Subject: [PATCH] net/packet: fix TOCTOU race on mmap'd vnet_hdr in tpacket_snd()

From: Zero Mark <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:07:14 +0800

In tpacket_snd(), when PACKET_VNET_HDR is enabled, vnet_hdr points
directly into the mmap'd TX ring buffer shared with userspace. The
kernel validates the header via __packet_snd_vnet_parse() but then
re-reads all fields later in virtio_net_hdr_to_skb(). A concurrent
userspace thread can modify the vnet_hdr fields (gso_type, gso_size,
flags, csum_start, csum_offset) between validation and use, bypassing
all safety checks.

This can lead to:
 - Out-of-bounds checksum writes via crafted csum_start/csum_offset
 - Malicious GSO segmentation parameters
 - Kernel memory corruption and potential local privilege escalation

The non-TPACKET path (packet_snd()) already correctly copies vnet_hdr
to a stack-local variable. All other vnet_hdr consumers in the kernel
(tun.c, tap.c, virtio_net.c) also use stack copies. The TPACKET TX
path is the only caller of virtio_net_hdr_to_skb() that reads directly
from user-controlled shared memory.

Fix this by copying vnet_hdr from the mmap'd ring buffer to a
stack-local variable before validation and use, consistent with the
approach used in packet_snd() and all other callers.

Exploitation requires CAP_NET_RAW, which can be obtained without
special privileges via user namespaces.

Confirmed with a PoC on Linux 6.8.0 (Ubuntu): kprobe tracing on
skb_partial_csum_set captured 77 race wins in 500,000 iterations.

Affects all kernels since PACKET_VNET_HDR support was added to the
TPACKET TX path (~v3.14).

Fixes: 9ed988e5 ("packet: add vnet_hdr support for tpacket_snd")
Signed-off-by: Zero Mark <[email-masked]>
---
 net/packet/af_packet.c | 14 ++++++++------
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/packet/af_packet.c b/net/packet/af_packet.c
index abcdef012345..fedcba654321 100644
--- a/net/packet/af_packet.c
+++ b/net/packet/af_packet.c
@@ -2725,7 +2725,8 @@ static int tpacket_parse_header(struct packet_sock *po, void *frame,
 static int tpacket_snd(struct packet_sock *po, struct msghdr *msg)
 {
 	struct sk_buff *skb = NULL;
 	struct net_device *dev;
-	struct virtio_net_hdr *vnet_hdr = NULL;
+	struct virtio_net_hdr vnet_hdr;
+	bool has_vnet_hdr = false;
 	struct sockcm_cookie sockc;
 	__be16 proto;
 	int err, reserve = 0;
@@ -2828,16 +2829,17 @@ static int tpacket_snd(struct packet_sock *po, struct msghdr *msg)
 		if (po->has_vnet_hdr) {
-			vnet_hdr = data;
-			data += sizeof(*vnet_hdr);
-			tp_len -= sizeof(*vnet_hdr);
+			memcpy(&vnet_hdr, data, sizeof(vnet_hdr));
+			data += sizeof(vnet_hdr);
+			tp_len -= sizeof(vnet_hdr);
 			if (tp_len < 0 ||
-			    __packet_snd_vnet_parse(vnet_hdr, tp_len)) {
+			    __packet_snd_vnet_parse(&vnet_hdr, tp_len)) {
 				tp_len = -EINVAL;
 				goto tpacket_error;
 			}
 			copylen = __virtio16_to_cpu(vio_le(),
-						    vnet_hdr->hdr_len);
+						    vnet_hdr.hdr_len);
+			has_vnet_hdr = true;
 		}
 		copylen = max_t(int, copylen, dev->hard_header_len);
 		skb = sock_alloc_send_skb(&po->sk,
@@ -2875,11 +2877,11 @@ static int tpacket_snd(struct packet_sock *po, struct msghdr *msg)
 		}

-		if (po->has_vnet_hdr) {
-			if (virtio_net_hdr_to_skb(skb, vnet_hdr, vio_le())) {
+		if (has_vnet_hdr) {
+			if (virtio_net_hdr_to_skb(skb, &vnet_hdr, vio_le())) {
 				tp_len = -EINVAL;
 				goto tpacket_error;
 			}
-			virtio_net_hdr_set_proto(skb, vnet_hdr);
+			virtio_net_hdr_set_proto(skb, &vnet_hdr);
 		}

 		skb->destructor = tpacket_destruct_skb;
--
2.43.0