slab: prevent infinite loop in kmalloc_nolock() with debugging
authorVlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Mon, 3 Nov 2025 12:24:15 +0000 (13:24 +0100)
committerVlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Thu, 6 Nov 2025 07:13:12 +0000 (08:13 +0100)
commitc379b745e12a99f0a54bafaaf75fc710614511ce
treed7c58fd5e3635bb3ccdf3dd9cd2dfd326685407e
parent7f434e1d9a17ca5f567c9796c9c105a65c18db9a
slab: prevent infinite loop in kmalloc_nolock() with debugging

In review of a followup work, Harry noticed a potential infinite loop.
Upon closed inspection, it already exists for kmalloc_nolock() on a
cache with debugging enabled, since commit af92793e52c3 ("slab:
Introduce kmalloc_nolock() and kfree_nolock().")

When alloc_single_from_new_slab() fails to trylock node list_lock, we
keep retrying to get partial slab or allocate a new slab. If we indeed
interrupted somebody holding the list_lock, the trylock fill fail
deterministically and we end up allocating and defer-freeing slabs
indefinitely with no progress.

To fix it, fail the allocation if spinning is not allowed. This is
acceptable in the restricted context of kmalloc_nolock(), especially
with debugging enabled.

Reported-by: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@oracle.com>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/aQLqZjjq1SPD3Fml@hyeyoo/
Fixes: af92793e52c3 ("slab: Introduce kmalloc_nolock() and kfree_nolock().")
Acked-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@oracle.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251103-fix-nolock-loop-v1-1-6e2b3e82b9da@suse.cz
Signed-off-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
mm/slub.c