From: Willem de Bruijn <willemdebruijn.kernel@gmail.com>
To: mheib@redhat.com, netdev@vger.kernel.org
Cc: davem@davemloft.net, edumazet@google.com, kuba@kernel.org,
pabeni@redhat.com, horms@kernel.org, kernelxing@tencent.com,
kuniyu@google.com, willemdebruijn.kernel@gmail.com,
atenart@kernel.org, aleksander.lobakin@intel.com,
Mohammad Heib <mheib@redhat.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH net v2] net: skbuff: fix truesize and head state corruption in skb_segment_list
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2025 11:58:49 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <willemdebruijn.kernel.14a62f33c80f0@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20251231025414.149005-1-mheib@redhat.com>
mheib@ wrote:
> From: Mohammad Heib <mheib@redhat.com>
>
> When skb_segment_list is called during packet forwarding through
> a bridge or VXLAN, it assumes that every fragment in a frag_list
> carries its own socket ownership and head state. While this is true for
> GSO packets created by the transmit path (via __ip_append_data), it is
> not true for packets built by the GRO receive path.
>
> In the GRO path, fragments are "orphans" (skb->sk == NULL) and were
> never charged to a socket. However, the current logic in
> skb_segment_list unconditionally adds every fragment's truesize to
> delta_truesize and subsequently subtracts this from the parent SKB.
>
> This results a memory accounting leak, Since GRO fragments were never
> charged to the socket in the first place, the "refund" results in the
> parent SKB returning less memory than originally charged when it is
> finally freed. This leads to a permanent leak in sk_wmem_alloc, which
> prevents the socket from being destroyed, resulting in a persistent memory
> leak of the socket object and its related metadata.
>
> The leak can be observed via KMEMLEAK when tearing down the networking
> environment:
>
> unreferenced object 0xffff8881e6eb9100 (size 2048):
> comm "ping", pid 6720, jiffies 4295492526
> backtrace:
> kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x5c6/0x800
> sk_prot_alloc+0x5b/0x220
> sk_alloc+0x35/0xa00
> inet6_create.part.0+0x303/0x10d0
> __sock_create+0x248/0x640
> __sys_socket+0x11b/0x1d0
>
> This patch modifies skb_segment_list to only perform head state release
> and truesize subtraction if the fragment explicitly owns a socket
> reference. For GRO-forwarded packets where fragments are not owners,
> the parent maintains the full truesize and acts as the single anchor for
> the memory refund upon destruction.
>
> Fixes: ed4cccef64c1 ("gro: fix ownership transfer")
> Signed-off-by: Mohammad Heib <mheib@redhat.com>
> ---
> net/core/skbuff.c | 16 ++++++++++++++--
> 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/net/core/skbuff.c b/net/core/skbuff.c
> index a00808f7be6a..63d3d76162ef 100644
> --- a/net/core/skbuff.c
> +++ b/net/core/skbuff.c
> @@ -4656,7 +4656,14 @@ struct sk_buff *skb_segment_list(struct sk_buff *skb,
> list_skb = list_skb->next;
>
> err = 0;
> - delta_truesize += nskb->truesize;
> +
> + /* Only track truesize delta and release head state for fragments
> + * that own a socket. GRO-forwarded fragments (sk == NULL) rely on
> + * the parent SKB for memory accounting.
> + */
> + if (nskb->sk)
> + delta_truesize += nskb->truesize;
> +
Similar to the previous point: if all paths that generate GSO packets
with SKB_GSO_FRAGLIST are generated from skb_gro_receive_list and that
function always sets skb->sk = NULL, is there even a need for this
brancy (and comment)?
> if (skb_shared(nskb)) {
> tmp = skb_clone(nskb, GFP_ATOMIC);
> if (tmp) {
> @@ -4684,7 +4691,12 @@ struct sk_buff *skb_segment_list(struct sk_buff *skb,
>
> skb_push(nskb, -skb_network_offset(nskb) + offset);
>
> - skb_release_head_state(nskb);
> + /* For GRO-forwarded packets, fragments have no head state
> + * (no sk/destructor) to release. Skip this.
> + */
> + if (nskb->sk)
> + skb_release_head_state(nskb);
> +
> len_diff = skb_network_header_len(nskb) - skb_network_header_len(skb);
> __copy_skb_header(nskb, skb);
>
> --
> 2.52.0
>
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2025-12-31 16:58 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-12-31 2:54 [PATCH net v2] net: skbuff: fix truesize and head state corruption in skb_segment_list mheib
2025-12-31 16:58 ` Willem de Bruijn [this message]
2026-01-01 22:24 ` mohammad heib
2026-01-01 23:58 ` Willem de Bruijn
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=willemdebruijn.kernel.14a62f33c80f0@gmail.com \
--to=willemdebruijn.kernel@gmail.com \
--cc=aleksander.lobakin@intel.com \
--cc=atenart@kernel.org \
--cc=davem@davemloft.net \
--cc=edumazet@google.com \
--cc=horms@kernel.org \
--cc=kernelxing@tencent.com \
--cc=kuba@kernel.org \
--cc=kuniyu@google.com \
--cc=mheib@redhat.com \
--cc=netdev@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=pabeni@redhat.com \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).