[PATCH net v2] net: atl1c: free the RX buffer when the descriptor reports an error

From: Federico Musto

Date: Mon Nov 02 2026 - 16:54:30 EST


atl1c_clean_rx() drops a frame whose return descriptor carries
RRS_RX_ERR_SUM or RRS_802_3_LEN_ERR by calling atl1c_clean_rfd(), which
only marks the RFD free and clears the skb pointer. Nothing unmaps the DMA
mapping and nothing frees the skb, so every errored frame - CRC, alignment,
truncation, runt - leaks one skb and one DMA mapping. The driver uses a
32-bit DMA mask, so on a host without an IOMMU each of those mappings also
pins a swiotlb slot.

Unmap and free before the RFD is recycled. Factor the RFD lookup and
DMA unmap into a helper shared with the good path, using le32_to_cpu() when
decoding the descriptor index. The hardware already counts these frames in
its own error counters, which atl1c_get_stats() reports, so no software
counter is added here.

Fixes: 43250ddd75a3 ("atl1c: Atheros L1C Gigabit Ethernet driver")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Federico Musto <federico@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
v1 -> v2, after Paolo Abeni's review:
- decode rrs->word0 with le32_to_cpu() before extracting the RFD index;
this fixes the sparse warning on the new code
- factor the RFD lookup and DMA unmap into atl1c_unmap_rx_buffer(), shared
by the error and good paths instead of duplicating them

v1: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20261027115156.17128-1-federico@xxxxxxxxxxxxx/

Spotted while reviewing a fix for a different problem in the same function
(skb_over_panic on oversized RX frames), by the Sashiko review bot. It is
independent of that patch and applies on its own.

The guard on buffer_info->skb is there because the slot can be empty after a
reset; rfd_num != 1 stays on the old path, since multi-RFD is not supported
by this driver anywhere else either.
---
.../net/ethernet/atheros/atl1c/atl1c_main.c | 33 +++++++++++++++----
1 file changed, 27 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/atl1c/atl1c_main.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/atl1c/atl1c_main.c
index eddd840..689941e 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/atl1c/atl1c_main.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/atl1c/atl1c_main.c
@@ -1864,6 +1864,23 @@ static void atl1c_clean_rfd(struct atl1c_rfd_ring *rfd_ring,
rfd_ring->next_to_clean = rfd_index;
}

+static struct atl1c_buffer *
+atl1c_unmap_rx_buffer(struct pci_dev *pdev, struct atl1c_rfd_ring *rfd_ring,
+ struct atl1c_recv_ret_status *rrs)
+{
+ struct atl1c_buffer *buffer_info;
+ u16 rfd_index;
+
+ rfd_index = (le32_to_cpu(rrs->word0) >> RRS_RX_RFD_INDEX_SHIFT) &
+ RRS_RX_RFD_INDEX_MASK;
+ buffer_info = &rfd_ring->buffer_info[rfd_index];
+ if (buffer_info->skb)
+ dma_unmap_single(&pdev->dev, buffer_info->dma,
+ buffer_info->length, DMA_FROM_DEVICE);
+
+ return buffer_info;
+}
+
/**
* atl1c_clean_rx - NAPI Rx polling callback
* @napi: napi info
@@ -1874,7 +1891,7 @@ static int atl1c_clean_rx(struct napi_struct *napi, int budget)
struct atl1c_rrd_ring *rrd_ring =
container_of(napi, struct atl1c_rrd_ring, napi);
struct atl1c_adapter *adapter = rrd_ring->adapter;
- u16 rfd_num, rfd_index;
+ u16 rfd_num;
u16 length;
struct pci_dev *pdev = adapter->pdev;
struct net_device *netdev = adapter->netdev;
@@ -1908,6 +1925,14 @@ static int atl1c_clean_rx(struct napi_struct *napi, int budget)
rrs_checked:
atl1c_clean_rrd(rrd_ring, rrs, rfd_num);
if (rrs->word3 & (RRS_RX_ERR_SUM | RRS_802_3_LEN_ERR)) {
+ /* atl1c_clean_rfd() drops the only pointer to the skb. */
+ if (likely(rfd_num == 1)) {
+ buffer_info = atl1c_unmap_rx_buffer(pdev, rfd_ring,
+ rrs);
+ if (buffer_info->skb)
+ kfree_skb_reason(buffer_info->skb,
+ SKB_DROP_REASON_NOT_SPECIFIED);
+ }
atl1c_clean_rfd(rfd_ring, rrs, rfd_num);
if (netif_msg_rx_err(adapter))
dev_warn(&pdev->dev,
@@ -1920,11 +1945,7 @@ rrs_checked:
RRS_PKT_SIZE_MASK);
/* Good Receive */
if (likely(rfd_num == 1)) {
- rfd_index = (rrs->word0 >> RRS_RX_RFD_INDEX_SHIFT) &
- RRS_RX_RFD_INDEX_MASK;
- buffer_info = &rfd_ring->buffer_info[rfd_index];
- dma_unmap_single(&pdev->dev, buffer_info->dma,
- buffer_info->length, DMA_FROM_DEVICE);
+ buffer_info = atl1c_unmap_rx_buffer(pdev, rfd_ring, rrs);
skb = buffer_info->skb;
} else {
/* TODO */
--
2.54.0 (Apple Git-157)