Re: [BUG] mwifiex: possible null-pointer dereference in mwifiex_dnld_cmd_to_fw()

From: Li Tuo
Date: Mon Aug 02 2021 - 22:34:22 EST


Thanks for your feedback! I think we can test and submit a patch to drop
the excess check as the example you mentioned.

Best wishes,
Tuo Li


On 2021/8/3 4:44, Brian Norris wrote:
Hi,

On Fri, Jul 30, 2021 at 9:13 PM Li Tuo <islituo@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Our static analysis tool finds a possible null-pointer dereference in
the mwifiex driver in Linux 5.14.0-rc3:
Wouldn't be the first time a static analysis tool tripped up over
excessively redundant "safety" checks :)

For example:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-wireless/20210731163546.10753-1-len.baker@xxxxxxx/T/#u

The variable cmd_node->cmd_skb->data is assigned to the variable
host_cmd, and host_cmd is checked in:
190: if (host_cmd == NULL || host_cmd->size == 0)

This indicates that host_cmd can be NULL.
If so, the function mwifiex_recycle_cmd_node() will be called with the
argument cmd_node:
196: mwifiex_recycle_cmd_node(adapter, cmd_node);

In this called function, the variable cmd_node->cmd_skb->data is
assigned to the variable host_cmd, too.
Thus the variable host_cmd in the function mwifiex_recycle_cmd_node()
can be also NULL.
However, it is dereferenced when calling le16_to_cpu():
144: le16_to_cpu(host_cmd->command)

I am not quite sure whether this possible null-pointer dereference is
real and how to fix it if it is real.
Any feedback would be appreciated, thanks!
I doubt it's real; the NULL check is probably excessive. I don't think
there's any case in which such skb's will have no ->data. If you're
interested, you could test and submit a "fix" to drop the excess
check.

Brian