Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH 1/3] mm: make persistent huge zero folio read-only

From: Dev Jain <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 May 2026 19:02:55 +0530

On 27/05/26 9:26 am, Xueyuan chen wrote:
> From: Xueyuan Chen <[email-masked]>
> 
> The huge zero folio is shared globally, and its contents should never
> change after initialization. As Jann Horn pointed out[1], the kernel has
> had bugs, including security bugs, where read-only pages were later written
> to. If the huge zero folio is read-only in the direct map, such writes
> fault instead of silently corrupting shared zero contents.
> 
> For the persistent huge zero folio, set this up once after the folio is
> allocated at boot.
> 
> The permission change is best-effort. If the architecture cannot safely
> make the direct map read-only, keep using the writable persistent huge zero
> folio.
> 
> While at it, mark the huge_zero_folio pointer itself __ro_after_init.
> READONLY_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO depends on PERSISTENT_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO, so the
> pointer is initialized during boot and never replaced.
> 
> This was inspired by Jann Horn's read-only zero page work[1] and follow-up
> discussion[2] with Yang Shi.
> 
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/[email-masked]/
> [2] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/CAHbLzkrXXe7r3n3jXgDKtwZhRqj=[email-masked]/
> 
> Co-developed-by: Lance Yang <[email-masked]>
> Signed-off-by: Lance Yang <[email-masked]>
> Signed-off-by: Xueyuan Chen <[email-masked]>
> ---
>  include/linux/huge_mm.h |  5 +++++
>  mm/Kconfig              | 17 +++++++++++++++++
>  mm/huge_memory.c        | 25 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-
>  3 files changed, 46 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/include/linux/huge_mm.h b/include/linux/huge_mm.h
> index edece3e26985..45d1352619d1 100644
> --- a/include/linux/huge_mm.h
> +++ b/include/linux/huge_mm.h
> @@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
>  #include <linux/mm_types.h>
>  
>  #include <linux/fs.h> /* only for vma_is_dax() */
> +#include <linux/init.h>
>  #include <linux/kobject.h>
>  
>  vm_fault_t do_huge_pmd_anonymous_page(struct vm_fault *vmf);
> @@ -554,6 +555,10 @@ static inline bool is_huge_zero_pmd(pmd_t pmd)
>  struct folio *mm_get_huge_zero_folio(struct mm_struct *mm);
>  void mm_put_huge_zero_folio(struct mm_struct *mm);
>  
> +#ifdef CONFIG_READONLY_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO
> +bool __init arch_make_huge_zero_folio_readonly(struct folio *folio);
> +#endif
> +
>  static inline struct folio *get_persistent_huge_zero_folio(void)
>  {
>  	if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_PERSISTENT_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO))
> diff --git a/mm/Kconfig b/mm/Kconfig
> index 776b67c66e82..f31200816646 100644
> --- a/mm/Kconfig
> +++ b/mm/Kconfig
> @@ -787,6 +787,23 @@ config PERSISTENT_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO
>  	  Say Y if your system has lots of memory. Say N if you are
>  	  memory constrained.
>  
> +config ARCH_HAS_READONLY_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO
> +	bool
> +
> +config READONLY_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO
> +	bool "Map the huge zero folio read-only in the direct map"
> +	depends on PERSISTENT_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO
> +	depends on ARCH_HAS_READONLY_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO
> +	help
> +	  The persistent huge zero folio is shared globally, and nothing
> +	  should ever change its contents after initialization.
> +
> +	  When supported, mark the folio read-only in the direct map so such
> +	  writes trigger a fault instead of silently corrupting the zero contents.
> +
> +	  If the permission change is not supported, the kernel keeps using
> +	  the writable persistent huge zero folio.
> +
>  config MM_ID
>  	def_bool n
>  
> diff --git a/mm/huge_memory.c b/mm/huge_memory.c
> index bf9b480bb3b0..c568755dd58e 100644
> --- a/mm/huge_memory.c
> +++ b/mm/huge_memory.c
> @@ -75,7 +75,11 @@ static unsigned long deferred_split_scan(struct shrinker *shrink,
>  static bool split_underused_thp = true;
>  
>  static atomic_t huge_zero_refcount;
> +#ifdef CONFIG_READONLY_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO
> +struct folio *huge_zero_folio __ro_after_init;

Can we guard this with CONFIG_PERSISTENT_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO? Since
in that case too the pointer is never written after init.

> +#else
>  struct folio *huge_zero_folio __read_mostly;
> +#endif
>  unsigned long huge_zero_pfn __read_mostly = ~0UL;
>  unsigned long huge_anon_orders_always __read_mostly;
>  unsigned long huge_anon_orders_madvise __read_mostly;
> @@ -305,6 +309,18 @@ static unsigned long shrink_huge_zero_folio_scan(struct shrinker *shrink,
>  	return 0;
>  }
>  
> +#ifdef CONFIG_READONLY_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO
> +static bool __init make_huge_zero_folio_readonly(void)
> +{
> +	return arch_make_huge_zero_folio_readonly(READ_ONCE(huge_zero_folio));

I think READ_ONCE is not required since no one is going to change the
pointer after allocation?

> +}
> +#else
> +static bool __init make_huge_zero_folio_readonly(void)
> +{
> +	return false;
> +}
> +#endif
> +
>  static struct shrinker *huge_zero_folio_shrinker;
>  
>  #ifdef CONFIG_SYSFS
> @@ -965,8 +981,15 @@ static int __init thp_shrinker_init(void)
>  		 * that get_huge_zero_folio() will most likely not fail as
>  		 * thp_shrinker_init() is invoked early on during boot.
>  		 */
> -		if (!get_huge_zero_folio())
> +		if (!get_huge_zero_folio()) {
>  			pr_warn("Allocating persistent huge zero folio failed\n");
> +			return 0;
> +		}
> +
> +		if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_READONLY_HUGE_ZERO_FOLIO) &&
> +		    !make_huge_zero_folio_readonly())
> +			pr_warn("Making persistent huge zero folio read-only failed\n");
> +
>  		return 0;
>  	}
>