From: Chao Shi <coshi036@gmail.com>
To: linux-nvme@lists.infradead.org, Keith Busch <kbusch@kernel.org>
Cc: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>, Sagi Grimberg <sagi@grimberg.me>,
Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>,
Tatsuya Sasaki <tatsuya6.sasaki@kioxia.com>,
Maurizio Lombardi <mlombard@arkamax.eu>,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Sungwoo Kim <iam@sung-woo.kim>,
Dave Tian <daveti@purdue.edu>, Weidong Zhu <weizhu@fiu.edu>
Subject: [PATCH v3] nvme: reject keep-alive passthrough on non-fabrics
Date: Fri, 22 May 2026 11:28:07 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260522152807.2061501-1-coshi036@gmail.com> (raw)
Since commit b58da2d270db ("nvme: update keep alive interval when kato
is modified"), userspace can start keep-alive on any transport via a
Set Features (KATO) passthrough command. nvme_keep_alive_work() then
allocates with BLK_MQ_REQ_RESERVED, but nvme_alloc_admin_tag_set()
only reserves admin tags for fabrics, so the allocation trips
WARN_ON_ONCE() in blk_mq_get_tag() and fails:
nvme nvme0: keep-alive failed: -11
Keep Alive is optional on PCIe (NVMe 2.0a section 5.27.1.12) and the
driver only arms keep-alive for fabrics; enabling it elsewhere has no
reserved tag and an active keep-alive command only harms idle power
states.
Reject Set Features commands the driver is not prepared to handle from
userspace passthrough, starting with KATO on non-fabrics. The check
can be extended to other problematic features as they are identified.
This guards the userspace passthrough paths (ioctl and io_uring); the
nvmet target passthru path is out of scope and is not changed here.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-nvme/20260515071248.2689513-1-coshi036@gmail.com/
Fixes: b58da2d270db ("nvme: update keep alive interval when kato is modified")
Found by FuzzNvme(Syzkaller with FEMU fuzzing framework).
Acked-by: Sungwoo Kim <iam@sung-woo.kim>
Acked-by: Dave Tian <daveti@purdue.edu>
Acked-by: Weidong Zhu <weizhu@fiu.edu>
Signed-off-by: Chao Shi <coshi036@gmail.com>
---
Reproducer (run as root on a PCIe NVMe device):
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <linux/nvme_ioctl.h>
int main(void)
{
struct nvme_admin_cmd cmd = {0};
int fd = open("/dev/nvme0", O_RDWR);
if (fd < 0) { perror("open"); return 1; }
cmd.opcode = 0x09; /* SET_FEATURES */
cmd.cdw10 = 0x0f; /* Feature ID: KATO */
cmd.cdw11 = 5; /* KATO = 5 seconds */
if (ioctl(fd, NVME_IOCTL_ADMIN_CMD, &cmd) < 0) {
perror("ioctl");
return 1;
}
return 0;
}
On an unpatched kernel, within ~kato/2 seconds after the program exits,
dmesg shows:
nvme nvme0: keep alive interval updated from 0 ms to 5000 ms
WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: ... at block/blk-mq-tag.c:148 blk_mq_get_tag+...
nvme nvme0: keep-alive failed: -11
With this patch the ioctl fails with EOPNOTSUPP on non-fabrics and
keep-alive is never started.
Changes since v2:
- Reject the KATO Set Features passthrough on non-fabrics instead of
reserving an admin tag for all transports (Keith Busch, Christoph
Hellwig). PCIe does not need keep-alive, and an active keep-alive
command only harms idle power states.
- Implement as an extensible passthrough filter for Set Features
commands the driver cannot handle.
- Drop the core.c reserved_tags change.
Changes since v1:
- v2 added a spec citation and a quirk discussion; both are superseded
by the filter approach above.
drivers/nvme/host/ioctl.c | 36 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 36 insertions(+)
diff --git a/drivers/nvme/host/ioctl.c b/drivers/nvme/host/ioctl.c
index a9c097dacad6..7705d9408396 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/host/ioctl.c
+++ b/drivers/nvme/host/ioctl.c
@@ -86,6 +86,33 @@ static bool nvme_cmd_allowed(struct nvme_ns *ns, struct nvme_command *c,
return capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN);
}
+/*
+ * Some Set Features commands change controller behaviour that the driver is
+ * not prepared to handle on every transport. Reject such commands from
+ * userspace passthrough rather than letting them put the controller into a
+ * state the driver cannot deal with. The list can be extended as other
+ * problematic features are identified.
+ */
+static bool nvme_passthru_cmd_allowed(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl,
+ struct nvme_command *c)
+{
+ if (c->common.opcode != nvme_admin_set_features)
+ return true;
+
+ switch (le32_to_cpu(c->common.cdw10) & 0xff) {
+ case NVME_FEAT_KATO:
+ /*
+ * Keep Alive is optional on PCIe (NVMe 2.0a 5.27.1.12) and the
+ * driver only arms keep-alive for fabrics. Enabling it on
+ * other transports starts a keep-alive command the driver is
+ * not set up for and harms idle power states, so reject it.
+ */
+ return ctrl->ops->flags & NVME_F_FABRICS;
+ default:
+ return true;
+ }
+}
+
/*
* Convert integer values from ioctl structures to user pointers, silently
* ignoring the upper bits in the compat case to match behaviour of 32-bit
@@ -311,6 +338,9 @@ static int nvme_user_cmd(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl, struct nvme_ns *ns,
if (!nvme_cmd_allowed(ns, &c, 0, open_for_write))
return -EACCES;
+ if (!nvme_passthru_cmd_allowed(ctrl, &c))
+ return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+
if (cmd.timeout_ms)
timeout = msecs_to_jiffies(cmd.timeout_ms);
@@ -358,6 +388,9 @@ static int nvme_user_cmd64(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl, struct nvme_ns *ns,
if (!nvme_cmd_allowed(ns, &c, flags, open_for_write))
return -EACCES;
+ if (!nvme_passthru_cmd_allowed(ctrl, &c))
+ return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+
if (cmd.timeout_ms)
timeout = msecs_to_jiffies(cmd.timeout_ms);
@@ -475,6 +508,9 @@ static int nvme_uring_cmd_io(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl, struct nvme_ns *ns,
if (!nvme_cmd_allowed(ns, &c, 0, ioucmd->file->f_mode & FMODE_WRITE))
return -EACCES;
+ if (!nvme_passthru_cmd_allowed(ctrl, &c))
+ return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+
d.metadata = READ_ONCE(cmd->metadata);
d.addr = READ_ONCE(cmd->addr);
d.data_len = READ_ONCE(cmd->data_len);
--
2.43.0
next reply other threads:[~2026-05-22 15:28 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-05-22 15:28 Chao Shi [this message]
2026-05-22 15:46 ` [PATCH v3] nvme: reject keep-alive passthrough on non-fabrics Keith Busch
2026-05-22 16:27 ` Chao S
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=20260522152807.2061501-1-coshi036@gmail.com \
--to=coshi036@gmail.com \
--cc=axboe@kernel.dk \
--cc=daveti@purdue.edu \
--cc=hch@lst.de \
--cc=iam@sung-woo.kim \
--cc=kbusch@kernel.org \
--cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-nvme@lists.infradead.org \
--cc=mlombard@arkamax.eu \
--cc=sagi@grimberg.me \
--cc=tatsuya6.sasaki@kioxia.com \
--cc=weizhu@fiu.edu \
/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