[PATCH net 1/2] net: dsa: mxl862xx: avoid unaligned 16-bit access in api_wrap
From: Daniel Golle
Date: Thu Jun 18 2026 - 23:39:57 EST
The MXL862XX_API_* macros pass the address of a stack-allocated, __packed
firmware-ABI struct to mxl862xx_api_wrap() as a void *. The struct has an
alignment of 1, so the compiler is free to place it at an odd address.
mxl862xx_api_wrap() reinterprets that buffer as a __le16 * and accesses it
with data[i], for which the compiler assumes the natural 2-byte alignment
of __le16 and emits aligned 16-bit loads/stores (e.g. lhu/sh on MIPS).
When the buffer lands on an odd address these fault on architectures that
do not support unaligned access, such as MIPS32.
-Waddress-of-packed-member does not catch this: the packed origin is
laundered through the void * parameter, so the cast inside api_wrap looks
alignment-safe to the compiler and no warning is emitted.
Use get_unaligned_le16()/put_unaligned_le16() for the three 16-bit word
accesses. The byte accesses (*(u8 *)&data[i], crc16()) are already safe
and are left unchanged.
Link: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/cover.1781319534.git.daniel%40makrotopia.org?part=4
Fixes: 23794bec1cb6 ("net: dsa: add basic initial driver for MxL862xx switches")
Signed-off-by: Daniel Golle <daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/net/dsa/mxl862xx/mxl862xx-host.c | 7 ++++---
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/drivers/net/dsa/mxl862xx/mxl862xx-host.c b/drivers/net/dsa/mxl862xx/mxl862xx-host.c
index d55f9dff6433..882c5d960941 100644
--- a/drivers/net/dsa/mxl862xx/mxl862xx-host.c
+++ b/drivers/net/dsa/mxl862xx/mxl862xx-host.c
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
#include <linux/crc16.h>
#include <linux/iopoll.h>
#include <linux/limits.h>
+#include <linux/unaligned.h>
#include <net/dsa.h>
#include "mxl862xx.h"
#include "mxl862xx-host.h"
@@ -349,7 +350,7 @@ int mxl862xx_api_wrap(struct mxl862xx_priv *priv, u16 cmd, void *_data,
* zero words individually.
*/
for (i = 0, zeros = 0; i < size / 2 && zeros < RST_DATA_THRESHOLD; i++)
- if (!data[i])
+ if (!get_unaligned_le16(&data[i]))
zeros++;
if (zeros < RST_DATA_THRESHOLD && (size & 1) && !*(u8 *)&data[i])
@@ -395,7 +396,7 @@ int mxl862xx_api_wrap(struct mxl862xx_priv *priv, u16 cmd, void *_data,
*/
val = *(u8 *)&data[i] | ((crc & 0xff) << 8);
} else {
- val = le16_to_cpu(data[i]);
+ val = get_unaligned_le16(&data[i]);
}
/* After RST_DATA, skip zero data words as the registers
@@ -453,7 +454,7 @@ int mxl862xx_api_wrap(struct mxl862xx_priv *priv, u16 cmd, void *_data,
*(uint8_t *)&data[i] = ret & 0xff;
crc = (ret >> 8) & 0xff;
} else {
- data[i] = cpu_to_le16((u16)ret);
+ put_unaligned_le16((u16)ret, &data[i]);
}
}
--
2.54.0