[PATCH ath-next 1/2] wifi: ath11k: copy the first fragment's descriptor before queuing it

From: Adriel Santos

Date: Fri Oct 30 2026 - 14:08:55 EST


ath11k_dp_rx_frag_h_mpdu() queues a received fragment on rx_tid->rx_frags
and sets its bit in rx_frag_bitmap before, for fragment 0, it copies the
REO destination descriptor with kmemdup(GFP_ATOMIC). If that copy fails,
the function returns -ENOMEM and its caller,
ath11k_dp_process_rx_err_buf(), frees the msdu and returns its link
descriptor while the msdu is still on rx_frags:

- the next flush of rx_frags (a new sequence number, the fragment timer,
peer teardown or a key install) frees the skb a second time;
- if the remaining fragments of the MPDU arrive first, the bitmap is
complete, ath11k_dp_rx_h_defrag() walks the list with the freed skb,
and ath11k_dp_rx_h_defrag_reo_reinject() dereferences the NULL
rx_tid->dst_ring_desc.

This has not been seen in the field; it was reproduced only by forcing
the allocation to fail.

Copy the descriptor before the fragment is queued, so a failure leaves
nothing of this fragment in rx_tid and the caller's free is the only
one. Fragments other than 0 still return their link descriptor after
being queued.

Found during an LLM-assisted review of the RX defragmentation path; the
fix and its testing were LLM-assisted as well.

Tested-on: IPQ5018 hw1.0 AHB WLAN.HK.2.7.0.1-01744-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1

Fixes: 243874c64c81 ("ath11k: handle RX fragments")
Signed-off-by: Adriel Santos <adriel@xxxxxxxxx>
---

Notes:
How this was tested, and what was not done:

- Found while debugging fragment reception on an IPQ5018 board; the
failure needs a 64-byte GFP_ATOMIC allocation to fail, so it was never
seen in normal use. Under Documentation/process/threat-model.rst it is
a regular bug.
- To exercise the error path, a test-only module parameter made the
kmemdup() fail for every Nth first fragment (N = 1 or 3), with a
client sending 1000-byte pings and TCP uploads fragmented at 256 bytes
on 2.4 GHz (host data path), over two days:
- without this patch, the board crashed and rebooted within seconds,
4 times out of 4; in the two runs that sent one ping at a time, at
the first forced failure. There is no serial console, so no oops
trace was captured.
- with it, 9365 forced failures over 22 minutes: each affected frame
was dropped, with no warning, SUnreclaim flat, and normal reception
once the parameter was cleared.
- The tests ran on OpenWrt's backports of this driver (with downstream
patches; NSS offload disabled for the radio), not on ath-next. The
function and its caller are the same there; on ath-next the patch is
build-tested only (arm64, W=1, no new warnings).
- That tree also carries a not-yet-submitted change that programs the
IPQ5018 RX fragment destination in REO1_MISC_CTL, which ath-next does
not write for this chip. Without it, fragments may not reach this
function on IPQ5018 at all, so ath-next may not take the tested path
on that chip.
- ath12k has the same order in ath12k/wifi7/dp_rx.c; no ath12k hardware
was available to test a fix.

drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/dp_rx.c | 22 ++++++++++++----------
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/dp_rx.c b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/dp_rx.c
index 6d95f7b34..789a56488 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/dp_rx.c
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/dp_rx.c
@@ -3674,6 +3674,17 @@ static int ath11k_dp_rx_frag_h_mpdu(struct ath11k *ar,
goto out_unlock;
}

+ /* On failure the caller frees msdu, so it must not be queued yet */
+ if (frag_no == 0) {
+ rx_tid->dst_ring_desc = kmemdup(ring_desc,
+ sizeof(*rx_tid->dst_ring_desc),
+ GFP_ATOMIC);
+ if (!rx_tid->dst_ring_desc) {
+ ret = -ENOMEM;
+ goto out_unlock;
+ }
+ }
+
if (!rx_tid->rx_frag_bitmap || (frag_no > __fls(rx_tid->rx_frag_bitmap)))
__skb_queue_tail(&rx_tid->rx_frags, msdu);
else
@@ -3683,18 +3694,9 @@ static int ath11k_dp_rx_frag_h_mpdu(struct ath11k *ar,
if (!more_frags)
rx_tid->last_frag_no = frag_no;

- if (frag_no == 0) {
- rx_tid->dst_ring_desc = kmemdup(ring_desc,
- sizeof(*rx_tid->dst_ring_desc),
- GFP_ATOMIC);
- if (!rx_tid->dst_ring_desc) {
- ret = -ENOMEM;
- goto out_unlock;
- }
- } else {
+ if (frag_no != 0)
ath11k_dp_rx_link_desc_return(ab, ring_desc,
HAL_WBM_REL_BM_ACT_PUT_IN_IDLE);
- }

if (!rx_tid->last_frag_no ||
rx_tid->rx_frag_bitmap != GENMASK(rx_tid->last_frag_no, 0)) {
--
2.47.3