From: Xin Chen <xin.chen2@oss.qualcomm.com>
To: gregkh@linuxfoundation.org, jirislaby@kernel.org
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-serial@vger.kernel.org,
stable@vger.kernel.org, liulzhao@qti.qualcomm.com,
cheng.jiang@oss.qualcomm.com, cxin@qti.qualcomm.com,
Xin Chen <xin.chen2@oss.qualcomm.com>
Subject: [PATCH v2] tty: n_tty: use kvzalloc/kvfree for line discipline data
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:03:24 +0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260818070324.136726-1-xin.chen2@oss.qualcomm.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260817135526.386863-1-xin.chen2@oss.qualcomm.com>
BT enable fails intermittently with -ETIMEDOUT (-110). The kernel log
shows the HCI Read Local Version command was sent and the firmware
replied with status 0x00 (logged by hci_req_cmd_complete() BT_DBG),
but the waiter in __hci_cmd_sync_sk() never woke up and timed out
after 10 s:
bluetooth hci0: Opcode 0xfc00 // __hci_cmd_sync_sk
bluetooth hci0: opcode 0xfc00 plen 1 // hci_cmd_sync_add
bluetooth hci0: skb len 4 // hci_cmd_sync_alloc
bluetooth hci0: length 1 // hci_req_sync_run
Bluetooth: hci0 cmd_cnt 1 cmd queued 1 // hci_cmd_work
Bluetooth: hci0 type 1 len 4 // hci_send_frame
Bluetooth: opcode 0xfc00 status 0x00 // hci_req_cmd_complete
<-- req_skb NULL: req_complete_skb not set,
hci_cmd_sync_complete() never called,
req_status stays HCI_REQ_PEND -->
<-- 10 s later: wait_event_interruptible_timeout expires -->
bluetooth hci0: end: err -110 // __hci_cmd_sync_sk
The root cause is that hci_send_cmd_sync() clones the sent command
into hdev->req_skb so that hci_req_cmd_complete() can locate the
registered completion callback. Under memory pressure this
skb_clone() fails, leaving hdev->req_skb NULL. The firmware reply
is received and processed, but hci_req_cmd_complete() finds NULL
req_skb, so hci_cmd_sync_complete() is never called, req_status
stays HCI_REQ_PEND, and the waiter times out with -ETIMEDOUT.
The memory pressure is caused by n_tty_open(). When a BT UART
transport is opened, serdev_device_open() may be called multiple
times in quick succession, each triggering n_tty_open(). n_tty_open()
uses vzalloc() for the ~10 KB n_tty_data structure, which always
allocates page-by-page from the buddy order-0 free list. Repeated
vzalloc() calls drain enough order-0 pages that the subsequent
skb_clone(GFP_KERNEL) in hci_send_cmd_sync() cannot get a page.
Replace vzalloc/vfree with kvzalloc_obj/kvfree. kvzalloc_obj() tries
kmalloc first and falls back to vmalloc only on failure. The
~10 KB n_tty_data is served from the kmalloc-16384 slab (backed
by an order-2 compound page), leaving the order-0 free list intact
for the subsequent skb_clone() calls.
This issue was first observed as a use-after-free in ttyport_close()
when ttyport_open() failed, which was investigated in an earlier
patch series [1]. That investigation led to the discovery of the
true root cause described above.
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250430111617.1151390-1-quic_cxin@quicinc.com/
Fixes: 20bafb3d23d1 ("n_tty: Move buffers into n_tty_data")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Xin Chen <xin.chen2@oss.qualcomm.com>
---
Changes in v2:
- Add Fixes: tag pointing to 20bafb3d23d1
- Add Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
- Drop the Note paragraph about kvzalloc_obj
- Use kvzalloc_obj() instead of kvzalloc(sizeof(*ldata), GFP_KERNEL)
drivers/tty/n_tty.c | 4 ++--
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/drivers/tty/n_tty.c b/drivers/tty/n_tty.c
index e6a0f5b40d0a..81baef6110c0 100644
--- a/drivers/tty/n_tty.c
+++ b/drivers/tty/n_tty.c
@@ -1870,7 +1870,7 @@ static void n_tty_close(struct tty_struct *tty)
n_tty_packet_mode_flush(tty);
guard(rwsem_write)(&tty->termios_rwsem);
- vfree(ldata);
+ kvfree(ldata);
tty->disc_data = NULL;
}
@@ -1887,7 +1887,7 @@ static int n_tty_open(struct tty_struct *tty)
struct n_tty_data *ldata;
/* Currently a malloc failure here can panic */
- ldata = vzalloc(sizeof(*ldata));
+ ldata = kvzalloc_obj(ldata);
if (!ldata)
return -ENOMEM;
--
2.43.0
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-08-18 7:03 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 17+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-17 13:55 [PATCH v1] tty: n_tty: use kvzalloc/kvfree for line discipline data Xin Chen
2026-08-17 14:14 ` Greg KH
2026-08-18 3:09 ` Xin Chen
2026-08-18 6:05 ` Greg KH
2026-08-18 6:22 ` Xin Chen
2026-08-17 14:16 ` Greg KH
2026-08-17 14:49 ` Greg KH
2026-08-18 6:02 ` Xin Chen
2026-08-18 6:34 ` Greg KH
2026-08-18 6:58 ` Xin Chen
2026-08-18 7:34 ` Greg KH
2026-08-18 3:31 ` Xin Chen
2026-08-18 6:07 ` Greg KH
2026-08-18 6:39 ` Xin Chen
2026-08-18 7:03 ` Xin Chen [this message]
2026-08-18 7:15 ` [PATCH v2] " Jiri Slaby
2026-08-18 7:23 ` Xin Chen
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