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Current Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/swap: fix race when skipping swapcache
When skipping swapcache for SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO, if two or more threads
swapin the same entry at the same time, they get different pages (A, B).
Before one thread (T0) finishes the swapin and installs page (A) to the
PTE, another thread (T1) could finish swapin of page (B), swap_free the
entry, then swap out the possibly modified page reusing the same entry.
It breaks the pte_same check in (T0) because PTE value is unchanged,
causing ABA problem. Thread (T0) will install a stalled page (A) into the
PTE and cause data corruption.
One possible callstack is like this:
CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
do_swap_page() do_swap_page() with same entry
<direct swapin path> <direct swapin path>
<alloc page A> <alloc page B>
swap_read_folio() <- read to page A swap_read_folio() <- read to page B
<slow on later locks or interrupt> <finished swapin first>
... set_pte_at()
swap_free() <- entry is free
<write to page B, now page A stalled>
<swap out page B to same swap entry>
pte_same() <- Check pass, PTE seems
unchanged, but page A
is stalled!
swap_free() <- page B content lost!
set_pte_at() <- staled page A installed!
And besides, for ZRAM, swap_free() allows the swap device to discard the
entry content, so even if page (B) is not modified, if swap_read_folio()
on CPU0 happens later than swap_free() on CPU1, it may also cause data
loss.
To fix this, reuse swapcache_prepare which will pin the swap entry using
the cache flag, and allow only one thread to swap it in, also prevent any
parallel code from putting the entry in the cache. Release the pin after
PT unlocked.
Racers just loop and wait since it's a rare and very short event. A
schedule_timeout_uninterruptible(1) call is added to avoid repeated page
faults wasting too much CPU, causing livelock or adding too much noise to
perf statistics. A similar livelock issue was described in commit
029c4628b2eb ("mm: swap: get rid of livelock in swapin readahead")
Reproducer:
This race issue can be triggered easily using a well constructed
reproducer and patched brd (with a delay in read path) [1]:
With latest 6.8 mainline, race caused data loss can be observed easily:
$ gcc -g -lpthread test-thread-swap-race.c && ./a.out
Polulating 32MB of memory region...
Keep swapping out...
Starting round 0...
Spawning 65536 workers...
32746 workers spawned, wait for done...
Round 0: Error on 0x5aa00, expected 32746, got 32743, 3 data loss!
Round 0: Error on 0x395200, expected 32746, got 32743, 3 data loss!
Round 0: Error on 0x3fd000, expected 32746, got 32737, 9 data loss!
Round 0 Failed, 15 data loss!
This reproducer spawns multiple threads sharing the same memory region
using a small swap device. Every two threads updates mapped pages one by
one in opposite direction trying to create a race, with one dedicated
thread keep swapping out the data out using madvise.
The reproducer created a reproduce rate of about once every 5 minutes, so
the race should be totally possible in production.
After this patch, I ran the reproducer for over a few hundred rounds and
no data loss observed.
Performance overhead is minimal, microbenchmark swapin 10G from 32G
zram:
Before: 10934698 us
After: 11157121 us
Cached: 13155355 us (Dropping SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO flag)
[[email protected]: v4]
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/swap: fix race when skipping swapcache
When skipping swapcache for SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO, if two or more threads
swapin the same entry at the same time, they get different pages (A, B).
Before one thread (T0) finishes the swapin and installs page (A) to the
PTE, another thread (T1) could finish swapin of page (B), swap_free the
entry, then swap out the possibly modified page reusing the same entry.
It breaks the pte_same check in (T0) because PTE value is unchanged,
causing ABA problem. Thread (T0) will install a stalled page (A) into the
PTE and cause data corruption.
One possible callstack is like this:
CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
do_swap_page() do_swap_page() with same entry
<direct swapin path> <direct swapin path>
<alloc page A> <alloc page B>
swap_read_folio() <- read to page A swap_read_folio() <- read to page B
<slow on later locks or interrupt> <finished swapin first>
... set_pte_at()
swap_free() <- entry is free
<write to page B, now page A stalled>
<swap out page B to same swap entry>
pte_same() <- Check pass, PTE seems
unchanged, but page A
is stalled!
swap_free() <- page B content lost!
set_pte_at() <- staled page A installed!
And besides, for ZRAM, swap_free() allows the swap device to discard the
entry content, so even if page (B) is not modified, if swap_read_folio()
on CPU0 happens later than swap_free() on CPU1, it may also cause data
loss.
To fix this, reuse swapcache_prepare which will pin the swap entry using
the cache flag, and allow only one thread to swap it in, also prevent any
parallel code from putting the entry in the cache. Release the pin after
PT unlocked.
Racers just loop and wait since it's a rare and very short event. A
schedule_timeout_uninterruptible(1) call is added to avoid repeated page
faults wasting too much CPU, causing livelock or adding too much noise to
perf statistics. A similar livelock issue was described in commit
029c4628b2eb ("mm: swap: get rid of livelock in swapin readahead")
Reproducer:
This race issue can be triggered easily using a well constructed
reproducer and patched brd (with a delay in read path) [1]:
With latest 6.8 mainline, race caused data loss can be observed easily:
$ gcc -g -lpthread test-thread-swap-race.c && ./a.out
Polulating 32MB of memory region...
Keep swapping out...
Starting round 0...
Spawning 65536 workers...
32746 workers spawned, wait for done...
Round 0: Error on 0x5aa00, expected 32746, got 32743, 3 data loss!
Round 0: Error on 0x395200, expected 32746, got 32743, 3 data loss!
Round 0: Error on 0x3fd000, expected 32746, got 32737, 9 data loss!
Round 0 Failed, 15 data loss!
This reproducer spawns multiple threads sharing the same memory region
using a small swap device. Every two threads updates mapped pages one by
one in opposite direction trying to create a race, with one dedicated
thread keep swapping out the data out using madvise.
The reproducer created a reproduce rate of about once every 5 minutes, so
the race should be totally possible in production.
After this patch, I ran the reproducer for over a few hundred rounds and
no data loss observed.
Performance overhead is minimal, microbenchmark swapin 10G from 32G
zram:
Before: 10934698 us
After: 11157121 us
Cached: 13155355 us (Dropping SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO flag)
[[email protected]: v4]
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/[email protected]
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In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/swap: fix race when skipping swapcache
When skipping swapcache for SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO, if two or more threads
swapin the same entry at the same time, they get different pages (A, B).
Before one thread (T0) finishes the swapin and installs page (A) to the
PTE, another thread (T1) could finish swapin of page (B), swap_free the
entry, then swap out the possibly modified page reusing the same entry.
It breaks the pte_same check in (T0) because PTE value is unchanged,
causing ABA problem. Thread (T0) will install a stalled page (A) into the
PTE and cause data corruption.
One possible callstack is like this:
CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
do_swap_page() do_swap_page() with same entry
<direct swapin path> <direct swapin path>
<alloc page A> <alloc page B>
swap_read_folio() <- read to page A swap_read_folio() <- read to page B
<slow on later locks or interrupt> <finished swapin first>
... set_pte_at()
swap_free() <- entry is free
<write to page B, now page A stalled>
<swap out page B to same swap entry>
pte_same() <- Check pass, PTE seems
unchanged, but page A
is stalled!
swap_free() <- page B content lost!
set_pte_at() <- staled page A installed!
And besides, for ZRAM, swap_free() allows the swap device to discard the
entry content, so even if page (B) is not modified, if swap_read_folio()
on CPU0 happens later than swap_free() on CPU1, it may also cause data
loss.
To fix this, reuse swapcache_prepare which will pin the swap entry using
the cache flag, and allow only one thread to swap it in, also prevent any
parallel code from putting the entry in the cache. Release the pin after
PT unlocked.
Racers just loop and wait since it's a rare and very short event
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/swap: fix race when skipping swapcache
When skipping swapcache for SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO, if two or more threads
swapin the same entry at the same time, they get different pages (A, B).
Before one thread (T0) finishes the swapin and installs page (A) to the
PTE, another thread (T1) could finish swapin of page (B), swap_free the
entry, then swap out the possibly modified page reusing the same entry.
It breaks the pte_same check in (T0) because PTE value is unchanged,
causing ABA problem. Thread (T0) will install a stalled page (A) into the
PTE and cause data corruption.
One possible callstack is like this:
CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
do_swap_page() do_swap_page() with same entry
<direct swapin path> <direct swapin path>
<alloc page A> <alloc page B>
swap_read_folio() <- read to page A swap_read_folio() <- read to page B
<slow on later locks or interrupt> <finished swapin first>
... set_pte_at()
swap_free() <- entry is free
<write to page B, now page A stalled>
<swap out page B to same swap entry>
pte_same() <- Check pass, PTE seems
unchanged, but page A
is stalled!
swap_free() <- page B content lost!
set_pte_at() <- staled page A installed!
And besides, for ZRAM, swap_free() allows the swap device to discard the
entry content, so even if page (B) is not modified, if swap_read_folio()
on CPU0 happens later than swap_free() on CPU1, it may also cause data
loss.
To fix this, reuse swapcache_prepare which will pin the swap entry using
the cache flag, and allow only one thread to swap it in, also prevent any
parallel code from putting the entry in the cache. Release the pin after
PT unlocked.
Racers just loop and wait since it's a rare and very short event
Initial Analysis by NIST3/17/2025 12:56:49 PM
Action
Type
Old Value
New Value
Added
CVSS V3.1
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Added
CWE
CWE-787
Added
CPE Configuration
OR
*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.8:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.8:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.8:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.8:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.8:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions from (including) 6.7 up to (excluding) 6.7.7
*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions from (including) 4.15 up to (excluding) 6.1.80
*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions from (including) 6.2 up to (excluding) 6.6.19
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/swap: fix race when skipping swapcache
When skipping swapcache for SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO, if two or more threads
swapin the same entry at the same time, they get different pages (A, B).
Before one thread (T0) finishes the swapin and installs page (A) to the
PTE, another thread (T1) could finish swapin of page (B), swap_free the
entry, then swap out the possibly modified page reusing the same entry.
It breaks the pte_same check in (T0) because PTE value is unchanged,
causing ABA problem. Thread (T0) will install a stalled page (A) into the
PTE and cause data corruption.
One possible callstack is like this:
CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
do_swap_page() do_swap_page() with same entry
<direct swapin path> <direct swapin path>
<alloc page A> <alloc page B>
swap_read_folio() <- read to page A swap_read_folio() <- read to page B
<slow on later locks or interrupt> <finished swapin first>
... set_pte_at()
swap_free() <- entry is free
<write to page B, now page A stalled>
<swap out page B to same swap entry>
pte_same() <- Check pass, PTE seems
unchanged, but page A
is stalled!
swap_free() <- page B content lost!
set_pte_at() <- staled page A installed!
And besides, for ZRAM, swap_free() allows the swap device to discard the
entry content, so even if page (B) is not modified, if swap_read_folio()
on CPU0 happens later than swap_free() on CPU1, it may also cause data
loss.
To fix this, reuse swapcache_prepare which will pin the swap entry using
the cache flag, and allow only one thread to swap it in, also prevent any
parallel code from putting the entry in the cache. Release the pin after
PT unlocked.
Racers just loop and wait since it's a rare and very short event
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