[PATCH v3] hwrng: core - Stop/start hwrng_fillfn() kthread before/after suspend-resume

[PATCH v3] hwrng: core - Stop/start hwrng_fillfn() kthread before/after suspend-resume

[Thomas Richard (TI)]

The hwrng_fillfn() kernel thread accesses the RNG device directly. During
suspend and resume sequences, hwrng_fillfn() may attempt to access the RNG
device while it is suspended. To address this, the hwrng_fillfn() kernel
thread is stopped before suspend, and restarted after resume. This is done
using the pm_notifier mechanism.

Issue was found while doing suspend-to-ram on J721S2 EVM board with
omap-rng driver.

echo mem > /sys/power/state
[   27.922259] PM: suspend entry (deep)
[   27.927191] Filesystems sync: 0.000 seconds
[   27.933858] Freezing user space processes
[   27.939119] Freezing user space processes completed (elapsed 0.001 seconds)
[   27.946090] OOM killer disabled.
[   27.949315] Freezing remaining freezable tasks
[   27.954887] Freezing remaining freezable tasks completed (elapsed 0.001 seconds)
[   27.963337] GFP mask restricted
[   27.967069] omap_rng 4e10000.rng: PM: calling platform_pm_suspend @ 195, parent: 4e00000.crypto
[   27.967072] mmcblk mmc1:9fb0: PM: calling mmc_bus_suspend @ 122, parent: mmc1
[   27.968636] mmcblk mmc1:9fb0: PM: mmc_bus_suspend returned 0 after 1546 usecs
[   27.975778] omap_rng 4e10000.rng: PM: platform_pm_suspend returned 0 after 3 usecs
...
[   33.510667] ti-sci 44083000.system-controller: PM: ti_sci_suspend_noirq returned 0 after 0 usecs
[   33.510671] SError Interrupt on CPU0, code 0x00000000bf000000 -- SError
[   33.510681] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 132 Comm: hwrng Tainted: G   M    W           7.0.0-12695-g8923b7a6e11d #19 PREEMPT
[   33.510690] Tainted: [M]=MACHINE_CHECK, [W]=WARN
[   33.510693] Hardware name: Texas Instruments J721S2 EVM (DT)
[   33.510697] pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
[   33.510701] pc : omap_rng_do_read+0x3c/0xe0
[   33.510709] lr : omap_rng_do_read+0x58/0xe0
[   33.510712] sp : ffff80008942be00
[   33.510713] x29: ffff80008942be00 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: 0000000000000000
[   33.510719] x26: 0000000000000010 x25: 0000000000000010 x24: ffff0008065644e8
[   33.510724] x23: ffff8000878b3370 x22: ffff00080148b2c0 x21: 0000000000000000
[   33.510728] x20: ffff000806564480 x19: 0000000000000064 x18: 0000000000000000
[   33.510732] x17: 6573752031207265 x16: 7466612030206465 x15: 6e72757465722071
[   33.510737] x14: ffff0008062c8080 x13: 000031702bc0da42 x12: 0000000000000001
[   33.510741] x11: 00000000000000c0 x10: 0000000000000b30 x9 : ffff80008942bc80
[   33.510745] x8 : ffff0008062c8b90 x7 : ffff000b7dfa34c0 x6 : 0000000805ca16c1
[   33.510749] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : ffff800080e17bfc x3 : ffff800087389c68
[   33.510753] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000010 x0 : 000000000000a7c6
[   33.510759] Kernel panic - not syncing: Asynchronous SError Interrupt
[   33.510762] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 132 Comm: hwrng Tainted: G   M    W           7.0.0-12695-g8923b7a6e11d #19 PREEMPT
[   33.510767] Tainted: [M]=MACHINE_CHECK, [W]=WARN
[   33.510768] Hardware name: Texas Instruments J721S2 EVM (DT)
[   33.510770] Call trace:
[   33.510772]  show_stack+0x18/0x24 (C)
[   33.510780]  dump_stack_lvl+0x34/0x8c
[   33.510788]  dump_stack+0x18/0x24
[   33.510792]  vpanic+0x47c/0x4dc
[   33.510799]  do_panic_on_target_cpu+0x0/0x1c
[   33.510803]  add_taint+0x0/0xbc
[   33.510807]  arm64_serror_panic+0x70/0x80
[   33.510812]  do_serror+0x3c/0x70
[   33.510815]  el1h_64_error_handler+0x34/0x50
[   33.510823]  el1h_64_error+0x6c/0x70
[   33.510827]  omap_rng_do_read+0x3c/0xe0 (P)
[   33.510831]  hwrng_fillfn+0x98/0x330
[   33.510834]  kthread+0x130/0x13c
[   33.510845]  ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20
[   33.510850] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs
[   33.519442] Kernel Offset: disabled
[   33.519444] CPU features: 0x04000000,800a0008,00040001,0400421b
[   33.519448] Memory Limit: none
[   33.732904] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: Asynchronous SError Interrupt ]---

Signed-off-by: Thomas Richard (TI) <thomas.richard@bootlin.com>
---
As reported by Herbert and Sashiko, v2 was not safe because there was no
locking. For the v3 I used a different strategy. The hwrng_fillfn() kthread
is stopped before suspend, and restarted after resume. This is done using a
pm_notifier.
---
Changes in v3:
- use pm_notifier to stop/start the hwrng_fillfn() kthread before/after
  suspend-resume.
- Link to v2: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260601-hw-random-fix-hwrng-fillfn-crash-suspend-resume-v2-1-667ce5da32ee@bootlin.com

Changes in v2:
- Initialize rc variable.
- Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260513-hw-random-fix-hwrng-fillfn-crash-suspend-resume-v1-1-b12551c1c7dd@bootlin.com
---
 drivers/char/hw_random/core.c | 89 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 74 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/char/hw_random/core.c b/drivers/char/hw_random/core.c
index 6931657ad2ca..12db2e3eb122 100644
--- a/drivers/char/hw_random/core.c
+++ b/drivers/char/hw_random/core.c
@@ -19,12 +19,14 @@
 #include <linux/kthread.h>
 #include <linux/miscdevice.h>
 #include <linux/module.h>
+#include <linux/notifier.h>
 #include <linux/random.h>
 #include <linux/rcupdate.h>
 #include <linux/sched.h>
 #include <linux/sched/signal.h>
 #include <linux/slab.h>
 #include <linux/string.h>
+#include <linux/suspend.h>
 #include <linux/sysfs.h>
 #include <linux/uaccess.h>
 #include <linux/workqueue.h>
@@ -57,6 +59,8 @@ MODULE_PARM_DESC(default_quality,
 
 static int hwrng_init(struct hwrng *rng);
 static int hwrng_fillfn(void *unused);
+static void hwrng_start_hwrng_fillfn(void);
+static void hwrng_stop_hwrng_fillfn(void);
 
 static size_t rng_buffer_size(void)
 {
@@ -114,13 +118,7 @@ static int set_current_rng(struct hwrng *rng)
 	}
 
 	/* if necessary, start hwrng thread */
-	if (!hwrng_fill) {
-		hwrng_fill = kthread_run(hwrng_fillfn, NULL, "hwrng");
-		if (IS_ERR(hwrng_fill)) {
-			pr_err("hwrng_fill thread creation failed\n");
-			hwrng_fill = NULL;
-		}
-	}
+	hwrng_start_hwrng_fillfn();
 
 	return 0;
 }
@@ -137,10 +135,7 @@ static void drop_current_rng(void)
 	RCU_INIT_POINTER(current_rng, NULL);
 	synchronize_rcu();
 
-	if (hwrng_fill) {
-		kthread_stop(hwrng_fill);
-		hwrng_fill = NULL;
-	}
+	hwrng_stop_hwrng_fillfn();
 
 	/* decrease last reference for triggering the cleanup */
 	kref_put(&rng->ref, cleanup_rng);
@@ -506,6 +501,29 @@ static struct attribute *rng_dev_attrs[] = {
 
 ATTRIBUTE_GROUPS(rng_dev);
 
+static void hwrng_start_hwrng_fillfn(void)
+{
+	BUG_ON(!mutex_is_locked(&rng_mutex));
+
+	if (!hwrng_fill) {
+		hwrng_fill = kthread_run(hwrng_fillfn, NULL, "hwrng");
+		if (IS_ERR(hwrng_fill)) {
+			pr_err("hwrng_fill thread creation failed\n");
+			hwrng_fill = NULL;
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+static void hwrng_stop_hwrng_fillfn(void)
+{
+	BUG_ON(!mutex_is_locked(&rng_mutex));
+
+	if (hwrng_fill) {
+		kthread_stop(hwrng_fill);
+		hwrng_fill = NULL;
+	}
+}
+
 static int hwrng_fillfn(void *unused)
 {
 	size_t entropy, entropy_credit = 0; /* in 1/1024 of a bit */
@@ -559,6 +577,35 @@ static int hwrng_fillfn(void *unused)
 	return 0;
 }
 
+static int hwrng_pm_notifier(struct notifier_block *nb, unsigned long action,
+			     void *data)
+{
+	switch (action) {
+	case PM_SUSPEND_PREPARE:
+	case PM_HIBERNATION_PREPARE:
+	case PM_RESTORE_PREPARE:
+		mutex_lock(&rng_mutex);
+		hwrng_stop_hwrng_fillfn();
+		mutex_unlock(&rng_mutex);
+		break;
+
+	case PM_POST_SUSPEND:
+	case PM_POST_HIBERNATION:
+	case PM_POST_RESTORE:
+		mutex_lock(&rng_mutex);
+		if (rcu_access_pointer(current_rng))
+			hwrng_start_hwrng_fillfn();
+		mutex_unlock(&rng_mutex);
+		break;
+	}
+
+	return NOTIFY_DONE;
+}
+
+static struct notifier_block hwrng_pm_nb = {
+	.notifier_call = hwrng_pm_notifier,
+};
+
 int hwrng_register(struct hwrng *rng)
 {
 	int err = -EINVAL;
@@ -705,10 +752,20 @@ static int __init hwrng_modinit(void)
 	}
 
 	ret = misc_register(&rng_miscdev);
-	if (ret) {
-		kfree(rng_fillbuf);
-		kfree(rng_buffer);
-	}
+	if (ret)
+		goto misc_err;
+
+	ret = register_pm_notifier(&hwrng_pm_nb);
+	if (ret)
+		goto pm_err;
+
+	return 0;
+
+pm_err:
+	misc_deregister(&rng_miscdev);
+misc_err:
+	kfree(rng_fillbuf);
+	kfree(rng_buffer);
 
 	return ret;
 }
@@ -721,6 +778,8 @@ static void __exit hwrng_modexit(void)
 	kfree(rng_fillbuf);
 	mutex_unlock(&rng_mutex);
 
+	unregister_pm_notifier(&hwrng_pm_nb);
+
 	misc_deregister(&rng_miscdev);
 }
 

---
base-commit: 660e26871f731105447fa154241a540e69194b47
change-id: 20260513-hw-random-fix-hwrng-fillfn-crash-suspend-resume-29fdb0638f59

Best regards,
-- 
Thomas Richard (TI) <thomas.richard@bootlin.com>

Re: [PATCH v3] hwrng: core - Stop/start hwrng_fillfn() kthread before/after suspend-resume

[Herbert Xu]

On Fri, Jul 03, 2026 at 11:20:20AM +0200, Thomas Richard (TI) wrote:
>
> @@ -506,6 +501,29 @@ static struct attribute *rng_dev_attrs[] = {
>  
>  ATTRIBUTE_GROUPS(rng_dev);
>  
> +static void hwrng_start_hwrng_fillfn(void)
> +{
> +	BUG_ON(!mutex_is_locked(&rng_mutex));

BUG_ON is not acceptable.  Please use lockdep_assert_held.

Thanks,
-- 
Email: Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
Home Page: http://gondor.apana.org.au/~herbert/
PGP Key: http://gondor.apana.org.au/~herbert/pubkey.txt