Currently, mctp_i2c_get_tx_flow_state() is called before the packet length
sanity check. This function marks a new flow as active in the MCTP core.
If the sanity check fails, mctp_i2c_xmit() returns early without calling
mctp_i2c_lock_nest(). This results in a mismatched locking state: the
flow is active, but the I2C bus lock was never acquired for it.
When the flow is later released, mctp_i2c_release_flow() will see the
active state and queue an unlock marker. The TX thread will then
decrement midev->i2c_lock_count from 0, causing it to underflow to -1.
This underflow permanently breaks the driver's locking logic, allowing
future transmissions to occur without holding the I2C bus lock, leading
to bus collisions and potential hardware hangs.
Move the mctp_i2c_get_tx_flow_state() call to after the length sanity
check to ensure we only transition the flow state if we are actually
going to proceed with the transmission and locking.
Fixes: f5b8abf9fc ("mctp i2c: MCTP I2C binding driver")
Signed-off-by: William A. Kennington III <william@wkennington.com>
Acked-by: Jeremy Kerr <jk@codeconstruct.com.au>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260423074741.201460-1-william@wkennington.com
Signed-off-by: Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>
4ca07b9239