Protectable Memory "Pmalloc" Support For The Linux Kernel Updated Again

It's been a while since last hearing of Huawei's efforts around protectable memory support for the Linux kernel that seems to provide safe read-only protection for dynamically allocated data. The eleventh version of these "pmalloc" patches are now available.

Igor Stoppa sent out "v11" of these patches implementing protectable memory support for the Linux kernel. Memory marked as protected via pmalloc is forever read-only and can never be made read/write again as part of its design but can be released.

The Linux kernel has various means of statically-allocated read-only protection while this protectable memory allocator (pmalloc) is for dealing with dynamic allocations in another step towards preventing arbitrary code execution.

This documentation patch describes pmalloc in further detail. No word yet from upstream kernel developers if pmalloc is deemed ready yet for the mainline tree. The latest patches in full here.