[PATCH net-next v5 0/2] net: usb: lan78xx: do not use uninitialized data after short reads

[PATCH net-next v5 0/2] net: usb: lan78xx: do not use uninitialized data after short reads

[Wei Jie Law]

lan78xx_read_reg() and lan78xx_read_stats() accept a control transfer
that returns fewer bytes than requested and then use the uninitialized
rest of their kmalloc()ed buffers. A device that sends short replies can
get stale heap contents used as the MAC address of the interface, and makes
ethtool -S report them to unprivileged users, including kernel text and
direct map pointers.

Patch 2 makes the register and statistics helpers fail on short transfers. Patch 1 comes first so
that a failing statistics read does not report uninitialized stack data
instead.

The bugs need a malicious or emulated USB device, which
Documentation/process/threat-model.rst treats as a regular bug rather
than a vulnerability, so they are posted publicly.

Testing: the series builds without warnings (W=1) on net-next and passes
checkpatch --strict. It applies unchanged to v6.12.105, where it was
tested with a LAN7800 emulated by raw-gadget + dummy_hcd, booted with
init_on_alloc=0:

- Zero-length statistics replies. Before: 40 to 88 of the 235 ethtool -S
  counters are non-zero, including usb_api_blocking_completion() and
  direct map pointers. After: every read fails with -EIO and all
  counters stay zero.

- 100 byte statistics replies. Before: 110 of the 235 counters are
  non-zero. With patch 1 only: 29 are, so the stale tail of the buffer
  still gets through. With both patches: the read fails with -EIO and
  all counters stay zero.

- Zero-length RX_ADDRL/RX_ADDRH replies. Before: the MAC address
  differs on every probe, is programmed into the MAC filter and is
  used as the address of the interface. After: the
  probe fails with -EIO.

Both bugs were found, and the patches written, with LLM assistance.
v1 to v4 carried Assisted-by tags; v5 drops them following commit
1e035297ffda ("docs: remove Assisted-by references").

Changes in v5:
- retarget to net-next and drop the Fixes: and Cc: stable tags, since
  the bugs need a misbehaving device (Andrew Lunn)
- add Andrew's Reviewed-by
- drop the Assisted-by tags (see above) and rebase on current net-next
v4: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20261020001621.2920-1-law.wei.jie@gt.tech.gov.sg/
Changes in v4:
- 2/2: drop the examples from the commit message and move the note that
  it depends on 1/2 below the --- line (Andrew Lunn)
- 2/2: also fail on a short transfer in lan78xx_write_reg(), for
  symmetry with the read helpers (Andrew Lunn)
v3: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20261018062419.21921-1-law.wei.jie@gt.tech.gov.sg/
- add the missing Signed-off-by; no other changes
v2: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20261018061734.19488-1-law.wei.jie@gt.tech.gov.sg/
- 2/2: the commit message now says that with patch 1 only a partial
  statistics reply (1 to 187 bytes) still leaks, and that patch 2 depends on
  patch 1; the MAC address paragraph no longer claims a write-back to
  RX_ADDRL/RX_ADDRH, which happens only for an invalid address. The cover
  letter gains a partial-reply test. No code change.
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20261014025602.26334-1-law.wei.jie@gt.tech.gov.sg/

Wei Jie Law (2):
  net: usb: lan78xx: do not update statistics after a failed read
  net: usb: lan78xx: reject short register and statistics transfers

 drivers/net/usb/lan78xx.c | 17 ++++++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)


base-commit: 099e433a8bf4914a727b46e0c8a1a3d96c94b6a2
-- 
2.43.0

[PATCH net-next v5 1/2] net: usb: lan78xx: do not update statistics after a failed read

[Wei Jie Law]

lan78xx_update_stats() reads the hardware counters into an on-stack
struct lan78xx_statstage. If lan78xx_read_stats() fails, only the
rollover check is skipped: the counters are still recomputed from the
uninitialized stack buffer and stored in dev->stats.curr_stat, which is
then reported to user space by ethtool -S.

Keep the previous values when the read fails.

Found by code review with LLM assistance. Tested together with the next
patch, which makes short reads fail: with an emulated device, ethtool -S
then keeps reporting the previous counters.

Reviewed-by: Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>
Signed-off-by: Wei Jie Law <law.wei.jie@gt.tech.gov.sg>
---
 drivers/net/usb/lan78xx.c | 8 +++++---
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/usb/lan78xx.c b/drivers/net/usb/lan78xx.c
index d73002b2c21a..76c2d98b49df 100644
--- a/drivers/net/usb/lan78xx.c
+++ b/drivers/net/usb/lan78xx.c
@@ -789,11 +789,13 @@ static void lan78xx_update_stats(struct lan78xx_net *dev)
 
 	mutex_lock(&dev->stats.access_lock);
 
-	if (lan78xx_read_stats(dev, &lan78xx_stats) > 0)
+	if (lan78xx_read_stats(dev, &lan78xx_stats) > 0) {
 		lan78xx_check_stat_rollover(dev, &lan78xx_stats);
 
-	for (i = 0; i < (sizeof(lan78xx_stats) / (sizeof(u32))); i++)
-		data[i] = (u64)p[i] + ((u64)count[i] * ((u64)max[i] + 1));
+		for (i = 0; i < (sizeof(lan78xx_stats) / (sizeof(u32))); i++)
+			data[i] = (u64)p[i] +
+				  ((u64)count[i] * ((u64)max[i] + 1));
+	}
 
 	mutex_unlock(&dev->stats.access_lock);
 
-- 
2.43.0

[PATCH net-next v5 2/2] net: usb: lan78xx: reject short register and statistics transfers

[Wei Jie Law]

lan78xx_read_reg() and lan78xx_read_stats() read from the device into
a freshly kmalloc()ed buffer, but only treat a negative return value
from usb_control_msg() as an error. A device that answers with fewer
bytes than requested leaves part or all of the buffer uninitialized,
and those bytes are then used as the register value or the counters.

Treat a short transfer as -EIO in both helpers. lan78xx_write_reg()
does not use uninitialized data, since it fills its buffer before the
transfer, but make it fail on a short transfer as well, so that all the
register helpers report a partial transfer as an error.

Found by code review with LLM assistance and reproduced with an
emulated USB device (raw-gadget + dummy_hcd).

Suggested-by: Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>
Reviewed-by: Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>
Signed-off-by: Wei Jie Law <law.wei.jie@gt.tech.gov.sg>
---

Notes:
    This patch depends on the previous one. Without it, a failed statistics
    read would make lan78xx_update_stats() compute the counters from its
    uninitialized on-stack buffer, so the leak would move from the heap to the
    stack.

 drivers/net/usb/lan78xx.c | 9 +++++++++
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/net/usb/lan78xx.c b/drivers/net/usb/lan78xx.c
index 76c2d98b49df..4a58febcddcf 100644
--- a/drivers/net/usb/lan78xx.c
+++ b/drivers/net/usb/lan78xx.c
@@ -612,6 +612,9 @@ static int lan78xx_read_reg(struct lan78xx_net *dev, u32 index, u32 *data)
 			      USB_VENDOR_REQUEST_READ_REGISTER,
 			      USB_DIR_IN | USB_TYPE_VENDOR | USB_RECIP_DEVICE,
 			      0, index, buf, 4, USB_CTRL_GET_TIMEOUT);
+	if (ret >= 0 && ret != sizeof(*buf))
+		ret = -EIO;
+
 	if (likely(ret >= 0)) {
 		le32_to_cpus(buf);
 		*data = *buf;
@@ -645,6 +648,9 @@ static int lan78xx_write_reg(struct lan78xx_net *dev, u32 index, u32 data)
 			      USB_VENDOR_REQUEST_WRITE_REGISTER,
 			      USB_DIR_OUT | USB_TYPE_VENDOR | USB_RECIP_DEVICE,
 			      0, index, buf, 4, USB_CTRL_SET_TIMEOUT);
+	if (ret >= 0 && ret != sizeof(*buf))
+		ret = -EIO;
+
 	if (unlikely(ret < 0) &&
 	    net_ratelimit()) {
 		netdev_warn(dev->net,
@@ -695,6 +701,9 @@ static int lan78xx_read_stats(struct lan78xx_net *dev,
 			      (void *)stats,
 			      sizeof(*stats),
 			      USB_CTRL_SET_TIMEOUT);
+	if (ret >= 0 && ret != sizeof(*stats))
+		ret = -EIO;
+
 	if (likely(ret >= 0)) {
 		src = (u32 *)stats;
 		dst = (u32 *)data;
-- 
2.43.0

Re: [PATCH net-next v5 0/2] net: usb: lan78xx: do not use uninitialized data after short reads

[Jakub Kicinski]

On Wed, 11 Nov 2026 09:34:52 +0800 Wei Jie Law wrote:
> Testing: the series builds without warnings (W=1) on net-next and passes
> checkpatch --strict. It applies unchanged to v6.12.105, where it was
> tested with a LAN7800 emulated by raw-gadget + dummy_hcd, booted with
> init_on_alloc=0:

Why are you testing this on 6.12 if you're just using a gadget and not
a real device?

Re: [PATCH net-next v5 0/2] net: usb: lan78xx: do not use uninitialized data after short reads

[Wei Jie Law]

On Sat, Nov 14, 2026 at 8:32 AM Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org> wrote:
> Why are you testing this on 6.12 if you're just using a gadget and not
> a real device?

I have noted that the patch was applied but to clarify, the reason for
the tests being on a 6.12 kernel is that I am mirroring my Linux laptop's
kernel version as part of bug hunting and testing (against real hardware)
with a malicious USB device.

Re: [PATCH net-next v5 0/2] net: usb: lan78xx: do not use uninitialized data after short reads

[patchwork-bot+netdevbpf]

Hello:

This series was applied to netdev/net-next.git (main)
by Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>:

On Wed, 11 Nov 2026 09:34:52 +0800 you wrote:
> lan78xx_read_reg() and lan78xx_read_stats() accept a control transfer
> that returns fewer bytes than requested and then use the uninitialized
> rest of their kmalloc()ed buffers. A device that sends short replies can
> get stale heap contents used as the MAC address of the interface, and makes
> ethtool -S report them to unprivileged users, including kernel text and
> direct map pointers.
> 
> [...]

Here is the summary with links:
  - [net-next,v5,1/2] net: usb: lan78xx: do not update statistics after a failed read
    https://git.kernel.org/netdev/net-next/c/faf25c2bc6af
  - [net-next,v5,2/2] net: usb: lan78xx: reject short register and statistics transfers
    https://git.kernel.org/netdev/net-next/c/ecb8113b5b32

You are awesome, thank you!
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