Subject: Re: [PATCH net v2] net: skbuff: fix truesize and head state corruption in skb_segment_list

From: Willem de Bruijn <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2025 11:58:49 -0500

mheib@ wrote:
> From: Mohammad Heib <[email-masked]>
> 
> 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 <[email-masked]>
> ---
>  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
>