[PATCH] mm/hugetlb: fix hugetlb cgroup rsvd charge/uncharge mismatch

From: Deepanshu Kartikey

Date: Sat Mar 28 2026 - 02:55:53 EST


In alloc_hugetlb_folio(), a single h_cg pointer is used for both
the rsvd and non-rsvd hugetlb cgroup charges. When map_chg is set,
hugetlb_cgroup_charge_cgroup_rsvd() stores the charged cgroup in
h_cg, but the immediately following hugetlb_cgroup_charge_cgroup()
overwrites h_cg with the non-rsvd cgroup pointer.

As a result, hugetlb_cgroup_commit_charge_rsvd() stores the wrong
(non-rsvd) cgroup pointer into the folio's rsvd slot.

When the folio is later freed, free_huge_folio() unconditionally
calls both hugetlb_cgroup_uncharge_folio() and
hugetlb_cgroup_uncharge_folio_rsvd(). The rsvd uncharge reads back
the wrong cgroup from the folio and decrements a counter that was
never charged for that cgroup, causing a page_counter underflow:

page_counter underflow: -512 nr_pages=512
WARNING: mm/page_counter.c:61 at page_counter_cancel

Fix this by introducing a separate h_cg_rsvd pointer exclusively
for the rsvd charge path, keeping the rsvd and non-rsvd charges
fully independent through their charge, commit, and error uncharge
paths.

Fixes: 08cf9faf7558 ("hugetlb_cgroup: support noreserve mappings")
Reported-by: syzbot+226c1f947186f8fef796@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=226c1f947186f8fef796
Signed-off-by: Deepanshu Kartikey <kartikey406@xxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/hugetlb.c | 7 ++++---
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/hugetlb.c b/mm/hugetlb.c
index 327eaa4074d3..5be36a888e70 100644
--- a/mm/hugetlb.c
+++ b/mm/hugetlb.c
@@ -2915,6 +2915,7 @@ struct folio *alloc_hugetlb_folio(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
map_chg_state map_chg;
int ret, idx;
struct hugetlb_cgroup *h_cg = NULL;
+ struct hugetlb_cgroup *h_cg_rsvd = NULL;
gfp_t gfp = htlb_alloc_mask(h) | __GFP_RETRY_MAYFAIL;

idx = hstate_index(h);
@@ -2965,7 +2966,7 @@ struct folio *alloc_hugetlb_folio(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
*/
if (map_chg) {
ret = hugetlb_cgroup_charge_cgroup_rsvd(
- idx, pages_per_huge_page(h), &h_cg);
+ idx, pages_per_huge_page(h), &h_cg_rsvd);
if (ret)
goto out_subpool_put;
}
@@ -3007,7 +3008,7 @@ struct folio *alloc_hugetlb_folio(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
*/
if (map_chg) {
hugetlb_cgroup_commit_charge_rsvd(idx, pages_per_huge_page(h),
- h_cg, folio);
+ h_cg_rsvd, folio);
}

spin_unlock_irq(&hugetlb_lock);
@@ -3059,7 +3060,7 @@ struct folio *alloc_hugetlb_folio(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
out_uncharge_cgroup_reservation:
if (map_chg)
hugetlb_cgroup_uncharge_cgroup_rsvd(idx, pages_per_huge_page(h),
- h_cg);
+ h_cg_rsvd);
out_subpool_put:
/*
* put page to subpool iff the quota of subpool's rsv_hpages is used
--
2.43.0