From: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> When clearing _PAGE_PRESENT on a huge page, we need to be careful to also clear _PAGE_PSE, otherwise it might still get confused for a valid large page table entry. We do that near the spot where we *set* _PAGE_PSE. That's fine, but it's unnecessary. pgprot_large_2_4k() already did it. BTW, I also noticed that pgprot_large_2_4k() and pgprot_4k_2_large() are not symmetric. pgprot_large_2_4k() clears _PAGE_PSE (because it is aliased to _PAGE_PAT) but pgprot_4k_2_large() does not put _PAGE_PSE back. Bummer. Also, add some comments and change "promote" to "move". "Promote" seems an odd word to move when we are logically moving a bit to a lower bit position. Also add an extra line return to make it clear to which line the comment applies. Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Hugh Dickins <hughd@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Juergen Gross <jgross@xxxxxxxx> Cc: x86@xxxxxxxxxx Cc: Nadav Amit <namit@xxxxxxxxxx> --- b/arch/x86/mm/pageattr.c | 9 ++++++--- 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff -puN arch/x86/mm/pageattr.c~kpti-undo-double-_PAGE_PSE-clear arch/x86/mm/pageattr.c --- a/arch/x86/mm/pageattr.c~kpti-undo-double-_PAGE_PSE-clear 2018-04-06 10:47:54.193796129 -0700 +++ b/arch/x86/mm/pageattr.c 2018-04-06 10:47:54.197796129 -0700 @@ -583,6 +583,7 @@ try_preserve_large_page(pte_t *kpte, uns * up accordingly. */ old_pte = *kpte; + /* Clear PSE (aka _PAGE_PAT) and move PAT bit to correct position */ req_prot = pgprot_large_2_4k(old_prot); pgprot_val(req_prot) &= ~pgprot_val(cpa->mask_clr); @@ -597,8 +598,6 @@ try_preserve_large_page(pte_t *kpte, uns req_prot = pgprot_clear_protnone_bits(req_prot); if (pgprot_val(req_prot) & _PAGE_PRESENT) pgprot_val(req_prot) |= _PAGE_PSE; - else - pgprot_val(req_prot) &= ~_PAGE_PSE; req_prot = canon_pgprot(req_prot); /* @@ -684,8 +683,12 @@ __split_large_page(struct cpa_data *cpa, switch (level) { case PG_LEVEL_2M: ref_prot = pmd_pgprot(*(pmd_t *)kpte); - /* clear PSE and promote PAT bit to correct position */ + /* + * Clear PSE (aka _PAGE_PAT) and move + * PAT bit to correct position. + */ ref_prot = pgprot_large_2_4k(ref_prot); + ref_pfn = pmd_pfn(*(pmd_t *)kpte); break; _