Re: [PATCH] phy: core: fix potential UAF in of_phy_simple_xlate()

[Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Feb 19, 2026 at 04:11:37PM -0800, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 19, 2026 at 03:57:11PM -0800, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> > The implementation put_device()s located device and then uses
> > container_of() on the pointer. The device may disappear by that time,
> > resulting in UAF.
> > 
> > Fix the problem by keeping the reference to the framer device,
> > avoiding getting an extra reference to it in framer_get(), and making
> > sure to drop the reference in error path when we fail to get the module.
> 
> Hmm, I was too rash. There are bunch of other xlate functions that need
> to be updated to take the reference.

So I am convinced that xlate functions need to bump up the reference to
phy devices they return. The question is how to deal with the ones that
do not. I can either convert them in the same patch (the changes are
quite mechanical) or we can do the whole song and dance, introduce a
flag, set it up in converted xlate functions, have the core respect it,
and then remove it from xlates and from the core when it is all done.

Please let me know.

Thanks.

-- 
Dmitry