published October 18, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
packet: use ubuf_info completion for TX_RING packets
tpacket_snd sends skbs with frags pointing into its ring slots. Slots
are released when skb->destructor is called.
A call to skb_orphan calls skb->destructor before the skb is freed.
This can cause the slot to be reused while still linked into the skb.
Switch to standard zerocopy completion (ubuf_info) so the slot is only
released once all references to the payload are freed or copied.
Restore skb->destructor to standard sock_wfree.
The ubuf_info completion callback can be called with a NULL skb, but
only from net_zcopy_put and related API, used by zerocopy implementations
that hold their own reference on the uarg, such as MSG_ZEROCOPY. This
uarg is only ever completed from skb_zcopy_clear, so skb is always set.
To prevent userspace from aliasing in-flight state on shared ring
slots, allocate tpacket_uarg per packet, rather than per slot. This
adds a small allocation to the transmit path. Use standard kmalloc to
allow backporting to stable kernels.
The uarg holds an sk_wmem_alloc reference, rather than an sk_refcnt
reference. packet_free_tx_ring waits on sk_wmem_alloc before freeing
the ring pages. Always allocate vec->deferred for tx_ring so page-backed
rings also wait on sk_wmem_alloc when skb_copy_ubufs drops page refs
before calling tpacket_ubuf_complete.
Drop the tx_ring.pg_vec test that tpacket_destruct_skb performed before
accessing the slot. The sk_wmem_alloc reference now guarantees that the
slot is valid. The test is also not sufficient by itself, as it reads
pg_vec without pg_vec_lock, so it can race with packet_set_ring.
As a result a slot is released when its payload is copied, which can
be before transmission (e.g., in skb_orphan_frags_rx). If copied
before skb_tx_timestamp() is called, no slot timestamp is recorded,
similar to when skb_orphan() was called early in the datapath before
this patch.
Revert the now unused previous skb_zcopy_.._nouarg infra.
Depends on commit 992cc9f94ca9 ("net/packet: defer vmalloc TX_RING
free until skbs finish").