From: Vaibhav Nagare <nagarevaibhav@gmail.com>
To: horms@kernel.org, davem@davemloft.net, kuba@kernel.org,
pabeni@redhat.com, edumazet@google.com
Cc: andrew+netdev@lunn.ch, matvey.kovalev@ispras.ru,
Pavel.Zhigulin@kaspersky.com, aelior@marvell.com,
manishc@marvell.com, netdev@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, stable@vger.kernel.org,
Vaibhav Nagare <vnagare@redhat.com>
Subject: [PATCH net v5] qede: Fix NULL pointer dereference in TPA fragment processing
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:03:09 +0530 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260818073309.2266072-1-vnagare@redhat.com> (raw)
Under memory pressure, the qede driver encounters NULL pointer
dereferences when processing TPA continuation fragments.
Commit 8a8633978b84 ("qede: Add build_skb() support.") accidentally
dropped the assignment of tpa_info->buffer.data in qede_tpa_start().
When memory pressure causes an SKB allocation failure in qede_tpa_start(),
the driver sets tpa_start_fail = true and attempts to recycle the physical
page later in qede_tpa_end() via qede_reuse_page(). However, because
buffer.data was left uninitialized (NULL), qede_reuse_page() pushes a
"ghost" BD (valid DMA mapping but NULL data pointer) back into the
active Rx ring.
The next time the hardware uses this ring slot, it passes a NULL page
to qede_fill_frag_skb(), causing a kernel panic.
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
Fix the root cause by restoring the tpa_info->buffer.data assignment
in qede_tpa_start(), ensuring valid pages are correctly tracked and
recycled. Additionally, update the stale comment for
struct qede_agg_info::buffer to reflect its current usage.
Fixes: 8a8633978b84 ("qede: Add build_skb() support.")
Suggested-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Vaibhav Nagare <vnagare@redhat.com>
---
v5: Addressed AI review feedback from Jakub Kicinski:
- Dropped redundant fast-path hardening code (NULL checks, early exits,
and consume/recycle loop logic) as the root cause fix makes ghost BDs
mathematically unreachable.
- Updated stale struct qede_agg_info::buffer comment in qede.h to
reflect its current non-preallocated usage.
- Corrected commit title formatting in Fixes: tag.
v4: Fix err: label handling as identified by Jakub Kicinski:
- Restored tpa_info->buffer.data assignment in qede_tpa_start().
- Reverted err: label in qede_tpa_end() to use tpa_start_fail flag.
v3: Addressed AI review feedback:
- Fixed NULL pointer recycling and array bounds check order.
v2: Addressed AI review feedback from Simon Horman:
- Added net_ratelimit() and fixed NULL buffer recycling.
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20260709044704.141507-1-vnagare@redhat.com/
drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede.h | 8 ++++----
drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c | 1 +
2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede.h b/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede.h
index 042a75f34060..0e7a0c2c1765 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede.h
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede.h
@@ -303,10 +303,10 @@ enum qede_agg_state {
};
struct qede_agg_info {
- /* rx_buf is a data buffer that can be placed / consumed from rx bd
- * chain. It has two purposes: We will preallocate the data buffer
- * for each aggregation when we open the interface and will place this
- * buffer on the rx-bd-ring when we receive TPA_START. We don't want
+ /* buffer is used to retain the Rx consumer descriptor when a TPA
+ * session starts. If the SKB allocation fails during TPA_START,
+ * we use this saved buffer to safely recycle the physical page
+ * back into the rx-bd-ring via qede_reuse_page(). We don't want
* to be in a state where allocation fails, as we can't reuse the
* consumer buffer in the rx-chain since FW may still be writing to it
* (since header needs to be modified for TPA).
diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c
index 33e18bb69774..2d42e51ff992 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/qlogic/qede/qede_fp.c
@@ -845,6 +845,7 @@ static void qede_tpa_start(struct qede_dev *edev,
pad, false);
tpa_info->buffer.page_offset = sw_rx_data_cons->page_offset;
tpa_info->buffer.mapping = sw_rx_data_cons->mapping;
+ tpa_info->buffer.data = sw_rx_data_cons->data;
if (unlikely(!tpa_info->skb)) {
DP_NOTICE(edev, "Failed to allocate SKB for gro\n");
--
2.54.0
reply other threads:[~2026-08-18 7:33 UTC|newest]
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