[PATCH] media: s5p-mfc: use timer_shutdown_sync() for the self-rearming watchdog

From: Fan Wu

Date: Thu Jul 30 2026 - 03:28:55 EST


The MFC watchdog timer (s5p_mfc_watchdog) is self-rearming: every
callback re-arms itself with add_timer() and, on a timeout, schedules
watchdog_work. s5p_mfc_remove() tears this down with timer_delete_sync()
followed by flush_work().

timer_delete_sync() dequeues the timer and waits for a callback that is
already running, but it does not prevent a subsequent re-arm. Because the
watchdog callback re-arms via add_timer(), this is the wrong shutdown
primitive: once the wait returns nothing guarantees a just-queued re-arm
will not fire later, dereferencing dev (clock on/off, deinit_hw,
load_firmware, init_hw) after video_unregister_device(), DMA teardown and
s5p_mfc_final_pm() have run, a potential use-after-free.

Use timer_shutdown_sync(), which puts the timer into a shutdown state so
that any add_timer()/mod_timer() from the callback becomes a no-op and no
later firing is possible. Switch flush_work() to cancel_work_sync() so any
watchdog_work that was already queued before the timer was stopped is
cancelled rather than allowed to run to completion against the torn-down
device.

This issue was found by an in-house static analysis tool. No runtime
reproducer is available.

Fixes: af9357467810 ("[media] MFC: Add MFC 5.1 V4L2 driver")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Marek Szyprowski <m.szyprowski@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Andrzej Hajda <andrzej.hajda@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@xxxxxxxxxx>
Assisted-by: Codex:gpt-5.6
Signed-off-by: Fan Wu <fanwu01@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/media/platform/samsung/s5p-mfc/s5p_mfc.c | 4 ++--
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/media/platform/samsung/s5p-mfc/s5p_mfc.c b/drivers/media/platform/samsung/s5p-mfc/s5p_mfc.c
index 32eb402d439c..03e7eac8d1f7 100644
--- a/drivers/media/platform/samsung/s5p-mfc/s5p_mfc.c
+++ b/drivers/media/platform/samsung/s5p-mfc/s5p_mfc.c
@@ -1474,8 +1474,8 @@ static void s5p_mfc_remove(struct platform_device *pdev)
}
mutex_unlock(&dev->mfc_mutex);

- timer_delete_sync(&dev->watchdog_timer);
- flush_work(&dev->watchdog_work);
+ timer_shutdown_sync(&dev->watchdog_timer);
+ cancel_work_sync(&dev->watchdog_work);

video_unregister_device(dev->vfd_enc);
video_unregister_device(dev->vfd_dec);
--
2.34.1