Re: [PATCH] dma: swiotlb: add KMSAN annotations to swiotlb_bounce()

From: Marek Szyprowski

Date: Fri Mar 20 2026 - 06:31:31 EST


On 15.03.2026 09:27, Shigeru Yoshida wrote:
> When a device performs DMA to a bounce buffer, KMSAN is unaware of
> the write and does not mark the data as initialized. When
> swiotlb_bounce() later copies the bounce buffer back to the original
> buffer, memcpy propagates the uninitialized shadow to the original
> buffer, causing false positive uninit-value reports.
>
> Fix this by calling kmsan_unpoison_memory() on the bounce buffer
> before copying it back in the DMA_FROM_DEVICE path, so that memcpy
> naturally propagates initialized shadow to the destination.
>
> Suggested-by: Alexander Potapenko <glider@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/CAG_fn=WUGta-paG1BgsGRoAR+fmuCgh3xo=R3XdzOt_-DqSdHw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
> Fixes: 7ade4f10779c ("dma: kmsan: unpoison DMA mappings")
> Signed-off-by: Shigeru Yoshida <syoshida@xxxxxxxxxx>

Applied to dma-mapping-fixes. Thanks!

> ---
> kernel/dma/swiotlb.c | 21 +++++++++++++++++++--
> 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/kernel/dma/swiotlb.c b/kernel/dma/swiotlb.c
> index d8e6f1d889d5..9fd73700ddcf 100644
> --- a/kernel/dma/swiotlb.c
> +++ b/kernel/dma/swiotlb.c
> @@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
> #include <linux/gfp.h>
> #include <linux/highmem.h>
> #include <linux/io.h>
> +#include <linux/kmsan-checks.h>
> #include <linux/iommu-helper.h>
> #include <linux/init.h>
> #include <linux/memblock.h>
> @@ -901,10 +902,19 @@ static void swiotlb_bounce(struct device *dev, phys_addr_t tlb_addr, size_t size
>
> local_irq_save(flags);
> page = pfn_to_page(pfn);
> - if (dir == DMA_TO_DEVICE)
> + if (dir == DMA_TO_DEVICE) {
> + /*
> + * Ideally, kmsan_check_highmem_page()
> + * could be used here to detect infoleaks,
> + * but callers may map uninitialized buffers
> + * that will be written by the device,
> + * causing false positives.
> + */
> memcpy_from_page(vaddr, page, offset, sz);
> - else
> + } else {
> + kmsan_unpoison_memory(vaddr, sz);
> memcpy_to_page(page, offset, vaddr, sz);
> + }
> local_irq_restore(flags);
>
> size -= sz;
> @@ -913,8 +923,15 @@ static void swiotlb_bounce(struct device *dev, phys_addr_t tlb_addr, size_t size
> offset = 0;
> }
> } else if (dir == DMA_TO_DEVICE) {
> + /*
> + * Ideally, kmsan_check_memory() could be used here to detect
> + * infoleaks (uninitialized data being sent to device), but
> + * callers may map uninitialized buffers that will be written
> + * by the device, causing false positives.
> + */
> memcpy(vaddr, phys_to_virt(orig_addr), size);
> } else {
> + kmsan_unpoison_memory(vaddr, size);
> memcpy(phys_to_virt(orig_addr), vaddr, size);
> }
> }

Best regards
--
Marek Szyprowski, PhD
Samsung R&D Institute Poland