Re: [PATCH] - Fixes NULL pointer deference in usb-serial driver.

From: Luiz Fernando Capitulino
Date: Wed Nov 16 2005 - 12:55:18 EST


On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 09:24:16 -0800
Greg KH <gregkh@xxxxxxx> wrote:

| On Wed, Nov 16, 2005 at 03:16:34PM -0200, Luiz Fernando Capitulino wrote:
| > Hi Greg,
| >
| > If I run several instances of this program in parallel:
| >
| > #include <stdio.h>
| > #include <string.h>
| > #include <unistd.h>
| > #include <stdlib.h>
| > #include <errno.h>
| > #include <fcntl.h>
| > #include <termios.h>
| > #include <sys/types.h>
| > #include <sys/stat.h>
| > #include <sys/ioctl.h>
| >
| > int main(int argc, char *argv[])
| > {
| > int ret, fd;
| > char *port;
| > struct termios tio, original;
| >
| > port = argv[1];
| > if (!port)
| > port = "/dev/ttyUSB0";
| >
| > fd = open(port, O_RDWR | O_NONBLOCK | O_NOCTTY);
| > if (fd < 0) {
| > perror("open()");
| > exit(1);
| > }
| >
| > usleep(100);
| > ret = tcgetattr(fd, &original);
| > if (ret < 0) {
| > perror("tcgetattr()");
| > exit(1);
| > }
| >
| > ret = close(fd);
| > if (ret) {
| > perror("close()");
| > exit(1);
| > }
| >
| > return 0;
| > }
| >
| > with a Siemens CX65 mobile (which uses the pl2303 driver), I get the
| > following NULL pointer deference:
| >
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009410] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 000000a4
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009430] printing eip:
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009436] d0a1f888
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009441] *pde = 00000000
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009449] Oops: 0000 [#1]
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009454] DEBUG_PAGEALLOC
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009461] Modules linked in: pl2303 usbserial ide_cd cdrom e100 mii uhci_hcd ehci_hcd usbcore quota_v2 snd_cs46xx snd_rawmidi snd_seq_device snd_ac97_codec snd_ac97_bus snd_pcm snd_timer snd soundcore snd_page_alloc
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009504] CPU: 0
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009507] EIP: 0060:[pg0+275417224/1070101504] Not tainted VLI
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009512] EFLAGS: 00210246 (2.6.15-rc1y-gee90f62b)
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009548] EIP is at serial_ioctl+0x28/0xd0 [usbserial]
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009558] eax: 00000000 ebx: 00000000 ecx: 00005401 edx: c99c4f58
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009569] esi: ffffffed edi: 00005401 ebp: c94c3f3c esp: c94c3f18
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009578] ds: 007b es: 007b ss: 0068
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009588] Process termios_set (pid: 3091, threadinfo=c94c2000 task=c9ba6ad0)
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009595] Stack: 00000000 c95c1b7c b7f014e0 c94c3f5c c0144ed6 c99c4f58 cb0eedf8 d0a1f860
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009618] c9bd6000 c94c3f60 c01f5c23 bfc7c010 c9bd6000 00005401 c99c4f58 c02eda60
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009640] c99c4f58 c01f5970 c94c3f78 c0164ac8 bfc7c010 c99c4f58 00000000 00000003
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009662] Call Trace:
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009668] [show_stack+122/144] show_stack+0x7a/0x90
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009689] [show_registers+330/432] show_registers+0x14a/0x1b0
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009702] [die+220/352] die+0xdc/0x160
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009714] [do_page_fault+724/1461] do_page_fault+0x2d4/0x5b5
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009738] [error_code+79/84] error_code+0x4f/0x54
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009750] [tty_ioctl+691/944] tty_ioctl+0x2b3/0x3b0
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009768] [do_ioctl+72/112] do_ioctl+0x48/0x70
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009786] [vfs_ioctl+95/416] vfs_ioctl+0x5f/0x1a0
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009798] [sys_ioctl+57/96] sys_ioctl+0x39/0x60
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009809] [syscall_call+7/11] syscall_call+0x7/0xb
| > Nov 15 12:32:19 tirion kernel: [ 147.009820] Code: ef eb 88 55 89 e5 83 ec 24 89 75 f8 be ed ff ff ff 89 7d fc 89 cf 89 5d f4 89 55 f0 8b 98 b4 09 00 00 a1 04 59 a2 d0 85 c0 75 78 <8b> 83 a4 00 00 00 85 c0 74 3e 8b 03 8b 70 04 8b 86 fc 00 00 00
| >
| > The deference is at drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c:352. The first fix I
| > thought was just to check if 'port' is NULL, and to return '-ENODEV' if so.
| > I did that, but it brought up another problem: when the bug is triggered
| > (ie, 'port' is NULL) the serial port in use becomes invalid, and I have to
| > replug the device's cable. This will force the device to take the next free
| > port.
| >
| > We cannot live with this of course, because the numbers of ports is
| > limited.
| >
| > My guess is:
| >
| > 1. Process A calls open() and tcgetattr(). When it calls close(), the specific
| > driver function put it to sleep at usb_serial.c:242 (I'm using pl2303 driver)
| >
| > 2. Process B calls open() and before the call to tcgetattr() it is put to
| > sleep.
| >
| > 3. Process A wakes up and finish the close procedure (which resets
| > 'port->tty->driver_data')
| >
| > 4. Process B wakes up, executes serial_ioctl() and gets a NULL pointer in
| > 'port->tty->driver_data'.
|
| Ugh, the tty core should really protect us from stuff like this,
| unfortunately, there is no locking there, yet. People are working on
| it...
|
| > So, based on my guess the right fix _seems_ to be serialize the construction
| > and destruction of 'port'. The following patch does that, I can run hundreds
| > instances of the test-case (and use minicom in parallel) without any
| > problem.
|
| But I have a question about:
|
| > @@ -232,9 +238,12 @@ static void serial_close(struct tty_stru
| >
| > dbg("%s - port %d", __FUNCTION__, port->number);
| >
| > - if (port->open_count == 0)
| > + if (down_interruptible(&port->sem))
| > return;
| >
|
| If this gets interrupted, the close() never completes properly, yet
| userspace thinks it has, right? That's not good.

Yes, that's right. The ti_usb_3410_5052 USB serial solves this, it just
continues if it gets interrupted.

Not sure if it's a good solution.

| Why not just check:
| if (!port)
| return -ENODEV;
|
| at the beginning of the different serial_* functions, like
| serial_close() does? Will that solve this problem for you with no locks
| needed?

I have this patch too, It solves only the NULL deference. But the bug is
still there (and it's very easy to reproduce).

When it is triggered (ie, 'port' is NULL) the serial port in use
becomes invalid, and I have to replug the device's cable to get the next
free port.

From an user's POV, it's also very bad.

--
Luiz Fernando N. Capitulino
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