mirror of https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Chris Down <chris@chrisdown.name>
To: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>, Harry Yoo <harry@kernel.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>, Christoph Lameter <cl@gentwo.org>,
	David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>,
	Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>,
	Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>, Marco Elver <elver@google.com>,
	GONG Ruiqi <gongruiqi@huaweicloud.com>,
	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
	linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-hardening@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	kernel-team@meta.com
Subject: [PATCH v2 2/6] mm/slab: Enable SLAB_FREELIST_RANDOM by default
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2026 14:07:55 +0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <6bdc161bd869ead04b3b9a651ef6a83882ecbea3.1793253633.git.chris@chrisdown.name> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <cover.1793253633.git.chris@chrisdown.name>

SLAB_FREELIST_RANDOM randomises the order in which the objects in a new
slab are handed out. Like SLAB_FREELIST_HARDENED, most distros already
enable it, and its cost is only paid when a new slab is set up.

With it on, the same system level benchmarks didn't change measurably.
Allocating from new slabs does get slower, by up to about 30% per object
in a microbenchmark which does little else.

So let's enable it by default too. SHUFFLE_PAGE_ALLOCATOR defaults to
SLAB_FREELIST_RANDOM && ACPI_NUMA, so it's now built in by default on
those systems, but page shuffling itself stays off unless it's enabled
with page_alloc.shuffle.

Suggested-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Chris Down <chris@chrisdown.name>
---
 mm/Kconfig | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/mm/Kconfig b/mm/Kconfig
index 17d017e8fbef..92ff97ff24fb 100644
--- a/mm/Kconfig
+++ b/mm/Kconfig
@@ -200,6 +200,7 @@ config SLAB_MERGE_DEFAULT
 config SLAB_FREELIST_RANDOM
 	bool "Randomize slab freelist"
 	depends on !SLUB_TINY
+	default y
 	help
 	  Randomizes the freelist order used on creating new pages. This
 	  security feature reduces the predictability of the kernel slab
-- 
2.54.0


  parent reply	other threads:[~2026-10-29  6:08 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 14+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-10-29  6:07 [PATCH v2 0/6] mm/slab: Support selecting slab hardening features at boot Chris Down
2026-10-29  6:07 ` [PATCH v2 1/6] mm/slab: Enable SLAB_FREELIST_HARDENED by default Chris Down
2026-10-31  4:13   ` Kees Cook
2026-10-29  6:07 ` Chris Down [this message]
2026-10-31  4:15   ` [PATCH v2 2/6] mm/slab: Enable SLAB_FREELIST_RANDOM " Kees Cook
2026-10-29  6:08 ` [PATCH v2 3/6] mm/slab: Support disabling SLAB_BUCKETS at boot Chris Down
2026-10-31  4:17   ` Kees Cook
2026-11-01 18:34     ` Harry Yoo
2026-10-29  6:08 ` [PATCH v2 4/6] slub_kunit: Add a test for the slab_buckets boot parameter Chris Down
2026-10-31  4:22   ` Kees Cook
2026-10-29  6:09 ` [PATCH v2 5/6] mm/slab: Support disabling KMALLOC_PARTITION_CACHES at boot Chris Down
2026-10-31  4:28   ` Kees Cook
2026-10-29  6:09 ` [PATCH v2 6/6] slub_kunit: Add a test for the kmalloc_partition boot parameter Chris Down
2026-10-31  4:29   ` Kees Cook

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=6bdc161bd869ead04b3b9a651ef6a83882ecbea3.1793253633.git.chris@chrisdown.name \
    --to=chris@chrisdown.name \
    --cc=akpm@linux-foundation.org \
    --cc=cl@gentwo.org \
    --cc=corbet@lwn.net \
    --cc=elver@google.com \
    --cc=gongruiqi@huaweicloud.com \
    --cc=hao.li@linux.dev \
    --cc=harry@kernel.org \
    --cc=kees@kernel.org \
    --cc=kernel-team@meta.com \
    --cc=linux-doc@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-hardening@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-mm@kvack.org \
    --cc=rientjes@google.com \
    --cc=roman.gushchin@linux.dev \
    --cc=vbabka@kernel.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox

all inboxes | Powered by JetHome®