Subject: [PATCH bpf v2 1/2] bpf: Reject TCP_NODELAY in TCP header option callbacks

From: KaFai Wan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:23:07 +0800

A BPF_SOCK_OPS program can enable
BPF_SOCK_OPS_WRITE_HDR_OPT_CB_FLAG and then call
bpf_setsockopt(TCP_NODELAY) from BPF_SOCK_OPS_HDR_OPT_LEN_CB or
BPF_SOCK_OPS_WRITE_HDR_OPT_CB.

In these callbacks, bpf_setsockopt(TCP_NODELAY) can reach
__tcp_sock_set_nodelay(), which can call tcp_push_pending_frames().

>From BPF_SOCK_OPS_HDR_OPT_LEN_CB, tcp_push_pending_frames() can call
tcp_current_mss(), which calls tcp_established_options() and re-enters
bpf_skops_hdr_opt_len().

BPF_SOCK_OPS_HDR_OPT_LEN_CB
  -> bpf_setsockopt(TCP_NODELAY)
    -> tcp_push_pending_frames()
      -> tcp_current_mss()
        -> tcp_established_options()
          -> bpf_skops_hdr_opt_len()
            -> BPF_SOCK_OPS_HDR_OPT_LEN_CB

>From BPF_SOCK_OPS_WRITE_HDR_OPT_CB, tcp_push_pending_frames() can call
tcp_write_xmit(), which calls tcp_transmit_skb().  That path recomputes
header option length through tcp_established_options() and
bpf_skops_hdr_opt_len() before re-entering bpf_skops_write_hdr_opt().

BPF_SOCK_OPS_WRITE_HDR_OPT_CB
  -> bpf_setsockopt(TCP_NODELAY)
    -> tcp_push_pending_frames()
      -> tcp_write_xmit()
        -> tcp_transmit_skb()
          -> tcp_established_options()
            -> bpf_skops_hdr_opt_len()
          -> bpf_skops_write_hdr_opt()
            -> BPF_SOCK_OPS_WRITE_HDR_OPT_CB

This leads to unbounded recursion and can overflow the kernel stack.

Reject TCP_NODELAY with -EOPNOTSUPP in bpf_sock_ops_setsockopt()
when bpf_setsockopt() is called from
BPF_SOCK_OPS_HDR_OPT_LEN_CB or BPF_SOCK_OPS_WRITE_HDR_OPT_CB.

Reported-by: Quan Sun <[email-masked]>
Reported-by: Yinhao Hu <[email-masked]>
Reported-by: Kaiyan Mei <[email-masked]>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/[email-masked]/
Fixes: 7e41df5dbba2 ("bpf: Add a few optnames to bpf_setsockopt")
Signed-off-by: KaFai Wan <[email-masked]>
---
 net/core/filter.c | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/net/core/filter.c b/net/core/filter.c
index fcfcb72663ca..911ff04bca5a 100644
--- a/net/core/filter.c
+++ b/net/core/filter.c
@@ -5833,6 +5833,11 @@ BPF_CALL_5(bpf_sock_ops_setsockopt, struct bpf_sock_ops_kern *, bpf_sock,
 	if (!is_locked_tcp_sock_ops(bpf_sock))
 		return -EOPNOTSUPP;
 
+	if ((bpf_sock->op == BPF_SOCK_OPS_HDR_OPT_LEN_CB ||
+	     bpf_sock->op == BPF_SOCK_OPS_WRITE_HDR_OPT_CB) &&
+	    IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_INET) && level == SOL_TCP && optname == TCP_NODELAY)
+		return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+
 	return _bpf_setsockopt(bpf_sock->sk, level, optname, optval, optlen);
 }
 
-- 
2.43.0