Re: staging: r8188eu: struct rt_firmware_header issues

From: Michael Straube
Date: Wed Apr 13 2022 - 17:26:23 EST


On 4/13/22 22:58, Pavel Skripkin wrote:
Hi Michael,

On 4/13/22 19:27, Michael Straube wrote:
Hi all,

I think the rt_firmware_hdr structure in rtw_fw.c has some issues.


struct rt_firmware_hdr {
    /*  8-byte alinment required */
    /*  LONG WORD 0 ---- */
    __le16        Signature;    /* 92C0: test chip; 92C,
                     * 88C0: test chip; 88C1: MP A-cut;
                     * 92C1: MP A-cut */
    u8        Category;    /*  AP/NIC and USB/PCI */
    u8        Function;    /*  Reserved for different FW function
                     *  indcation, for further use when
                     *  driver needs to download different
                     *  FW for different conditions */
    __le16        Version;    /*  FW Version */
    u8        Subversion;    /*  FW Subversion, default 0x00 */
    u16        Rsvd1;

    /*  LONG WORD 1 ---- */
    u8        Month;    /*  Release time Month field */
    u8        Date;    /*  Release time Date field */
    u8        Hour;    /*  Release time Hour field */
    u8        Minute;    /*  Release time Minute field */
    __le16        RamCodeSize;    /*  The size of RAM code */
    u8        Foundry;
    u8        Rsvd2;

    /*  LONG WORD 2 ---- */
    __le32        SvnIdx;    /*  The SVN entry index */
    u32        Rsvd3;

    /*  LONG WORD 3 ---- */
    u32        Rsvd4;
    u32        Rsvd5;
};


Then we have in rtl8188e_firmware_download():


    fwhdr = (struct rt_firmware_hdr *)dvobj->firmware.data;

    <snip>

    if (IS_FW_HEADER_EXIST(fwhdr)) {
        /*  Shift 32 bytes for FW header */
        fw_data = fw_data + 32;
        fw_size = fw_size - 32;
    }

We add/sub 32 bytes but the size of struct rt_firmware_hdr is actually
33 bytes. I noticed this when I wanted to replace:


Looks like size of that structure is 36

└──$ pahole -C rt_firmware_hdr r8188eu.ko
struct rt_firmware_hdr {
    __le16                     Signature;            /*     0     2 */
    u8                         Category;             /*     2     1 */
    u8                         Function;             /*     3     1 */
    __le16                     Version;              /*     4     2 */
     u8                         Subversion;           /*     6     1 */

     /* XXX 1 byte hole, try to pack */

     u16                        Rsvd1;                /*     8     2 */
     u8                         Month;                /*    10     1 */
     u8                         Date;                 /*    11     1 */
     u8                         Hour;                 /*    12     1 */
     u8                         Minute;               /*    13     1 */
     __le16                     RamCodeSize;          /*    14     2 */
     u8                         Foundry;              /*    16     1 */
     u8                         Rsvd2;                /*    17     1 */

     /* XXX 2 bytes hole, try to pack */

     __le32                     SvnIdx;               /*    20     4 */
     u32                        Rsvd3;                /*    24     4 */
     u32                        Rsvd4;                /*    28     4 */
     u32                        Rsvd5;                /*    32     4 */

     /* size: 36, cachelines: 1, members: 17 */
     /* sum members: 33, holes: 2, sum holes: 3 */
     /* last cacheline: 36 bytes */
 };


And these comments like 'LONG WORD 1' looks misleading, maybe worth removing.


        fw_data = fw_data + 32;
        fw_size = fw_size - 32;

with:
        fw_data = fw_data + sizeof(struct rt_firmware_hdr);
        fw_size = fw_size - sizeof(struct rt_firmware_hdr);;

To me it looks add/sub 32 is correct here but the struct is
wrong. I don't know if the firmware for this driver is so much different
from firmware for the drivers in drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtlwifi.
They use a struct of size 32.


I am not sure about 32... Why non-packed structures are passed via wires? Maybe `__packed` is missing? Is realtek fw open-source?

Just thoughts.

Also, souldn't the u16 and u32 variables in the struct be __le16 and
__le32 ?

I wonder if we can just use the rtlwifi_firmware_header structure from
drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtlwifi/wifi.h ?


We _should_ use it, since its size is indeed 32 bytes.

└──$ pahole -s vmlinux | rg rtlwifi_firmware_header
rtlwifi_firmware_header    32    0


Looks like you have found a real bug



Hi Pavel,

I looked at the hexdump of rtl8188eufw.bin and compared it with
rtl8188efw.bin and rtlwifi_firmware_header.

The comparsion showed that Rsvd1 should be u8 instead of u16:

OFFSET rtl8188eufw.bin
-----------------------------------------------------------
0x00000000 E1 88 10 00 0B 00 01 00 01 21 11 27 30 36 00 00
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Subversion Rsvd1 Month Date Hour Minute

So rt_firmware_hdr is wrong, but it had no effect because 32 is
hardcoded here:

/* Shift 32 bytes for FW header */
fw_data = fw_data + 32;
fw_size = fw_size - 32;

and all fields after Subversion are not used.

regards,
Michael