @@ extern unsigned int kobjsize(const void *objp);
 /* This mask represents all the VMA flag bits used by mlock */
 #define VM_LOCKED_MASK	(VM_LOCKED | VM_LOCKONFAULT)
 
+/* These flags can be updated atomically via VMA/mmap read lock. */
+#define VM_ATOMIC_SET_ALLOWED VM_MAYBE_GUARD
+
 /* Arch-specific flags to clear when updating VM flags on protection change */
 #ifndef VM_ARCH_CLEAR
 # define VM_ARCH_CLEAR	VM_NONE
@@ -860,6 +863,47 @@ static inline void vm_flags_mod(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 	__vm_flags_mod(vma, set, clear);
 }
 
+static inline bool __vma_flag_atomic_valid(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
+				       int bit)
+{
+	const vm_flags_t mask = BIT(bit);
+
+	/* Only specific flags are permitted */
+	if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!(mask & VM_ATOMIC_SET_ALLOWED)))
+		return false;
+
+	return true;
+}
+
+/*
+ * Set VMA flag atomically. Requires only VMA/mmap read lock. Only specific
+ * valid flags are allowed to do this.
+ */
+static inline void vma_flag_set_atomic(struct vm_area_struct *vma, int bit)
+{
+	/* mmap read lock/VMA read lock must be held. */
+	if (!rwsem_is_locked(&vma->vm_mm->mmap_lock))
+		vma_assert_locked(vma);
+
+	if (__vma_flag_atomic_valid(vma, bit))
+		set_bit(bit, &ACCESS_PRIVATE(vma, __vm_flags));
+}
+
+/*
+ * Test for VMA flag atomically. Requires no locks. Only specific valid flags
+ * are allowed to do this.
+ *
+ * This is necessarily racey, so callers must ensure that serialisation is
+ * achieved through some other means, or that races are permissible.
+ */
+static inline bool vma_flag_test_atomic(struct vm_area_struct *vma, int bit)
+{
+	if (__vma_flag_atomic_valid(vma, bit))
+		return test_bit(bit, &vma->vm_flags);
+
+	return false;
+}
+
 static inline void vma_set_anonymous(struct vm_area_struct *vma)
 {
 	vma->vm_ops = NULL;
-- 
2.51.2
Re: [PATCH v4 2/9] mm: add atomic VMA flags and set VM_MAYBE_GUARD as such
Posted by Lance Yang 1 week, 4 days ago

On 2025/11/18 18:17, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote:
> This patch adds the ability to atomically set VMA flags with only the mmap
> read/VMA read lock held.
> 
> As this could be hugely problematic for VMA flags in general given that
> all other accesses are non-atomic and serialised by the mmap/VMA locks, we
> implement this with a strict allow-list - that is, only designated flags
> are allowed to do this.
> 
> We make VM_MAYBE_GUARD one of these flags.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
> Reviewed-by: Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>
> Reviewed-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
> ---

LGTM! Feel free to add:

Reviewed-by: Lance Yang <lance.yang@linux.dev>
Re: [PATCH v4 2/9] mm: add atomic VMA flags and set VM_MAYBE_GUARD as such
Posted by David Hildenbrand (Red Hat) 1 week, 5 days ago
On 18.11.25 11:17, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote:
> This patch adds the ability to atomically set VMA flags with only the mmap
> read/VMA read lock held.
> 
> As this could be hugely problematic for VMA flags in general given that
> all other accesses are non-atomic and serialised by the mmap/VMA locks, we
> implement this with a strict allow-list - that is, only designated flags
> are allowed to do this.
> 
> We make VM_MAYBE_GUARD one of these flags.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
> Reviewed-by: Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>
> Reviewed-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
> ---

IIUC all other flag modifications need a write lock, so this should just 
work.

Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Red Hat) <david@kernel.org>

-- 
Cheers

David