[PATCH v2] xen/pcifront: check that an AER callback exists before calling it

From: Yehyeong Lee

Date: Mon Oct 05 2026 - 22:35:38 EST


pcifront_common_process() handles an AER request from the backend by
dispatching on aer_op.cmd to the bound driver's PCI error handler. It
only checks that err_handler and err_handler->error_detected are present,
then for the mmio_enabled, slot_reset and resume commands it calls the
corresponding callback unconditionally. Those three callbacks are
optional -- the PCI core NULL-checks each of them individually before
use -- and many drivers (for example igb, igc, ice and ixgbevf) install
error_detected without all of them.

aer_op.cmd comes from the shared ring, so a malicious or buggy backend
can send XEN_PCI_OP_aer_mmio (or _slotreset/_resume) for a device whose
driver leaves that callback NULL and make the frontend call through a
NULL pointer, crashing the guest.

Check each callback before calling it. When mmio_enabled or slot_reset is
absent, return PCI_ERS_RESULT_RECOVERED so recovery proceeds, as the PCI
core does for a missing callback; returning PCI_ERS_RESULT_NONE would
instead make xen-pciback tear the guest domain down.

Fixes: 956a9202cd12 ("xen-pcifront: Xen PCI frontend driver.")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Yehyeong Lee <yhlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
v2: return PCI_ERS_RESULT_RECOVERED for an absent mmio_enabled/slot_reset
instead of PCI_ERS_RESULT_NONE, which xen-pciback treats as fatal and
uses to tear the domain down. (Bjorn acked v1; the ack is dropped here
because v2 changes the value returned for an absent callback.)
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20261005133019.284053-1-yhlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/

There is an in-flight fix for a refcount leak in this same function
("xen/pcifront: Fix PCI device reference leak in AER handling"); this
change is orthogonal and applies in either order.

drivers/pci/xen-pcifront.c | 11 ++++++++---
1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/pci/xen-pcifront.c b/drivers/pci/xen-pcifront.c
index cffc32d660327..5c6f7796d204a 100644
--- a/drivers/pci/xen-pcifront.c
+++ b/drivers/pci/xen-pcifront.c
@@ -599,11 +599,16 @@ static pci_ers_result_t pcifront_common_process(int cmd,
case XEN_PCI_OP_aer_detected:
return pdrv->err_handler->error_detected(pcidev, state);
case XEN_PCI_OP_aer_mmio:
- return pdrv->err_handler->mmio_enabled(pcidev);
+ if (pdrv->err_handler->mmio_enabled)
+ return pdrv->err_handler->mmio_enabled(pcidev);
+ return PCI_ERS_RESULT_RECOVERED;
case XEN_PCI_OP_aer_slotreset:
- return pdrv->err_handler->slot_reset(pcidev);
+ if (pdrv->err_handler->slot_reset)
+ return pdrv->err_handler->slot_reset(pcidev);
+ return PCI_ERS_RESULT_RECOVERED;
case XEN_PCI_OP_aer_resume:
- pdrv->err_handler->resume(pcidev);
+ if (pdrv->err_handler->resume)
+ pdrv->err_handler->resume(pcidev);
return PCI_ERS_RESULT_NONE;
default:
dev_err(&pdev->xdev->dev,
--
2.43.0