[PATCH net 2/2] can: bittiming: fix bitrate error calculation on unsigned operands

From: Sureshkumar S

Date: Mon Aug 03 2026 - 05:29:32 EST


can_calc_bittiming() rates each candidate against the requested bitrate
with:

bitrate_error = abs(bt->bitrate - bitrate);

Both operands are unsigned int, so the subtraction wraps instead of
becoming negative, and abs() resolves an unsigned int argument to its
int branch. A wrapped difference is therefore reinterpreted as a small
positive value instead of the large error it actually represents.

A requested bitrate far above anything the controller can reach then
passes the CAN_CALC_MAX_ERROR gate. On a dummy_can device with a 160 MHz
clock, requesting 4294967294 bps reports an error of 0.01%, configures
415584 bps and returns success to userspace, where -EINVAL is expected.

Use abs_diff(), which subtracts the smaller operand from the larger one
and keeps the whole comparison unsigned.

Fixes: 7da29f97d6c8 ("can: dev: can-calc-bit-timing(): better sample point calculation")
Signed-off-by: Sureshkumar S <ssureshmsd7@xxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/net/can/dev/calc_bittiming.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/can/dev/calc_bittiming.c b/drivers/net/can/dev/calc_bittiming.c
index 4809f5e0c96e..2789b99ab6a8 100644
--- a/drivers/net/can/dev/calc_bittiming.c
+++ b/drivers/net/can/dev/calc_bittiming.c
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ int can_calc_bittiming(const struct net_device *dev, struct can_bittiming *bt,
continue;

bitrate = priv->clock.freq / (brp * tsegall);
- bitrate_error = abs(bt->bitrate - bitrate);
+ bitrate_error = abs_diff(bt->bitrate, bitrate);

/* tseg brp biterror */
if (bitrate_error > best_bitrate_error)
--
2.43.0