[PATCH net 0/5] rose: fix use-after-free and reference counting bugs
Bernard Pidoux <[email protected]> Sun, 26 Apr 2026 16:43:00 +0200
| Newsgroups | org.kernel.vger.linux-hams,org.kernel.vger.linux-kernel,org.kernel.vger.netdev |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
This series fixes several bugs in the ROSE protocol loopback path and state machines, all confirmed by KASAN on a live system. A long-standing practical consequence of these bugs is that once the rose module has been used to establish at least one connection, it can no longer be unloaded cleanly: rmmod(8) hangs or causes a kernel crash because outstanding references and running timers prevent the module from completing its exit path. Patches 2 and 3 together fix this by ensuring the loopback timer stops cleanly and all neighbour references are released on module exit. Patch 1 fixes a device reference leak in rose_loopback_timer(): dev_put() was only called on the failure path of rose_rx_call_request(), leaking a reference on every successful loopback CALL_REQUEST. It also removes a dead check that can never be true for the loopback neighbour. Patch 2 adds hold/put protection around the loopback timer body so that rose_loopback_neigh cannot be freed while the callback is running. Patch 3 fixes a race between the loopback timer and module removal by switching rose_loopback_clear() to timer_delete_sync() and adding an atomic loopback_stopping flag that prevents the timer from re-arming itself after module exit has started. Patch 4 clears rose->neighbour to NULL after every rose_neigh_put() call in the ROSE state machines (rose_in.c), preventing use of a potentially freed pointer by later code paths. Patch 5 guards the rose_neigh_put() call in rose_timer_expiry() STATE_2 against a NULL pointer that can appear when a concurrent teardown path (e.g. rose_kill_by_device()) has already cleared the neighbour pointer between a timer re-arm and the next firing. Bernard Pidoux (5): rose: fix dev_put() leak in rose_loopback_timer() rose: hold loopback neighbour reference across timer callback rose: fix race between loopback timer and module removal rose: clear neighbour pointer after rose_neigh_put() in state machines rose: guard rose_neigh_put() against NULL in timer expiry net/rose/rose_in.c | 6 +++++ net/rose/rose_loopback.c | 53 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------- net/rose/rose_timer.c | 5 +++- 3 files changed, 46 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-) -- 2.51.0