Re: [PATCH net v2] net: mctp i2c: check length before marking flow active

[Paolo Abeni]

On 4/23/26 9:46 AM, William A. Kennington III wrote:
> Currently, mctp_i2c_get_tx_flow_state() is called before the packet length
> sanity check. This function marks a new flow as active in the MCTP core.
> 
> If the sanity check fails, mctp_i2c_xmit() returns early without calling
> mctp_i2c_lock_nest(). This results in a mismatched locking state: the
> flow is active, but the I2C bus lock was never acquired for it.
> 
> When the flow is later released, mctp_i2c_release_flow() will see the
> active state and queue an unlock marker. The TX thread will then
> decrement midev->i2c_lock_count from 0, causing it to underflow to -1.
> 
> This underflow permanently breaks the driver's locking logic, allowing
> future transmissions to occur without holding the I2C bus lock, leading
> to bus collisions and potential hardware hangs.
> 
> Move the mctp_i2c_get_tx_flow_state() call to after the length sanity
> check to ensure we only transition the flow state if we are actually
> going to proceed with the transmission and locking.
> 
> Fixes: f5b8abf9fc3d ("mctp i2c: MCTP I2C binding driver")
> Signed-off-by: William A. Kennington III <william@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Note that you should have included Jeremy's ack, and you should have
avoided reposting before the 24h grace period. In this specific case,
you could have avoided a repost entirely

/P