[PATCH] net/ice: fix unchecked Tx time context allocation

[Mandal, Anurag]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Burakov, Anatoly <anatoly.burakov at intel.com>
> Sent: 06 October 2026 15:33
> To: Mandal, Anurag <anurag.mandal at intel.com>; dev at dpdk.org
> Cc: Richardson, Bruce <bruce.richardson at intel.com>; stable at dpdk.org
> Subject: Re: [PATCH] net/ice: fix unchecked Tx time context allocation
> 
> On 10/2/2026 4:19 AM, Anurag Mandal wrote:
> > ice_tx_queue_start() dereferences the Tx time queue context buffer
> > returned by ice_malloc() without NULL check.
> > On allocation failure, the E830 send-on-timestamp path therefore
> > crashes instead of reporting "No Memory" error, and also the already
> > allocated txq_elem buffer gets leaked.
> >
> > Added the necessary allocation failure check and freed txq_elem buffer
> > in case of failure to avoid the memory leak.
> >
> > Fixes: 0b6ff09a1f19 ("net/intel: support Tx packet pacing for E830")
> > Cc: stable at dpdk.org
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Anurag Mandal <anurag.mandal at intel.com>
> > ---
> >   drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_rxtx.c | 4 ++++
> >   1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_rxtx.c
> > b/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_rxtx.c
> > index b333444cbf..873aca0100 100644
> > --- a/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_rxtx.c
> > +++ b/drivers/net/intel/ice/ice_rxtx.c
> > @@ -898,6 +898,10 @@ ice_tx_queue_start(struct rte_eth_dev *dev,
> uint16_t tx_queue_id)
> >   		u8 ts_buf_len = ice_struct_size(ts_elem, txtimeqs, 1);
> >
> >   		ts_elem = ice_malloc(hw, ts_buf_len);
> > +		if (!ts_elem) {
> > +			rte_free(txq_elem);
> > +			return -ENOMEM;
> > +		}
> >   		ice_setup_txtime_ctx(txq, &txtime_ctx, true);
> >   		ice_set_ctx(hw, (u8 *)&txtime_ctx,
> >   				ts_elem->txtimeqs[0].txtime_ctx,
> 
> I don't particularly like the fact that we're allocating using `ice_malloc` but
> freeing using `rte_free`. This works only accidentally (because `ice_malloc`
> resolves to `rte_malloc`).
> 
> Not a blocker for this patch, as this is following established convention in this
> function, but IMO this code could benefit from a separate patch replacing
> direct `rte_free` calls with `ice_free`.
> 
> Acked-by: Anatoly Burakov <anatoly.burakov at intel.com>
> 

I will be sending a separate patch to change replacing direct `rte_free` calls with `ice_free`for buffers allocated via 'ice_malloc'

> --
> Thanks,
> Anatoly