From: Ethan Nelson-Moore <enelsonmoore@gmail.com>
To: linux-usb@vger.kernel.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Ethan Nelson-Moore <enelsonmoore@gmail.com>,
Andrew Lunn <andrew+netdev@lunn.ch>,
"David S. Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>,
Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>,
Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>, Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>,
Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@linux.intel.com>,
Peter Korsgaard <peter@korsgaard.com>
Subject: [PATCH net-next] net: usb: mcs7830: adjust incorrect comment implying a vulnerability
Date: Mon, 4 May 2026 18:46:30 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260505014634.49100-1-enelsonmoore@gmail.com> (raw)
The mcs7830 driver contains a comment indicating that mcs7830_get_regs
leaks uninitialized memory to user space on some devices. If true, this
would indicate a security vulnerability. However, I investigated the
issue and found that it is not true because ethtool_get_regs (in
net/ethtool/ioctl.c) uses vzalloc to allocate its buffer, which zeroes
the memory. Update the comment to explain this behavior.
Signed-off-by: Ethan Nelson-Moore <enelsonmoore@gmail.com>
---
drivers/net/usb/mcs7830.c | 3 ++-
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/drivers/net/usb/mcs7830.c b/drivers/net/usb/mcs7830.c
index d6698f30218d..dfdc7bd74166 100644
--- a/drivers/net/usb/mcs7830.c
+++ b/drivers/net/usb/mcs7830.c
@@ -22,7 +22,8 @@
* - implement get_eeprom/[set_eeprom]
* - switch PHY on/off on ifup/ifdown (perhaps in usbnet.c, via MII)
* - mcs7830_get_regs() handling is weird: for rev 2 we return 32 regs,
- * can access only ~ 24, remaining user buffer is uninitialized garbage
+ * can access only ~ 24; this is not a security vulnerability because
+ * ethtool_get_regs allocates a zeroed buffer
* - anything else?
*/
--
2.43.0
next reply other threads:[~2026-05-05 1:47 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-05-05 1:46 Ethan Nelson-Moore [this message]
2026-05-05 6:46 ` [PATCH net-next] net: usb: mcs7830: adjust incorrect comment implying a vulnerability Andy Shevchenko
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