From: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
To: Naga Chumbalkar <nagananda.chumbalkar@hp.com>
Cc: davej@codemonkey.org.uk, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, stable@kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] cpufreq: pcc-cpufreq: sanity check to prevent a NULL pointer dereference
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 16:52:57 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20110908165257.7b613baf.akpm@linux-foundation.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20110831200910.27633.20372.sendpatchset@nchumbalkar.americas.cpqcorp.net>
On Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:08:45 +0000 (UTC)
Naga Chumbalkar <nagananda.chumbalkar@hp.com> wrote:
> If, for whatever reason, "pr" ends up being NULL we would end up in a PANIC
> as seen below:
>
> Loading CPUFreq modules[ 437.661360] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer
> dereference at (null)
> IP: [<ffffffffa0434314>] pcc_cpufreq_cpu_init+0x74/0x220 [pcc_cpufreq]
>
> It's better to prevent the PANIC by failing the driver, and allowing the system to boot.
>
> Signed-off-by: Naga Chumbalkar <nagananda.chumbalkar@hp.com>
> Cc: stable@kernel.org
>
> diff --git a/drivers/cpufreq/pcc-cpufreq.c b/drivers/cpufreq/pcc-cpufreq.c
> index 7b0603e..cdc02ac 100644
> --- a/drivers/cpufreq/pcc-cpufreq.c
> +++ b/drivers/cpufreq/pcc-cpufreq.c
> @@ -261,6 +261,9 @@ static int pcc_get_offset(int cpu)
> pr = per_cpu(processors, cpu);
> pcc_cpu_data = per_cpu_ptr(pcc_cpu_info, cpu);
>
> + if (!pr)
> + return -ENODEV;
> +
> status = acpi_evaluate_object(pr->handle, "PCCP", NULL, &buffer);
> if (ACPI_FAILURE(status))
> return -ENODEV;
hm, from reading drivers/acpi/processor_driver.c it appears that
per_cpu(processors, n)==NULL is an expected and valid state. Heaven
knows what that state actually *means* - apparently this is a secret.
I assume that you've hit this crash in real live code, hence your
suggestion of a -stable backport?
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2011-09-08 23:53 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2011-08-31 20:08 Naga Chumbalkar
2011-09-08 23:52 ` Andrew Morton [this message]
2011-09-12 17:05 ` Chumbalkar, Nagananda
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