Re: [PATCH v1] net/mlx5e: IPoIB: Fix race in QPN to netdev mapping

From: netdev-bot+sashiko

Date: Tue Nov 03 2026 - 03:16:41 EST


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issue(s) to consider.

Critical: 0 · High: 2 · Medium: 1 · Low: 0

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- [High] The use-after-free fix in mlx5i_pkey_get_netdev()
(drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/ipoib/ipoib_vlan.c) is…
- [High] The patch adds a spinlock leak and deadlock to
mlx5i_pkey_get_netdev()…
- [Medium] The patch takes one spinlock, shared by the whole parent, for
every RX completion in the NAPI fast path.

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net/mlx5e: IPoIB: Fix race in QPN to netdev mapping

This commit takes ht_lock around the QPN-to-netdev hash lookups in
mlx5i_pkey_get_netdev() and mlx5i_pkey_del_qpn(). It also puts the
deletion lookup and the unlink in a single critical section. The aim is
to stop the NAPI RX path from reading a qpn_to_netdev node that a child
PKEY interface teardown has already freed.

> diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/ipoib/ipoib_vlan.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/ipoib/ipoib_vlan.c
> index 4120afd097c36..8aea23e0183b7 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/ipoib/ipoib_vlan.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/ipoib/ipoib_vlan.c

[ ... ]

> @@ -128,9 +129,11 @@ struct net_device *mlx5i_pkey_get_netdev(struct net_device *netdev, u32 qpn)
> struct mlx5i_priv *ipriv = netdev_priv(netdev);
> struct qpn_to_netdev *node;
>
> + spin_lock_bh(&ipriv->qpn_htbl->ht_lock);

[Severity: Medium]
mlx5i_complete_rx_cqe() calls mlx5i_pkey_get_netdev() once per CQE on
every RX channel. Child interfaces share the parent's table:

mlx5i_pkey_dev_init() {
...
ipriv->qpn_htbl = parent_ipriv->qpn_htbl;
...
}

With this change, every received packet on every RX queue of the
parent and its PKEY children takes the same ht_lock. Is a shared
per-packet spinlock what was intended here?

The table is only written when a child is created or destroyed. Would
RCU fit better? That would mean hlist_for_each_entry_rcu() in
mlx5i_find_qpn_to_netdev_node(), hlist_add_head_rcu() and
hlist_del_rcu() under ht_lock in the writers, and kfree_rcu() in place
of kfree(node) in mlx5i_pkey_del_qpn().

NAPI already runs with BH disabled, which counts as an RCU read-side
section. So the spin_lock_bh() in the softirq reader would not be needed
either.

The commit message does not mention this tradeoff.

> node = mlx5i_find_qpn_to_netdev_node(ipriv->qpn_htbl->buckets, qpn);
> if (!node)
> return NULL;

[Severity: High]
Does this early return leave ht_lock held and BH disabled?

The only caller, mlx5i_complete_rx_cqe(), expects lookup misses:

netdev = mlx5i_pkey_get_netdev(rq->netdev, qpn);

/* No mapping present, cannot process SKB. This might happen if a child
* interface is going down while having unprocessed CQEs on parent RQ
*/
if (unlikely(!netdev)) {

That is the same teardown case this patch is meant to fix. After one
miss, the next CQE on that CPU calls spin_lock_bh() on the same lock and
spins forever.

Other RX channels, mlx5i_pkey_add_qpn() and mlx5i_pkey_del_qpn() would
also block on the shared ht_lock. Before this patch, the same situation
only dropped the skb.

> + spin_unlock_bh(&ipriv->qpn_htbl->ht_lock);
>
> return node->netdev;
> }

[Severity: High]
Can node be freed after spin_unlock_bh() but before node->netdev is
read?

The commit message says:

The NAPI path copies the netdev pointer while
the lock prevents the mapping node from being freed.

However, the pointer is read after the lock has been dropped. A child
teardown on another CPU can run in that window:

CPU0 CPU1
mlx5i_pkey_get_netdev()
spin_lock_bh(ht_lock)
node = mlx5i_find_qpn_to_netdev_node()
spin_unlock_bh(ht_lock)
mlx5i_dev_cleanup()
mlx5i_pkey_del_qpn()
spin_lock_bh(&ht->ht_lock)
hlist_del_init(&node->hlist)
spin_unlock_bh(&ht->ht_lock)
kfree(node)
return node->netdev;

The free is not deferred, so the race from the commit message is still
there with a smaller window. mlx5i_complete_rx_cqe() would then use the
stale netdev through mlx5i_epriv(netdev) and
priv->channel_stats[rq->ix].

Would it work to copy the pointer before unlocking? For example:

ndev = node ? node->netdev : NULL;
spin_unlock_bh(&ipriv->qpn_htbl->ht_lock);
return ndev;

That would also fix the early return above. Another option is to convert
the table to RCU and use kfree_rcu().

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Sashiko AI review · https://netdev-ai.bots.linux.dev/sashiko/#/patchset/20261102074107.32859-1-18983559317%40163.com