ppp_async: drop the errored frame instead of resetting its headroom
Subsystems (3)
PATCH v2 1/1 ppp_async: drop the errored frame instead of resetting its headroom
ppp_receive_nonmp_frame() prepends a two-byte direction tag before running the pass/active BPF filters:
*(__be16 *)skb_push(skb, 2) = htons(PPP_FILTER_INBOUND_TAG);
Nothing on the receive path guarantees those two bytes of headroom. The frame-error path in ppp_async's process_input_packet() resets a reused skb's headroom to zero while claiming to restore it to a freshly allocated state - but a fresh skb from dev_alloc_skb() carries NET_SKB_PAD:
err:
if (skb) {
/* make skb appear as freshly allocated */
skb_trim(skb, 0);
skb_reserve(skb, - skb_headroom(skb));
}ap->rpkt still points at that skb, so the next frame is reassembled into it with no headroom at all. A peer that sends a bad-FCS frame followed by one beginning ff 03 then leaves a single byte of headroom by the time the filter tag is pushed, which lands one byte below skb->head:
skbuff: skb_under_panic: len:49 put:2 head:ffff888003c10000
data:ffff888003c0ffff tail:0x30 end:0x640 dev:<NULL> kernel BUG at net/core/skbuff.c:214! RIP: 0010:skb_panic+0x13e/0x230 Call Trace: skb_push+0xbd/0x100 ppp_receive_nonmp_frame+0x48a/0x1d10 ppp_input+0x4e9/0x2f80 ppp_async_process+0x2a/0xe0 tasklet_action_common+0x20f/0x8a0 handle_softirqs+0x18e/0x590 Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt
Zeroing the headroom violates the NET_SKB_PAD guarantee that dev_alloc_skb() gives the rest of the receive path. Besides the filter panic above, when CCP compression is enabled ppp_decompress_frame() hands skb->data - 2 to ->decompress()/->incomp(), which then reads out of bounds before skb->head for the same reason.
Rather than restore the headroom, drop the errored frame - as ppp_synctty already does on its error path - and clear ap->rpkt so the next frame is reassembled into a fresh skb with proper headroom. This is simpler and fixes both the filter under-panic and the CCP out-of-bounds read.
The original V1 of this patch made room in ppp_receive_nonmp_frame() with skb_cow_head(); Eric pointed out that fixing the root cause in the transport is the right approach.
Found by fuzzing the PPP receive path with a mutating peer on a pty; it is an interesting (remote) DoS: root configures PPP, the peer supplies two crashing frames. The reproducer (repro-ppp-skb.c, unchanged from v1) panics in about a second, and returns cleanly with this applied.
---
v2:
- drop the frame in ppp_async instead of making headroom in ppp_generic (Eric Dumazet); this also fixes the ppp_decompress_frame() skb->data - 2 out-of-bounds read that the same headroom reset caused
- Fixes: the commit that introduced the skb_reserve() reset, not 2.6.12-rc2
- [PATCH net]
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/CAPAw8HE6QgnePG=UUfU2d9mYXNpY2O_kp5v0J82VuVoR6gwWOg@mail.gmail.com/
drivers/net/ppp/ppp_async.c | 6 ++---- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
drivers/net/ppp/ppp_async.c +2 -5
@@ -812,9 +812,6 @@ process_input_packet(struct asyncppp *ap) err:/* frame had an error, remember that, reset SC_TOSS & SC_ESCAPE */ ap->state =SC_PREV_ERROR ; -if (skb) { -/* make skb appear as freshly allocated */ -skb_trim (skb,0 ); -skb_reserve (skb, -skb_headroom (skb)); - } +kfree_skb (skb); + ap->rpkt =NULL ; }
Hi,
Quoted 50 lines · Vlatko Kosturjak
ppp_receive_nonmp_frame()prepends a two-byte direction tag before running the pass/active BPF filters:*(__be16 *)skb_push(skb, 2) = htons(PPP_FILTER_INBOUND_TAG);Nothing on the receive path guarantees those two bytes of headroom. The frame-error path in ppp_async's
process_input_packet()resets a reused skb's headroom to zero while claiming to restore it to a freshly allocated state - but a fresh skb fromdev_alloc_skb()carriesNET_SKB_PAD:err: if (skb) { /* make skb appear as freshly allocated */ skb_trim(skb, 0); skb_reserve(skb, - skb_headroom(skb)); }
ap->rpktstill points at that skb, so the next frame is reassembled into it with no headroom at all. A peer that sends a bad-FCS frame followed by one beginning ff 03 then leaves a single byte of headroom by the time the filter tag is pushed, which lands one byte belowskb->head:skbuff: skb_under_panic: len:49 put:2 head:ffff888003c10000 data:ffff888003c0ffff tail:0x30 end:0x640 dev:<NULL> kernel BUG at net/core/skbuff.c:214! RIP: 0010:skb_panic+0x13e/0x230 Call Trace: skb_push+0xbd/0x100 ppp_receive_nonmp_frame+0x48a/0x1d10 ppp_input+0x4e9/0x2f80 ppp_async_process+0x2a/0xe0 tasklet_action_common+0x20f/0x8a0 handle_softirqs+0x18e/0x590 Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interruptZeroing the headroom violates the
NET_SKB_PADguarantee thatdev_alloc_skb()gives the rest of the receive path. Besides the filter panic above, when CCP compression is enabledppp_decompress_frame()handsskb->data- 2 to ->decompress()/->incomp(), which then reads out of bounds beforeskb->headfor the same reason.Rather than restore the headroom, drop the errored frame - as
ppp_syncttyalready does on its error path - and clearap->rpktso the next frame is reassembled into a fresh skb with proper headroom. This is simpler and fixes both the filter under-panic and the CCP out-of-bounds read.The original V1 of this patch made room in
ppp_receive_nonmp_frame()withskb_cow_head(); Eric pointed out that fixing the root cause in the transport is the right approach.
Quoted 6 lines
Found by fuzzing the PPP receive path with a mutating peer on a pty; it is an interesting (remote) DoS: root configures PPP, the peer supplies two crashing frames. The reproducer (
repro-ppp-skb.c, unchanged from v1) panics in about a second, and returns cleanly with this applied.Fixes 6722e78c9005 ("[PPP]: handle misaligned accesses")
Nit: the skb->len == 0 alignment check introduced by said commit is now redundant and can be moved back into the allocation branch.
Quoted 2 lines
Suggested-by Eric Dumazet <[email protected]>Signed-off-by Vlatko Kosturjak <[email protected]>
Kind regards,
Quoted 11 lines · Vlatko Kosturjak
ppp_receive_nonmp_frame()prepends a two-byte direction tag before running the pass/active BPF filters:*(__be16 *)skb_push(skb, 2) = htons(PPP_FILTER_INBOUND_TAG);Nothing on the receive path guarantees those two bytes of headroom. The frame-error path in ppp_async's
process_input_packet()resets a reused skb's headroom to zero while claiming to restore it to a freshly allocated state - but a fresh skb fromdev_alloc_skb()carriesNET_SKB_PAD:
This patch was applied to netdev/net.git (main) by Jakub Kicinski <[email protected]>:
Hello:
This patch was applied to netdev/net.git (main)
by Jakub Kicinski <[email protected]>:
Quoted 11 lines · On Thu, 3 Sep 2026 08:21:29 +0200 you wrote:
ppp_receive_nonmp_frame()prepends a two-byte direction tag before running the pass/active BPF filters:*(__be16 *)skb_push(skb, 2) = htons(PPP_FILTER_INBOUND_TAG);Nothing on the receive path guarantees those two bytes of headroom. The frame-error path in ppp_async's
process_input_packet()resets a reused skb's headroom to zero while claiming to restore it to a freshly allocated state - but a fresh skb fromdev_alloc_skb()carriesNET_SKB_PAD:[...]
Here is the summary with links:
- [net,v2] ppp_async: drop the errored frame instead of resetting its headroom
https://git.kernel.org/netdev/net/c/8dc5d98a16fa
You are awesome, thank you!
Signature · 2 lines
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