From: Bruno Xavier <bfxavier@gmail.com>
To: netdev@vger.kernel.org
Cc: kuba@kernel.org, edumazet@google.com, pabeni@redhat.com,
davem@davemloft.net, lorenzo@kernel.org, hawk@kernel.org,
ilias.apalodimas@linaro.org, bpf@vger.kernel.org,
Bruno Xavier <bfxavier@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH] net: skbuff: keep the page_pool fragment offset aligned in skb_pp_cow_data()
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2026 14:29:17 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260827122926.31123-1-bfxavier@gmail.com> (raw)
skb_pp_cow_data() takes two kinds of memory from the same page_pool. The
head buffer goes to napi_build_skb() and becomes skb->head, so
skb_shinfo() lands at skb->head + skb->end and has to be aligned. The
payload fragments in the loop below are plain data, and they are requested
with the raw remaining packet length.
page_pool_alloc_frag_netmem() advances pool->frag_offset by
ALIGN(size, dma_get_cache_alignment())
and dma_get_cache_alignment() returns 1 wherever ARCH_HAS_DMA_MINALIGN is
undefined, x86 included. An unaligned fragment request therefore leaves
pool->frag_offset unaligned, and every later head allocation from that
pool comes back unaligned. skb->head is then misaligned and
refcount_inc(&skb_shinfo(skb)->dataref) in skb_clone() is an unaligned
lock incl. Where that 4-byte access crosses a cache line it is a split
lock, and on a CPU with split lock detection the kernel dies in softirq:
Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt
RIP: 0010:skb_clone+0x159/0x1e0
This hit four times in three days on a Core Ultra 7 258V running a generic
XDP program on lo with a raw IPv4 socket open, so raw_v4_input() cloned
every matching skb. Observed skb->head misalignments were 5, 6, 10, 11 and
13 bytes. Without split lock detection the unaligned atomic just runs, a
few microseconds each time, and nothing is logged.
Align the fragment request so the pool's fragment offset stays usable for
the head allocations this function also makes.
Fixes: e6d5dbdd20aa ("xdp: add multi-buff support for xdp running in generic mode")
Signed-off-by: Bruno Xavier <bfxavier@gmail.com>
---
Notes:
Tested on a Core Ultra 7 258V, Fedora 44 userspace, with netbird attaching a
generic XDP program to lo and holding a raw IPv4 socket, so raw_v4_input()
clones matching skbs. A bpftrace kprobe on napi_build_skb() and
__build_skb_around() counting misaligned data pointers, plus a kprobe on
skb_pp_cow_data() as a positive control:
unpatched 7.1.9, 7m22s : 16884 calls, 72 misaligned builds, 10 misaligned clones
patched 7.2.0, 7m : 30479 calls, 0 misaligned builds, 0 misaligned clones
Misalignments seen before the patch were 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14
bytes, so not even 2-byte alignment held. A kretprobe on
page_pool_alloc_frag_netmem() watching pool->frag_offset independently showed
zero misaligned offsets after the patch.
The alternative is to have the page_pool frag allocator guarantee a minimum
alignment itself:
- size = ALIGN(size, dma_get_cache_alignment());
+ size = ALIGN(size, max_t(unsigned int, dma_get_cache_alignment(),
+ __alignof__(long)));
That covers every caller of page_pool_dev_alloc*() instead of just this one,
but it changes a generic allocator and would carry a 2021 Fixes tag, so I kept
the fix in the caller. Happy to send that version instead if you prefer it.
net/core/skbuff.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/net/core/skbuff.c b/net/core/skbuff.c
index cbbd60455abb..7f8953b48026 100644
--- a/net/core/skbuff.c
+++ b/net/core/skbuff.c
@@ -985,7 +985,7 @@ int skb_pp_cow_data(struct page_pool *pool, struct sk_buff **pskb,
u32 page_off;
size = min_t(u32, len, PAGE_SIZE);
- truesize = size;
+ truesize = ALIGN(size, sizeof(long));
page = page_pool_dev_alloc(pool, &page_off, &truesize);
if (!page) {
--
2.55.0
reply other threads:[~2026-08-27 12:30 UTC|newest]
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