Re: [PATCH net 3/3] netdevsim: psp: rcu protect psp_dev reference

From: Willem de Bruijn

Date: Wed May 06 2026 - 15:39:19 EST


Daniel Zahka wrote:
> There are two issues with the way psp_dev is used in nsim_do_psp():
>
> 1. There is no check for IS_ERR() on the peers psp_dev, before
> dereferencing.
> 2. The refcount on this psp_dev can be dropped by
> nsim_psp_rereg_write()
>
> To fix this, we can make netdevsim's reference to its psp_dev an rcu
> reference, and then nsim_do_psp() can read the fields it needs from an
> rcu critical section.
>
> Fixes: f857478d6206 ("netdevsim: a basic test PSP implementation")
> Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4.6
> Signed-off-by: Daniel Zahka <daniel.zahka@xxxxxxxxx>

> static ssize_t
> @@ -228,16 +237,23 @@ nsim_psp_rereg_write(struct file *file, const char __user *data, size_t count,
> loff_t *ppos)
> {
> struct netdevsim *ns = file->private_data;
> - int err;
> + struct psp_dev *psd;
> + ssize_t ret;
>
> mutex_lock(&ns->psp.rereg_lock);
> - __nsim_psp_uninit(ns);
> + __nsim_psp_uninit(ns, false);
> +
> + psd = psp_dev_create(ns->netdev, &nsim_psp_ops, &nsim_psp_caps, ns);
> + if (IS_ERR(psd)) {
> + ret = PTR_ERR(psd);
> + goto out;
> + }

Do you want to create the new device first and only delete the old
state if that succeeds? To avoid a netdevsim in state without dev.

>
> - ns->psp.dev = psp_dev_create(ns->netdev, &nsim_psp_ops,
> - &nsim_psp_caps, ns);
> - err = PTR_ERR_OR_ZERO(ns->psp.dev);
> + rcu_assign_pointer(ns->psp.dev, psd);
> + ret = count;
> +out:
> mutex_unlock(&ns->psp.rereg_lock);
> - return err ?: count;
> + return ret;
> }
>