On Wed, Jul 15, 2026 at 5:30 PM Muhammad Ziad [off-list ref] wrote:

Hello,

There appears to be a bug in mainline Linux in ICMP reverse-path
relookup logic inside icmp_route_lookup() (called by __icmp_send())
when strict rp_filter setting is in place.

When Linux forwards a packet between two interfaces and needs to
generate an ICMP error, icmp_route_lookup() performs a "secondary"
reverse-path lookup to find a suitable route back towards the original
source via ip_route_input(). To simulate the reverse path, the kernel
derives the incoming netdev by calling ip_route_output_key() with a
decoy flow that has *only* daddr assigned in it:

    struct flowi4 fl4_2 = {};
    fl4_2.daddr = fl4_dec.saddr;
    rt2 = ip_route_output_key(net, &fl4_2); /* no saddr */
    ...
    ip_route_input(skb_in, fl4_dec.daddr, fl4_dec.saddr,
                    dscp, rt2->dst.dev);

This can lead to a mismatch between rt2->dst.dev and the netdev the
real reverse packet would use once routing policy rules are in
effect. With strict rp_filter, passing the wrong netdev to
ip_route_input() causes the relookup to fail and a "martian source"
message to be logged, after which icmp_route_lookup() falls back to
the earlier output route lookup (relookup_failed).

In such a scenario, I would expect the relookup to use a canonical
netdev and the kernel to not produce spurious "martian source" log
messages as a result. This suggests the decoy flow would possibly
need to carry saddr too so that ip_route_output_key() is able to
resolve the right netdev.

I tested this on: Ubuntu kernel 6.17.0-35-generic.

Here is a reproducer script that sets up two net namespaces: a
"forwarder" with two routes to the same dst in separate routing tables
picked according to saddr, and a "sender" netns behind it which sends
a ping with ttl=1 via the forwarder forcing it to generate an ICMP
error as a response which leads to the result explained above:

    #!/bin/bash

    if [ "${forwarder_ns:-}" != "1" ]; then
    exec env forwarder_ns=1 unshare -Urn bash "$0" "$@"
    fi

    SRC=10.0.1.2
    DST=198.51.100.5

    # Current netns is the "forwarder".
    # Create a second namespace for the sender.
    unshare -n sleep 120 &
    cpid=$!
    trap 'kill "$cpid" 2>/dev/null || true' EXIT
    in_ns() { nsenter -t "$cpid" -n "$@"; }

    # veth r0(router) <-> s0(src)
    ip link add s0 type veth peer name r0
    ip link set s0 netns "$cpid"
    ip link set lo up
    ip link set r0 up
    ip addr add 10.0.1.1/24 dev r0
    ip link add dumA type dummy
    ip addr add 203.0.113.1/24 dev dumA
    ip link set dumA up
    ip link add dumB type dummy
    ip addr add 192.0.2.1/24 dev dumB
    ip link set dumB up

    sysctl -q -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
    for c in all default r0 dumA dumB; do
    sysctl -q -w "net.ipv4.conf.$c.rp_filter=1"
    sysctl -q -w "net.ipv4.conf.$c.log_martians=1"
    done

    # Destination reachable two ways.
    # Policy rule diverts traffic FROM src to dumB
    ip route add 198.51.100.0/24 dev dumA
    ip route add 198.51.100.0/24 dev dumB table 100
    ip rule add from "$SRC" lookup 100

    # sender namespace setup.
    in_ns ip link set lo up
    in_ns ip link set s0 up
    in_ns ip addr add 10.0.1.2/24 dev s0
    in_ns ip route add default via 10.0.1.1

    # This will trigger a "martian source" log.
    in_ns ping -q -c1 -W2 -t1 "$DST" &>/dev/null


Happy to test patches or provide additional traces, if needed.

Thank you,
Mohamed Ghazy

Thanks for the report.

It seems we are lacking more than saddr setting :/

Could you test

diff --git a/net/ipv4/icmp.c b/net/ipv4/icmp.c
index 23e921d313b36b00d8ae5e14846527220c9db32b..6277e1bf85f304678ff167e8fd2b9239f155ce42

100644

--- a/net/ipv4/icmp.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/icmp.c

@@ -548,10 +548,17 @@ static struct rtable *icmp_route_lookup(struct

net *net, struct flowi4 *fl4,
                if (IS_ERR(rt2))
                        err = PTR_ERR(rt2);
        } else {
-               struct flowi4 fl4_2 = {};
+               /* TODO: populate
+                       .flowi4_dscp = dscp,
+                       .flowi4_mark = mark,
+                       .flowi4_uid = sock_net_uid(net, NULL),
+               */
+               struct flowi4 fl4_2 = {
+                       .daddr = fl4_dec.saddr,
+                       .saddr = fl4_dec.daddr,
+               };
                unsigned long orefdst;

-               fl4_2.daddr = fl4_dec.saddr;
                rt2 = ip_route_output_key(net, &fl4_2);
                if (IS_ERR(rt2)) {
                        err = PTR_ERR(rt2);