RE: Possible race in 4.14 xhci stack

Hi Mathias,

thanks, that's exactly the fix/workaround/cure I wanted to do.
Will fix it this way 😊

Have a nice vacation.

Best regards
Carsten

-----Original Message-----
From: Mathias Nyman <redacted>
Sent: Freitag, 23. Juli 2021 21:44
To: Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>; Schmid, Carsten <redacted>
Cc: USB list <redacted>
Subject: Re: Possible race in 4.14 xhci stack

On 21.7.2021 11.14, Greg KH wrote:

On Wed, Jul 21, 2021 at 07:51:58AM +0000, Schmid, Carsten wrote:

quoted

Hi Greg,

quoted

quoted

Hi Mathias,

i got a NULL pointer deref in the usbfs and analyzed it.
The connected device seemed to have trouble on USB transmissions.
However, I have the impression that there is a race between finishing URB handling and disconnection of devices.
In detail:
[ 4979.029666] xhci_hcd 0000:00:15.0: USB transfer error. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

Did your cable die?

And 4.14 is quite old, what about 5.13?

thanks,

greg k-h

That was reported from a device in the field.
Yes, a defective cable is bad, but shouldn't the kernel's health avoid a NULL pointer deref?

Yes, I am not disagreeing about that, patches always welcome :)

Current kernel already has a cure for the symptom, avoiding the NULL pointer deref:

struct xhci_ring *xhci_triad_to_transfer_ring(...) {
struct xhci_virt_ep *ep;

ep = xhci_get_virt_ep(xhci, slot_id, ep_index);
if (!ep)
return NULL;
...
}

I'm still on vacation next week, but after that we could look closer at the root cause.

Thanks,
Mathias
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