CVE-2022-49194: net: bcmgenet: Use stronger register read/writes to assure ordering
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: bcmgenet: Use stronger register read/writes to assure ordering
GCC12 appears to be much smarter about its dependency tracking and is aware that the relaxed variants are just normal loads and stores and this is causing problems like:
[ 210.074549] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 210.079223] NETDEV WATCHDOG: enabcm6e4ei0 (bcmgenet): transmit queue 1 timed out [ 210.086717] WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 0 at net/sched/schgeneric.c:529 devwatchdog+0x234/0x240 [ 210.095044] Modules linked in: genet(E) nftfibinet nftfibipv4 nftfibipv6 nftfib nftrejectinet nfrejectipv4 nfrejectipv6 nftreject nftct nftchainnat] [ 210.146561] ACPI CPPC: PCC check channel failed for ss: 0. ret=-110 [ 210.146927] CPU: 1 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/1 Tainted: G E 5.17.0-rc7G12+ #58 [ 210.153226] CPPC Cpufreq:cppcscalefreqworkfn: failed to read perf counters [ 210.161349] Hardware name: Raspberry Pi Foundation Raspberry Pi 4 Model B/Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, BIOS EDK2-DEV 02/08/2022 [ 210.161353] pstate: 80400005 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 210.161358] pc : devwatchdog+0x234/0x240 [ 210.161364] lr : devwatchdog+0x234/0x240 [ 210.161368] sp : ffff8000080a3a40 [ 210.161370] x29: ffff8000080a3a40 x28: ffffcd425af87000 x27: ffff8000080a3b20 [ 210.205150] x26: ffffcd425aa00000 x25: 0000000000000001 x24: ffffcd425af8ec08 [ 210.212321] x23: 0000000000000100 x22: ffffcd425af87000 x21: ffff55b142688000 [ 210.219491] x20: 0000000000000001 x19: ffff55b1426884c8 x18: ffffffffffffffff [ 210.226661] x17: 64656d6974203120 x16: 0000000000000001 x15: 6d736e617274203a [ 210.233831] x14: 2974656e65676d63 x13: ffffcd4259c300d8 x12: ffffcd425b07d5f0 [ 210.241001] x11: 00000000ffffffff x10: ffffcd425b07d5f0 x9 : ffffcd4258bdad9c [ 210.248171] x8 : 00000000ffffdfff x7 : 000000000000003f x6 : 0000000000000000 [ 210.255341] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000001000 [ 210.262511] x2 : 0000000000001000 x1 : 0000000000000005 x0 : 0000000000000044 [ 210.269682] Call trace: [ 210.272133] devwatchdog+0x234/0x240 [ 210.275811] calltimerfn+0x3c/0x15c [ 210.279489] runtimers.part.0+0x288/0x310 [ 210.283777] runtimersoftirq+0x48/0x80 [ 210.287716] dosoftirq+0x128/0x360 [ 210.291392] irqexitrcu+0x138/0x140 [ 210.295243] irqexitrcu+0x1c/0x30 [ 210.298745] el1interrupt+0x38/0x54 [ 210.302334] el1h64irqhandler+0x18/0x24 [ 210.306445] el1h64irq+0x7c/0x80 [ 210.309857] archcpuidle+0x18/0x2c [ 210.313445] defaultidlecall+0x4c/0x140 [ 210.317470] cpuidleidlecall+0x14c/0x1a0 [ 210.321584] doidle+0xb0/0x100 [ 210.324737] cpustartupentry+0x30/0x8c [ 210.328675] secondarystartkernel+0xe4/0x110 [ 210.333138] secondaryswitched+0x94/0x98
The assumption when these were relaxed seems to be that device memory would be mapped non reordering, and that other constructs (spinlocks/etc) would provide the barriers to assure that packet data and in memory rings/queues were ordered with respect to device register reads/writes. This itself seems a bit sketchy, but the real problem with GCC12 is that it is moving the actual reads/writes around at will as though they were independent operations when in truth they are not, but the compiler can't know that. When looking at the assembly dumps for many of these routines its possible to see very clean, but not strictly in program order operations occurring as the compiler would be free to do if these weren't actually register reads/write operations.
Its possible to suppress the timeout with a liberal bit of dmamb()'s sprinkled around but the device still seems unable to reliably send/receive data. A better plan is to use the safer readl/writel everywhere.
Since this partially reverts an older commit, which notes the use of the relaxed variants for performance reasons. I would suggest that any performance problems ---truncated---
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
Upgrade
Linux kernelto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Patch NETDEV WATCHDOG: enabcm6e4ei0 (bcmgenet): transmit queue 1 timed out
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Which systems are most likely to encounter this issue?
Systems using the Linux kernel bcmgenet network driver are relevant. The reported failure occurred on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B running a GCC 12-built 5.17.0-rc7 kernel, but the provided information does not establish a complete affected-hardware or affected-version range.
How can I identify a potentially affected system?
Check kernel logs for a NETDEV WATCHDOG warning naming the bcmgenet interface and reporting a transmit queue timeout, such as "transmit queue 1 timed out." The example also shows the genet module loaded when the failure occurred.
Is there a documented workaround if the kernel update cannot be applied immediately?
No temporary configuration workaround is provided. The documented resolution is to use stronger bcmgenet register reads and writes to preserve ordering.