Re: [PATCH v2 1/3] nouveau: Fix NULL pointer dereferences in GETPARAM ioctl

From: lyude

Date: Fri Oct 09 2026 - 17:25:01 EST


On Fri, 2026-10-09 at 11:44 -0600, Jim Cromie via B4 Relay wrote:
> From: Jim Cromie <jim.cromie@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> When hardware or firmware initialization fails, the graphics engine
> (gr) or device functions may remain NULL. Attempting to access these
> during the GETPARAM ioctl (e.g., NOUVEAU_GETPARAM_GRAPH_UNITS)
> results
> in a kernel NULL pointer dereference, causing a crash when userspace
> (GNOME/Mesa) attempts to probe the device.
>
> Add safety checks for 'gr', 'gr->func', and 'nvkm_device->func' in
> the
> ioctl handler. Return -ENODEV to signal the missing hardware state to
> userspace, and use NV_ERROR_ONCE to provide diagnostic proof in the
> kernel log without risking a console flood.
>
> NOTE:
>
> I encountered these crashes while booting unrelated code (in
> dynamic-debug) on real HW.  There was also some fwupd updates around
> this time, so it could all be transient/unreproducible.  But it did
> happen, and could happen again in unforseen circumstances.
>
> @Capitain_Jack tested the error path in v1 by deleting the FW

I can just fix this up before pushing but JFYI - if you put comments
below the --- that's down below, they will show up in the email but not
the commit message.

Either way -

Reviewed-by: Lyude Paul <lyude@xxxxxxxxxx>

>
> Signed-off-by: Jim Cromie <jim.cromie@xxxxxxxxx>
> Tested-by: Daniel Campos Ramos <Capitain_Jack@xxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_abi16.c | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++--
>  1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_abi16.c
> b/drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_abi16.c
> index 4542d5f4ded8..3f130cd4fbcd 100644
> --- a/drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_abi16.c
> +++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_abi16.c
> @@ -306,6 +306,11 @@ nouveau_abi16_ioctl_getparam(ABI16_IOCTL_ARGS)
>   getparam->value = 1;
>   break;
>   case NOUVEAU_GETPARAM_GRAPH_UNITS:
> + if (!gr || !gr->func) {
> + NV_ERROR_ONCE(drm, "GETPARAM_GRAPH_UNITS: no
> gr engine or func\n");
> + return -ENODEV;
> + }
> +
>   getparam->value = nvkm_gr_units(gr);
>   break;
>   case NOUVEAU_GETPARAM_EXEC_PUSH_MAX: {
> @@ -315,10 +320,23 @@ nouveau_abi16_ioctl_getparam(ABI16_IOCTL_ARGS)
>   break;
>   }
>   case NOUVEAU_GETPARAM_VRAM_BAR_SIZE:
> - getparam->value = nvkm_device->func-
> >resource_size(nvkm_device, NVKM_BAR1_FB);
> + if (!nvkm_device || !nvkm_device->func ||
> !nvkm_device->func->resource_size) {
> + NV_ERROR_ONCE(drm, "GETPARAM_VRAM_BAR_SIZE:
> no device func\n");
> + return -ENODEV;
> + }
> +
> + getparam->value =
> + nvkm_device->func-
> >resource_size(nvkm_device, NVKM_BAR1_FB);
>   break;
>   case NOUVEAU_GETPARAM_VRAM_USED: {
> - struct ttm_resource_manager *vram_mgr =
> ttm_manager_type(&drm->ttm.bdev, TTM_PL_VRAM);
> + struct ttm_resource_manager *vram_mgr =
> + ttm_manager_type(&drm->ttm.bdev,
> TTM_PL_VRAM);
> +
> + if (!vram_mgr) {
> + NV_ERROR_ONCE(drm, "GETPARAM_VRAM_USED: no
> vram mgr\n");
> + return -ENODEV;
> + }
> +
>   getparam->value =
> (u64)ttm_resource_manager_usage(vram_mgr);
>   break;
>   }