[PATCH v9 0/5] arm64/riscv: Add support for crashkernel CMA reservation
Sourabh Jain
sourabhjain at linux.ibm.com
Tue Mar 24 15:29:46 AEDT 2026
On 24/03/26 09:32, Jinjie Ruan wrote:
>
> On 2026/3/24 0:55, Andrew Morton wrote:
>> On Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:27:40 +0800 Jinjie Ruan <ruanjinjie at huawei.com> wrote:
>>
>>> The crash memory allocation, and the exclude of crashk_res, crashk_low_res
>>> and crashk_cma memory are almost identical across different architectures,
>>> This patch set handle them in crash core in a general way, which eliminate
>>> a lot of duplication code.
>>>
>>> And add support for crashkernel CMA reservation for arm64 and riscv.
>> Thanks. AI review has completed and it asks questions:
>> https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260323072745.2481719-1-ruanjinjie@huawei.com
> I believe it identified 4 valid issues:
>
> - The already discovered crashk_low_res not excluded bug in the existing
> RISC-V code.
>
> - An existing memory leak issue in the existing PowerPC code.
Yes and suggested approach to fix the issue looks good.
Which is basically replace return with goto out.
diff --git a/arch/powerpc/kexec/crash.c b/arch/powerpc/kexec/crash.c
index 898742a5205c..1426d2099bad 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/kexec/crash.c
+++ b/arch/powerpc/kexec/crash.c
@@ -440,7 +440,7 @@ static void update_crash_elfcorehdr(struct kimage
*image, struct memory_notify *
ret = get_crash_memory_ranges(&cmem);
if (ret) {
pr_err("Failed to get crash mem range\n");
- return;
+ goto out;
}
/*
Are you planning to handle this in this patch series? Or do you want me
to send a separate fix patch?
>
> - The ordering issue of adding CMA ranges to "linux,usable-memory-range".
>
> - An existing concurrency issue. A Concurrent memory hotplug may occur
> between reading memblock and attempting to fill cmem during kexec_load()
> for almost all existing architectures,I'm not sure if this is a
> practical issue in reality..
>
> Race Condition Scenario
>
> Timeline:
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> T1: kexec_load() syscall starts
> T2: kexec_trylock() acquires kexec_lock
> T3: crash_prepare_headers() is called
> T4: arch_get_system_nr_ranges() queries memblock → finds 100 memory ranges
> T5: cmem = alloc_cmem(100) allocates buffer for 100 ranges
> T6: [RACE WINDOW] Another process triggers memory hotplug
> T7: add_memory() → lock_device_hotplug() → memblock_add_node()
> T8: New memory region added to memblock
> T9: arch_crash_populate_cmem() iterates: now finds 102 ranges
> T10: cmem->ranges[100] → OUT OF BOUNDS WRITE!
> T11: cmem->ranges[101] → OUT OF BOUNDS WRITE!
> T12: Kernel crash or memory corruption
>
> Why This Happens
>
> 1. Different locks used:
> - kexec_load() uses kexec_trylock (atomic_t)
> - Memory hotplug uses device_hotplug_lock (mutex)
> 2. No synchronization between these two operations
> 3. Time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) issue:
> - Step T4-T5: We query the number of ranges and allocate buffer
> - Step T6-T9: Memory hotplug adds new ranges between query and
> population
>
>
>
> Any comments or suggestions on the following approach?
>
>
> int crash_prepare_headers(...)
> {
> unsigned int max_nr_ranges;
> struct crash_mem *cmem;
> int ret;
>
> lock_device_hotplug();
>
> max_nr_ranges = arch_get_system_nr_ranges();
> // ...
> ret = arch_crash_populate_cmem(cmem);
> // ...
>
> unlock_device_hotplug();
> return ret;
> }
>
>
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