[PATCH 3/4] char: misc: restrict the dynamic range to exclude reserved minors

From: Thadeu Lima de Souza Cascardo
Date: Thu Jan 23 2025 - 07:33:48 EST


When this was first reported [1], the possibility of having sufficient
number of dynamic misc devices was theoretical.

What we know from commit ab760791c0cf ("char: misc: Increase the maximum
number of dynamic misc devices to 1048448"), is that the miscdevice
interface has been used for allocating more than the single-shot devices it
was designed for.

On such systems, it is certain that the dynamic allocation will allocate
certain reserved minor numbers, leading to failures when a later driver
tries to claim its reserved number.

Fixing this is a simple matter of defining the IDA range to allocate from
to exclude minors up to and including 15.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/1257813017-28598-3-git-send-email-cascardo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/

Signed-off-by: Thadeu Lima de Souza Cascardo <cascardo@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/char/misc.c | 4 +++-
include/linux/miscdevice.h | 1 +
2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/char/misc.c b/drivers/char/misc.c
index 2cf595d2e10b..7a768775e558 100644
--- a/drivers/char/misc.c
+++ b/drivers/char/misc.c
@@ -68,8 +68,10 @@ static int misc_minor_alloc(int minor)
int ret = 0;

if (minor == MISC_DYNAMIC_MINOR) {
+ int max = DYNAMIC_MINORS - 1 - MISC_STATIC_MAX_MINOR - 1;
/* allocate free id */
- ret = ida_alloc_max(&misc_minors_ida, DYNAMIC_MINORS - 1, GFP_KERNEL);
+ /* Minors from 0 to 15 are reserved. */
+ ret = ida_alloc_max(&misc_minors_ida, max, GFP_KERNEL);
if (ret >= 0) {
ret = DYNAMIC_MINORS - ret - 1;
} else {
diff --git a/include/linux/miscdevice.h b/include/linux/miscdevice.h
index 69e110c2b86a..911a294d17b5 100644
--- a/include/linux/miscdevice.h
+++ b/include/linux/miscdevice.h
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
#define APOLLO_MOUSE_MINOR 7 /* unused */
#define PC110PAD_MINOR 9 /* unused */
/*#define ADB_MOUSE_MINOR 10 FIXME OBSOLETE */
+#define MISC_STATIC_MAX_MINOR 15 /* Top of first reserved range */
#define WATCHDOG_MINOR 130 /* Watchdog timer */
#define TEMP_MINOR 131 /* Temperature Sensor */
#define APM_MINOR_DEV 134
--
2.34.1