Re: [PATCH v2 net] vlan: fix skb_under_panic and races when toggling HW VLAN offload

Toggling hardware VLAN TX offload (NETIF_F_HW_VLAN_CTAG_TX or
NETIF_F_HW_VLAN_STAG_TX) on a lower device invokes vlan_transfer_features(),
which dynamically changed vlandev->hard_header_len.

This causes two issues:
1. Lockless TX paths (e.g. packet_snd in af_packet.c, ip6_finish_output2)
   read dev->hard_header_len without holding RTNL lock. Mutating
   hard_header_len dynamically under RTNL creates a data race where upper
   layers reserve insufficient headroom based on a stale hard_header_len,
   resulting in skb_under_panic when vlan_dev_hard_header() is called.
2. In addition, vlan_transfer_features() updated hard_header_len without
   updating header_ops, causing a mismatch between allocated headroom
   and header creation.

Always setting dev->hard_header_len = real_dev->hard_header_len and
dev->needed_headroom = real_dev->needed_headroom + VLAN_HLEN unconditionally
ensures:
- dev->hard_header_len remains 100% static and immutable at real_dev->hard_header_len,
  eliminating all dynamic runtime updates and data races on hard_header_len.
- Upper layers allocating skbs via LL_RESERVED_SPACE() will always reserve
  sufficient headroom for software VLAN tag insertion (real_dev->hard_header_len +
  real_dev->needed_headroom + VLAN_HLEN).
- AF_PACKET SOCK_RAW network header offsets remain correctly aligned at
  real_dev->hard_header_len.
- vlan_header_ops is used unconditionally.

Fixes: 1da177e4c3f4 ("Linux-2.6.12-rc2")
Reported-by: Tangxin Xie <redacted>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/99d678ae-c7b2-4b44-b534-b8320679deb3@h-partners.com/ (local)
Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
---
v2: apply the VLAN_HLEN provision on needed_headroom
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20260723092203.5b1470f5@kernel.org/T/#t (local)

 net/8021q/vlan_dev.c | 37 +++++--------------------------------
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 32 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/8021q/vlan_dev.c b/net/8021q/vlan_dev.c
index ec2569b3f8dac629027b4344bc89402decf026d1..aaf2051a434cfef30d52e0434a9c372142f49195 100644
--- a/net/8021q/vlan_dev.c
+++ b/net/8021q/vlan_dev.c

@@ -502,26 +502,6 @@ static const struct header_ops vlan_header_ops = {

	.parse_protocol = vlan_parse_protocol,
 };

-static int vlan_passthru_hard_header(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev,
-					 unsigned short type,
-					 const void *daddr, const void *saddr,
-					 unsigned int len)
-{
-	struct vlan_dev_priv *vlan = vlan_dev_priv(dev);
-	struct net_device *real_dev = vlan->real_dev;
-
-	if (saddr == NULL)
-		saddr = dev->dev_addr;
-
-	return dev_hard_header(skb, real_dev, type, daddr, saddr, len);
-}
-
-static const struct header_ops vlan_passthru_header_ops = {
-	.create	 = vlan_passthru_hard_header,
-	.parse	 = eth_header_parse,
-	.parse_protocol = vlan_parse_protocol,
-};
-
 static const struct device_type vlan_type = {
	.name	= "vlan",
 };

@@ -580,14 +560,9 @@ static int vlan_dev_init(struct net_device *dev)

	dev->fcoe_ddp_xid = real_dev->fcoe_ddp_xid;
 #endif

-	dev->needed_headroom = real_dev->needed_headroom;
-	if (vlan_hw_offload_capable(real_dev->features, vlan->vlan_proto)) {
-		dev->header_ops 	 = &vlan_passthru_header_ops;
-		dev->hard_header_len = real_dev->hard_header_len;
-	} else {
-		dev->header_ops 	 = &vlan_header_ops;
-		dev->hard_header_len = real_dev->hard_header_len + VLAN_HLEN;
-	}
+	dev->needed_headroom = real_dev->needed_headroom + VLAN_HLEN;
+	dev->header_ops 	 = &vlan_header_ops;
+	dev->hard_header_len = real_dev->hard_header_len;

	dev->netdev_ops = &vlan_netdev_ops;

@@ -1029,10 +1004,8 @@ static void vlan_transfer_features(struct net_device *dev,

	netif_inherit_tso_max(vlandev, dev);

-	if (vlan_hw_offload_capable(dev->features, vlan->vlan_proto))
-		vlandev->hard_header_len = dev->hard_header_len;
-	else
-		vlandev->hard_header_len = dev->hard_header_len + VLAN_HLEN;
+	vlandev->needed_headroom = dev->needed_headroom + VLAN_HLEN;
+	vlandev->hard_header_len = dev->hard_header_len;

 #if IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_FCOE)
	vlandev->fcoe_ddp_xid = dev->fcoe_ddp_xid;
--
2.55.0.229.g6434b31f56-goog