* [PATCH net] qede: Fix NULL pointer dereference in TPA fragment processing
@ 2026-07-09 4:47 Vaibhav Nagare
2026-07-16 8:47 ` Simon Horman
0 siblings, 1 reply; 2+ messages in thread
From: Vaibhav Nagare @ 2026-07-09 4:47 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: davem, kuba, pabeni, edumazet, andrew+netdev
Cc: matvey.kovalev, Pavel.Zhigulin, aelior, manishc, netdev,
linux-kernel, stable, Vaibhav Nagare
Under memory pressure, the qede driver encounters NULL pointer
dereferences when processing TPA continuation fragments because:
1. qede_fill_frag_skb() does not validate the page pointer before use
2. qede_tpa_end() checks error state AFTER calling qede_fill_frag_skb()
The crash occurs when:
1. System experiences memory pressure (GFP_ATOMIC allocations fail)
2. qede_alloc_rx_buffer() returns -ENOMEM, leaving sw_rx_data->data NULL
3. qede_tpa_start() sets QEDE_AGG_STATE_ERROR on SKB allocation failure
4. Hardware delivers TPA_CONT and TPA_END events for this aggregation
5. qede_tpa_end() calls qede_fill_frag_skb() before checking error state
6. qede_fill_frag_skb() accesses NULL pointer in skb_fill_page_desc()
7. Kernel panics with NULL pointer dereference
Example crash from production system:
BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0x8
RIP: qede_fill_frag_skb+0x96/0x430 [qede]
Call Trace:
qede_rx_int+0xb06/0x1de0
qede_poll+0x2f4/0x6c0
__napi_poll+0x2d/0x130
Observed on HPE Synergy 480 Gen11 running RHEL 8.10
(4.18.0-553.134.1.el8_10.x86_64), but the vulnerable code path
exists in mainline.
Fix by:
1. Adding NULL page validation in qede_fill_frag_skb() before dereferencing
2. Checking error state EARLY in qede_tpa_end() before processing fragments
3. Checking error state in qede_tpa_cont() to skip fragment processing
This allows the system to survive memory pressure by dropping packets
instead of crashing.
Fixes: 55482edc25f0 ("qede: Add slowpath/fastpath support and enable hardware GRO")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Vaibhav Nagare <vnagare@redhat.com>
---
drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c | 25 ++++++++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 23 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c
index 33e18bb69774..95b5cfcc43c2 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c
@@ -670,13 +670,22 @@ static int qede_fill_frag_skb(struct qede_dev *edev,
NUM_RX_BDS_MAX];
struct qede_agg_info *tpa_info = &rxq->tpa_info[tpa_agg_index];
struct sk_buff *skb = tpa_info->skb;
+ struct page *page = current_bd->data;
if (unlikely(tpa_info->state != QEDE_AGG_STATE_START))
goto out;
+ /* Avoid NULL pointer dereference when under severe memory pressure */
+ if (unlikely(!page)) {
+ DP_NOTICE(edev,
+ "Failed to allocate RX buffer for TPA agg %u\n",
+ tpa_agg_index);
+ goto out;
+ }
+
/* Add one frag and update the appropriate fields in the skb */
skb_fill_page_desc(skb, tpa_info->frag_id++,
- current_bd->data,
+ page,
current_bd->page_offset + rxq->rx_headroom,
len_on_bd);
@@ -684,7 +693,7 @@ static int qede_fill_frag_skb(struct qede_dev *edev,
/* Incr page ref count to reuse on allocation failure
* so that it doesn't get freed while freeing SKB.
*/
- page_ref_inc(current_bd->data);
+ page_ref_inc(page);
goto out;
}
@@ -959,8 +968,16 @@ static inline void qede_tpa_cont(struct qede_dev *edev,
struct qede_rx_queue *rxq,
struct eth_fast_path_rx_tpa_cont_cqe *cqe)
{
+ struct qede_agg_info *tpa_info = &rxq->tpa_info[cqe->tpa_agg_index];
int i;
+ /* Don't process fragments if TPA start failed */
+ if (unlikely(tpa_info->state != QEDE_AGG_STATE_START)) {
+ for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(cqe->len_list) && cqe->len_list[i]; i++)
+ qede_recycle_rx_bd_ring(rxq, 1);
+ return;
+ }
+
for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(cqe->len_list) && cqe->len_list[i]; i++)
qede_fill_frag_skb(edev, rxq, cqe->tpa_agg_index,
le16_to_cpu(cqe->len_list[i]));
@@ -982,6 +999,10 @@ static int qede_tpa_end(struct qede_dev *edev,
tpa_info = &rxq->tpa_info[cqe->tpa_agg_index];
skb = tpa_info->skb;
+ /* Drop the packet if TPA start failed */
+ if (unlikely(tpa_info->state != QEDE_AGG_STATE_START || !skb))
+ goto err;
+
if (tpa_info->buffer.page_offset == PAGE_SIZE)
dma_unmap_page(rxq->dev, tpa_info->buffer.mapping,
PAGE_SIZE, rxq->data_direction);
--
2.54.0
^ permalink raw reply related [flat|nested] 2+ messages in thread* Re: [PATCH net] qede: Fix NULL pointer dereference in TPA fragment processing
2026-07-09 4:47 [PATCH net] qede: Fix NULL pointer dereference in TPA fragment processing Vaibhav Nagare
@ 2026-07-16 8:47 ` Simon Horman
0 siblings, 0 replies; 2+ messages in thread
From: Simon Horman @ 2026-07-16 8:47 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: nagarevaibhav
Cc: Simon Horman, davem, kuba, pabeni, edumazet, andrew+netdev,
matvey.kovalev, Pavel.Zhigulin, aelior, manishc, netdev,
linux-kernel, stable, vnagare
This is an AI-generated review of your patch. The human sending this
email has considered the AI review valid, or at least plausible.
Full review at: https://sashiko.dev
---
--- Patch [1]: [PATCH net] qede: Fix NULL pointer dereference in TPA fragment processing ---
commit 437c90c9a6930fba111f83e319f598fb4b80193c
Author: Vaibhav Nagare <nagarevaibhav@gmail.com>
qede: Fix NULL pointer dereference in TPA fragment processing
This commit attempts to fix a NULL pointer dereference under memory pressure
by adding validation in qede_fill_frag_skb() and checking the aggregation
state early in qede_tpa_end() and qede_tpa_cont().
> diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c
> index c11e0d8f98aa5..18a3167b35c84 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c
> @@ -670,13 +670,22 @@ static int qede_fill_frag_skb(struct qede_dev *edev,
> NUM_RX_BDS_MAX];
> struct qede_agg_info *tpa_info = &rxq->tpa_info[tpa_agg_index];
> struct sk_buff *skb = tpa_info->skb;
> + struct page *page = current_bd->data;
>
> if (unlikely(tpa_info->state != QEDE_AGG_STATE_START))
> goto out;
>
> + /* Avoid NULL pointer dereference when under severe memory pressure */
> + if (unlikely(!page)) {
> + DP_NOTICE(edev,
> + "Failed to allocate RX buffer for TPA agg %u\n",
> + tpa_agg_index);
[Severity: Medium]
Since this function executes per-fragment inside the fast-path NAPI poll
loop, could this unconditional DP_NOTICE cause a printk storm under memory
pressure?
If a TPA event has multiple fragments, this might flood the kernel buffer
and potentially cause soft lockups. Should this be a rate-limited print?
> + goto out;
[Severity: Critical]
This is a pre-existing issue, but does jumping to the out label when page is
NULL actually fix the crash, or just delay it?
Looking at the error path:
qede_fill_frag_skb() {
...
out:
tpa_info->state = QEDE_AGG_STATE_ERROR;
qede_recycle_rx_bd_ring(rxq, 1);
...
}
This blindly recycles the poisoned BD via qede_recycle_rx_bd_ring(), placing
the NULL page pointer back into the software ring instead of dropping it.
When a subsequent normal packet arrives, won't the driver panic when
qede_rx_build_skb() calls skb_put_data(skb, page_address(bd->data) + offset)?
The NULL pointer appears to be introduced earlier in qede_tpa_start() when it
copies the mapping and page_offset on failure, but does not copy the data
pointer. Later, qede_tpa_end() calls qede_reuse_page(), pushing this defective
buffer into the active RX ring.
> + }
> +
> /* Add one frag and update the appropriate fields in the skb */
> skb_fill_page_desc(skb, tpa_info->frag_id++,
> - current_bd->data,
> + page,
> current_bd->page_offset + rxq->rx_headroom,
> len_on_bd);
[ ... ]
> @@ -987,6 +1004,10 @@ static int qede_tpa_end(struct qede_dev *edev,
> tpa_info = &rxq->tpa_info[cqe->tpa_agg_index];
> skb = tpa_info->skb;
>
> + /* Drop the packet if TPA start failed */
> + if (unlikely(tpa_info->state != QEDE_AGG_STATE_START || !skb))
> + goto err;
> +
[Severity: Critical]
By adding this early exit to the err label, do we bypass the teardown steps
required to keep the software and hardware rings in sync?
If a TPA aggregation starts successfully but fails later, tpa_info->state is
set to QEDE_AGG_STATE_ERROR. When the hardware subsequently delivers the
TPA_END completion, this early exit will skip the dma_unmap_page() call
for the initial tpa_info->buffer.
It also skips the loop over cqe->len_list:
for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(cqe->len_list) && cqe->len_list[i]; i++)
qede_fill_frag_skb(...);
Unlike the fix in qede_tpa_cont() which manually recycles the BDs, skipping
this abandons the BDs used by the hardware. Won't this permanently
desynchronize the software RX consumer index (sw_rx_cons) from the hardware
producer index, leading to out-of-bounds memory accesses?
> if (tpa_info->buffer.page_offset == PAGE_SIZE)
> dma_unmap_page(rxq->dev, tpa_info->buffer.mapping,
> PAGE_SIZE, rxq->data_direction);
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