Thread (3 messages) 3 messages, 3 authors, 2026-02-16

Re: [PATCH net] rds: tcp: fix uninit-value in __inet_bind

From: Charalampos Mitrodimas <hidden>
Date: 2026-02-15 17:41:28
Also in: linux-rdma, lkml

Tabrez Ahmed [off-list ref] writes:
KMSAN reported an uninit-value access in __inet_bind() when binding an RDS TCP socket.
The uninitialized memory originates from rds_tcp_conn_alloc(), which uses kmem_cache_alloc() to allocate the rds_tcp_connection structure.

The structure is not zero-initialized, leaving random data in its fields.
When the networking stack later tries to bind the socket using these dirty values, KMSAN flags the uninitialized access.
Most fields in rds_tcp_connection are explicitly initialized after
allocation right? The only field actually read before being written is
t_client_port_group. Could the description be more specific about which
field is problematic?
Fix this by using kmem_cache_zalloc() instead of kmem_cache_alloc() to ensure the structure is zeroed out upon allocation.

Reported-by: syzbot+aae646f09192f72a68dc@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=aae646f09192f72a68dc
Tested-by: syzbot+aae646f09192f72a68dc@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
Fixes: 70041088e3b9 ("RDS: Add TCP transport to RDS")
Not sure about this, the field trigger this bug, t_client_port_group,
did not exist in 70041088e3b9. It was introduced in

  a20a6992558f ("net/rds: Encode cp_index in TCP source port")

which added both the field and the code in rds_tcp_conn_path_connect()
that reads it uninitialized:

     if (++tc->t_client_port_group >= port_groups)

Should the Fixes that reference that instead? If I'm correct ofc.

Also, nit, commit message body should not exceed 75 characters.
Signed-off-by: Tabrez Ahmed <redacted>
---
This is my first patch. Any feedback is appreciated!
Best of luck.
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
 net/rds/tcp.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/net/rds/tcp.c b/net/rds/tcp.c
index 45484a93d75f..04f310255692 100644
--- a/net/rds/tcp.c
+++ b/net/rds/tcp.c
@@ -373,7 +373,7 @@ static int rds_tcp_conn_alloc(struct rds_connection *conn, gfp_t gfp)
 	int ret = 0;
 
 	for (i = 0; i < RDS_MPATH_WORKERS; i++) {
-		tc = kmem_cache_alloc(rds_tcp_conn_slab, gfp);
+		tc = kmem_cache_zalloc(rds_tcp_conn_slab, gfp);
 		if (!tc) {
 			ret = -ENOMEM;
 			goto fail;
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