Commit d31c14e56a4f for kernel
commit d31c14e56a4f01f0689c29c0bcbcd45f65b4a473
Author: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>
Date: Wed Aug 5 19:28:21 2026 -0700
net: avoid theoretical races with ref drain
Technically, it's illegal to take a ref on a netdev just because
we have a pointer on which we already hold a ref, with no other
protection. This is because our simple per-cpu refcount
implementation cannot atomically read the count.
Let's make sure we cancel outstanding work and never queue more
work for a device we know is dead. This way taking a ref on
a dev we know is on the netdev_work_list is always going to be safe.
Jiangshan Yi reports that the issues is caught by ref tracker infra
leading to a warning:
WARNING: lib/ref_tracker.c:322 at ref_tracker_free
WARNING: lib/ref_tracker.c:246 at ref_tracker_dir_exit
Reported-by: Jiangshan Yi <yijiangshan@kylinos.cn>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260731035135.3917308-2-yijiangshan@kylinos.cn
Fixes: 12c765be84d2 ("net: turn the rx_mode work into a generic netdev_work facility")
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260806022821.2079945-1-kuba@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>
diff --git a/net/core/dev.c b/net/core/dev.c
index c49d2ce51285..af260ff5462a 100644
--- a/net/core/dev.c
+++ b/net/core/dev.c
@@ -12436,6 +12436,7 @@ void unregister_netdevice_many_notify(struct list_head *head,
dev_tcx_uninstall(dev);
dev_xdp_uninstall(dev);
dev_memory_provider_uninstall(dev);
+ netdev_work_cancel_all(dev);
netdev_unlock_ops(dev);
bpf_dev_bound_netdev_unregister(dev);
diff --git a/net/core/dev.h b/net/core/dev.h
index 5d0b0305d3ba..b757faead4d1 100644
--- a/net/core/dev.h
+++ b/net/core/dev.h
@@ -179,6 +179,7 @@ enum netdev_work_core {
void __netdev_work_core_sched(struct net_device *dev, unsigned long event);
unsigned long
__netdev_work_core_cancel(struct net_device *dev, unsigned long mask);
+void netdev_work_cancel_all(struct net_device *dev);
void __dev_notify_flags(struct net_device *dev, unsigned int old_flags,
unsigned int gchanges, u32 portid,
diff --git a/net/core/netdev_work.c b/net/core/netdev_work.c
index 3109fae132ad..e721a06d58df 100644
--- a/net/core/netdev_work.c
+++ b/net/core/netdev_work.c
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ static void netdev_work_enqueue(struct net_device *dev, unsigned long events,
return;
spin_lock_bh(&netdev_work_lock);
+ if (!dev_isalive(dev)) {
+ spin_unlock_bh(&netdev_work_lock);
+ return;
+ }
if (list_empty(&dev->work_node)) {
list_add_tail(&dev->work_node, &netdev_work_list);
netdev_hold(dev, &dev->work_tracker, GFP_ATOMIC);
@@ -61,6 +65,18 @@ netdev_work_dequeue(struct net_device *dev, unsigned long *pending,
return events;
}
+void netdev_work_cancel_all(struct net_device *dev)
+{
+ spin_lock_bh(&netdev_work_lock);
+ dev->work_pending = 0;
+ dev->work_core_pending = 0;
+ if (!list_empty(&dev->work_node)) {
+ list_del_init(&dev->work_node);
+ netdev_put(dev, &dev->work_tracker);
+ }
+ spin_unlock_bh(&netdev_work_lock);
+}
+
void netdev_work_sched(struct net_device *dev, unsigned long events)
{
netdev_work_enqueue(dev, events, 0);