[PATCH net v4 1/4] gve: Fix race between stats query and queue reconfig

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From: Harshitha Ramamurthy <hramamurthy@google.com>
Date: 2026-10-29 21:16:38
Also in: lkml, stable
Subsystem: networking drivers, the rest · Maintainers: Andrew Lunn, "David S. Miller", Eric Dumazet, Jakub Kicinski, Paolo Abeni, Linus Torvalds

From: Pin-yen Lin <redacted>

Fix a concurrency bug where network statistics queries race with queue
reconfiguration or interface teardown, causing a Use-After-Free (UAF) or
NULL pointer dereference.

Currently, statistics queries access priv->tx and priv->rx without
locking. When an interface is brought down or reconfigured,
gve_queues_mem_remove() frees these arrays. A concurrent stats query
can dereference freed queue structures and crash the kernel.

This issue was discovered and actually triggered by the
drivers/net/stats.py selftest. When an interface was brought down,
querying per-queue statistics via Netlink caused a kernel NULL pointer
dereference in gve_get_rx_queue_stats():

  BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000000a0
  RIP: 0010:gve_get_rx_queue_stats+0x17/0x50 [gve]
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   netdev_stat_queue_sum+0x11c/0x250
   netdev_nl_stats_by_netdev+0x21b/0x2d0
   netdev_nl_qstats_get_dumpit+0xd2/0x220
   genl_dumpit+0x32/0x90
   netlink_dump+0x1d2/0x450
   __netlink_dump_start+0x1db/0x2a0
   genl_family_rcv_msg_dumpit+0x9b/0x100
   ...

The per-queue stats callbacks run under the netdev instance lock, so
this NULL dereference is not a race; it happens on any query while the
interface is down.

Additionally, concurrent stats queries during queue reconfiguration can
race with gve_queues_mem_remove(), causing a Use-After-Free.
This affects gve_get_stats() and gve_handle_report_stats(), which do
not hold the instance lock.

Fix this by introducing stats_lock to serialize stats queries against
queue teardown. In gve_queues_mem_remove(), queue pointers are set to
NULL under stats_lock before freeing. Stats readers acquire the lock
and verify pointers are non-NULL before reading counters.
The per-queue stats callbacks also take stats_lock so that all readers
follow the same locking rule.

This change was tested using the DQO RDA queue format.

Cc: <redacted>
Fixes: f5cedc84a30d ("gve: Add transmit and receive support")
Co-developed-by: Debarghya Kundu <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Debarghya Kundu <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Pin-yen Lin <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Harshitha Ramamurthy <hramamurthy@google.com>
---

Changes in v4:
- Clarify in the commit message that the qstats NULL dereference is not
  a race, and which readers race with queue teardown (Sashiko)
- Change the Fixes tag to f5cedc84a30d (Sashiko)

Changes in v3:
- Retitled from "gve: Add NULL pointer checks for per-queue statistics"
- Protect all stats queries and queue lifecycle updates with spinlock
  (sashiko)
- Refined the commit message

 drivers/net/ethernet/google/gve/gve.h      |  2 ++
 drivers/net/ethernet/google/gve/gve_main.c | 37 +++++++++++++++++++---
 2 files changed, 35 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/google/gve/gve.h b/drivers/net/ethernet/google/gve/gve.h
index b7ce6e8632db..104468c2c07f 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/google/gve/gve.h
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/google/gve/gve.h

@@ -957,6 +957,8 @@ struct gve_priv {
 	struct workqueue_struct *gve_wq;
 	struct work_struct service_task;
 	struct work_struct stats_report_task;
+	/* Synchronizes stats accesses and queue teardown */
+	spinlock_t stats_lock;
 	unsigned long service_task_flags;
 	unsigned long state_flags;

diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/google/gve/gve_main.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/google/gve/gve_main.c
index 2437cd8ba633..26fdd22644f4 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/google/gve/gve_main.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/google/gve/gve_main.c

@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ static void gve_get_stats(struct net_device *dev, struct rtnl_link_stats64 *s)
 	int num_tx_queues;
 	int ring;
 
+	spin_lock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
 	num_tx_queues = gve_num_tx_queues(priv);
 	if (priv->rx) {
 		for (ring = 0; ring < priv->rx_cfg.num_queues; ring++) {

@@ -96,6 +97,7 @@ static void gve_get_stats(struct net_device *dev, struct rtnl_link_stats64 *s)
 			s->tx_bytes += bytes;
 		}
 	}
+	spin_unlock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
 }
 
 static int gve_alloc_flow_rule_caches(struct gve_priv *priv)

@@ -642,9 +644,13 @@ static void gve_queues_mem_remove(struct gve_priv *priv)
 	struct gve_rx_alloc_rings_cfg rx_alloc_cfg = {0};
 
 	gve_get_curr_alloc_cfgs(priv, &tx_alloc_cfg, &rx_alloc_cfg);
-	gve_queues_mem_free(priv, &tx_alloc_cfg, &rx_alloc_cfg);
+
+	spin_lock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
 	priv->tx = NULL;
 	priv->rx = NULL;
+	spin_unlock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
+
+	gve_queues_mem_free(priv, &tx_alloc_cfg, &rx_alloc_cfg);
 }
 
 static void gve_free_control_plane_resources(struct gve_priv *priv)

@@ -1383,6 +1389,7 @@ static int gve_queues_start(struct gve_priv *priv,
 	int err;
 
 	/* Record new resources into priv */
+	spin_lock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
 	priv->tx = tx_alloc_cfg->tx;
 	priv->rx = rx_alloc_cfg->rx;

@@ -1396,10 +1403,11 @@ static int gve_queues_start(struct gve_priv *priv,
 	priv->rx_pages_per_qpl = rx_alloc_cfg->pages_per_qpl;
 	priv->header_split_enabled = rx_alloc_cfg->enable_header_split;
 	priv->rx_cfg.packet_buffer_size = rx_alloc_cfg->packet_buffer_size;
+	gve_init_sync_stats(priv);
+	spin_unlock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
 
 	gve_tx_start_rings(priv, gve_num_tx_queues(priv));
 	gve_rx_start_rings(priv, rx_alloc_cfg->qcfg_rx->num_queues);
-	gve_init_sync_stats(priv);
 
 	err = netif_set_real_num_tx_queues(dev, priv->tx_cfg.num_queues);
 	if (err)

@@ -2266,6 +2274,7 @@ void gve_handle_report_stats(struct gve_priv *priv)
 	if (!gve_get_report_stats(priv))
 		return;
 
+	spin_lock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
 	be64_add_cpu(&priv->stats_report->written_count, 1);
 	/* tx stats */
 	if (priv->tx) {

@@ -2330,6 +2339,7 @@ void gve_handle_report_stats(struct gve_priv *priv)
 			};
 		}
 	}
+	spin_unlock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
 }
 
 /* Handle NIC status register changes, reset requests and report stats */

@@ -2786,9 +2796,15 @@ static void gve_get_rx_queue_stats(struct net_device *dev, int idx,
 				   struct netdev_queue_stats_rx *rx_stats)
 {
 	struct gve_priv *priv = netdev_priv(dev);
-	struct gve_rx_ring *rx = &priv->rx[idx];
+	struct gve_rx_ring *rx;
 	unsigned int start;
 
+	spin_lock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
+	if (!priv->rx)
+		goto unlock;
+
+	rx = &priv->rx[idx];
+
 	do {
 		start = u64_stats_fetch_begin(&rx->statss);
 		rx_stats->packets = rx->rpackets;

@@ -2796,20 +2812,32 @@ static void gve_get_rx_queue_stats(struct net_device *dev, int idx,
 		rx_stats->alloc_fail = rx->rx_skb_alloc_fail +
 				       rx->rx_buf_alloc_fail;
 	} while (u64_stats_fetch_retry(&rx->statss, start));
+
+unlock:
+	spin_unlock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
 }
 
 static void gve_get_tx_queue_stats(struct net_device *dev, int idx,
 				   struct netdev_queue_stats_tx *tx_stats)
 {
 	struct gve_priv *priv = netdev_priv(dev);
-	struct gve_tx_ring *tx = &priv->tx[idx];
+	struct gve_tx_ring *tx;
 	unsigned int start;
 
+	spin_lock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
+	if (!priv->tx)
+		goto unlock;
+
+	tx = &priv->tx[idx];
+
 	do {
 		start = u64_stats_fetch_begin(&tx->statss);
 		tx_stats->packets = tx->pkt_done;
 		tx_stats->bytes = tx->bytes_done;
 	} while (u64_stats_fetch_retry(&tx->statss, start));
+
+unlock:
+	spin_unlock_bh(&priv->stats_lock);
 }
 
 static void gve_get_base_stats(struct net_device *dev,

@@ -2935,6 +2963,7 @@ static int gve_probe(struct pci_dev *pdev, const struct pci_device_id *ent)
 	}
 	INIT_WORK(&priv->service_task, gve_service_task);
 	INIT_WORK(&priv->stats_report_task, gve_stats_report_task);
+	spin_lock_init(&priv->stats_lock);
 	priv->tx_cfg.max_queues = max_tx_queues;
 	priv->rx_cfg.max_queues = max_rx_queues;

-- 
2.56.0.313.g2479322e68-goog

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