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FAILED: patch "[PATCH] af_unix: Fix UAF read of tail->len in unix_stream_data_wait()" failed to apply to 5.10-stable tree

PATCH [email protected] 1 participant 1 message May 28

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The patch below does not apply to the 5.10-stable tree.
If someone wants it applied there, or to any other stable or longterm tree, then please email the backport, including the original git commit id to <[email protected]>.

To reproduce the conflict and resubmit, you may use the following commands:

git fetch https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/ linux-5.10.y
git checkout FETCH_HEAD
git cherry-pick -x be309f8eae8b474a4a617eaae01324da996fc719
# <resolve conflicts, build, test, etc.>
git commit -s
git send-email --to '<[email protected]>' --in-reply-to '2026052806-although-antler-d5e3@gregkh' --subject-prefix 'PATCH 5.10.y' HEAD^..

Possible dependencies:

thanks,

greg k-h

------------------ original commit in Linus's tree ------------------

From be309f8eae8b474a4a617eaae01324da996fc719 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jann Horn <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 18 May 2026 18:51:30 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] af_unix: Fix UAF read of tail->len in unix_stream_data_wait()

unix_stream_data_wait() does skb_peek_tail(&sk->sk_receive_queue) without holding any lock that prevents SKBs on that queue from being dequeued and freed.
This has been the case since commit 79f632c71bea ("unix/stream: fix peeking with an offset larger than data in queue").
The first consequence of this is that the pointer comparison tail != last can be false even if last semantically refers to an already-freed SKB while tail is a new SKB allocated at the same address; which can cause unix_stream_data_wait() to wrongly keep blocking after new data has arrived, but only in a weird scenario where a peeking recv() and a normal recv() on the same socket are racing, which is probably not a real problem.

But since commit 2b514574f7e8 ("net: af_unix: implement splice for stream af_unix sockets"), tail is actually dereferenced, which can cause UAF in the following race scenario (where test_setup() runs single-threaded, and afterwards, test_thread1() and test_thread2() run concurrently in two threads:

```
static int socks[2];
void test_setup(void) {
  socketpair(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0, socks);
  send(socks[1], "A", 1, 0);
  int peekoff = 1;
  setsockopt(socks[0], SOL_SOCKET, SO_PEEK_OFF, &peekoff, sizeof(peekoff));
}
void test_thread1(void) {
  char dummy;
  recv(socks[0], &dummy, 1, MSG_PEEK);
}
void test_thread2(void) {
  char dummy;
  recv(socks[0], &dummy, 1, 0);
  shutdown(socks[1], SHUT_WR);
}
```

when racing like this:

```
thread1                       thread2
unix_stream_read_generic
  mutex_lock(&u->iolock)
  skb_peek(&sk->sk_receive_queue)
  skb_peek_next(skb, &sk->sk_receive_queue)
  mutex_unlock(&u->iolock)
                              unix_stream_read_generic
                                unix_state_lock(sk)
                                skb_peek(&sk->sk_receive_queue)
                                unix_state_unlock(sk)
  unix_stream_data_wait
    unix_state_lock(sk)
    tail = skb_peek_tail(&sk->sk_receive_queue)
                                spin_lock(&sk->sk_receive_queue.lock)
                                __skb_unlink(skb, &sk->sk_receive_queue)
                                spin_unlock(&sk->sk_receive_queue.lock)
                                consume_skb(skb) [frees the SKB]
    `tail != last`: false
    `tail`: true
    `tail->len != last_len` ***UAF***
```

Fix the UAF by removing the read of tail->len; checking tail->len would only make sense if SKBs in the receive queue of a UNIX socket could grow, which can no longer happen.

Kuniyuki explained:

Quoted 11 lines

When commit 869e7c62486e ("net: af_unix: implement stream sendpage support") added sendpage() support, data could be appended to the last skb in the receiver's queue.

That's why we needed to check if the length of the last skb was changed while waiting for new data in unix_stream_data_wait().

However, commit a0dbf5f818f9 ("af_unix: Support MSG_SPLICE_PAGES") and commit 57d44a354a43 ("unix: Convert unix_stream_sendpage() to use MSG_SPLICE_PAGES") refactored sendmsg(), and now data is always added to a new skb.

That means this fix is not suitable for kernels before 6.5.

Fixes 2b514574f7e8 ("net: af_unix: implement splice for stream af_unix sockets")
net/unix/af_unix.c +2 -9
index 1cbf36ea043b..dc71ed79be4a 100644
@@ -2711,8 +2711,7 @@ static int unix_read_skb(struct sock *sk, skb_read_actor_t recv_actor)
  *	Sleep until more data has arrived. But check for races..
  */
 static long unix_stream_data_wait(struct sock *sk, long timeo,
-				  struct sk_buff *last, unsigned int last_len,
-				  bool freezable)
+				  struct sk_buff *last, bool freezable)
 {
 	unsigned int state = TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE | freezable * TASK_FREEZABLE;
 	struct sk_buff *tail;
@@ -2725,7 +2724,6 @@ static long unix_stream_data_wait(struct sock *sk, long timeo,
 
 		tail = skb_peek_tail(&sk->sk_receive_queue);
 		if (tail != last ||
-		    (tail && tail->len != last_len) ||
 		    sk->sk_err ||
 		    (sk->sk_shutdown & RCV_SHUTDOWN) ||
 		    signal_pending(current) ||
@@ -2921,7 +2919,6 @@ static int unix_stream_read_generic(struct unix_stream_read_state *state,
 	int flags = state->flags;
 	bool check_creds = false;
 	struct scm_cookie scm;
-	unsigned int last_len;
 	struct unix_sock *u;
 	int copied = 0;
 	int err = 0;
@@ -2967,7 +2964,6 @@ static int unix_stream_read_generic(struct unix_stream_read_state *state,
 			goto unlock;
 		}
 		last = skb = skb_peek(&sk->sk_receive_queue);
-		last_len = last ? last->len : 0;
 
 again:
 #if IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_AF_UNIX_OOB)
@@ -3001,8 +2997,7 @@ static int unix_stream_read_generic(struct unix_stream_read_state *state,
 
 			mutex_unlock(&u->iolock);
 
-			timeo = unix_stream_data_wait(sk, timeo, last,
-						      last_len, freezable);
+			timeo = unix_stream_data_wait(sk, timeo, last, freezable);
 
 			if (signal_pending(current)) {
 				err = sock_intr_errno(timeo);
@@ -3019,7 +3014,6 @@ static int unix_stream_read_generic(struct unix_stream_read_state *state,
 		while (skip >= unix_skb_len(skb)) {
 			skip -= unix_skb_len(skb);
 			last = skb;
-			last_len = skb->len;
 			skb = skb_peek_next(skb, &sk->sk_receive_queue);
 			if (!skb)
 				goto again;
@@ -3094,7 +3088,6 @@ static int unix_stream_read_generic(struct unix_stream_read_state *state,
 
 			skip = 0;
 			last = skb;
-			last_len = skb->len;
 			unix_state_lock(sk);
 			skb = skb_peek_next(skb, &sk->sk_receive_queue);
 			if (skb)