[PATCH net v5 1/1] net: gso: limit recursive IP-in-IP segmentation
From: Zihan Xi <hidden>
Date: 2026-09-23 14:02:03
Also in:
lkml
Subsystem:
networking [general], networking [ipv4/ipv6], the rest · Maintainers:
"David S. Miller", Eric Dumazet, Jakub Kicinski, Paolo Abeni, David Ahern, Ido Schimmel, Linus Torvalds
IP-in-IP GSO can re-enter inet_gso_segment() or ipv6_gso_segment()
for each nested IP header. encap_level tracks header bytes, not callback
depth, so a deep chain can exhaust the kernel stack. Making
inet_gso_segment() stackable introduced unbounded IPv4 nesting; IPIP
GSO/TSO later made the path reachable. The IPv6 stackable path was
introduced separately and shares the guard; Fixes identifies the IPv4
root cause.
Count IPv4 and IPv6 GSO handler entries in skb_gso_cb, initialized once
per top-level GSO operation and preserved across GRE/UDP context changes.
Set the cap to five, matching IP_TUNNEL_RECURSION_LIMIT. Allow five
entries and reject the sixth with -EINVAL before it can dispatch another
GSO callback.
On the patched x86_64 kernel, tracefs observed six
inet_gso_segment() entries for the 199-header reproducer; the sixth
returned -EINVAL without a stack-guard fault. This validates the tested
configuration, not an architecture-independent stack-safety margin.
Fixes: 3347c9602955 ("ipv4: gso: make inet_gso_segment() stackable")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Reported-by: Vega <redacted>
Assisted-by: LLM
Co-developed-by: Luxing Yin <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Luxing Yin <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Zihan Xi <redacted>
---
changes in v5:
- Replace the header-offset budget with a shared IP GSO handler-entry
counter. Entries one through five pass; entry six is rejected.
- Initialize the count for each top-level GSO operation and preserve it
across IPv4/IPv6 dispatch and GRE/UDP context changes.
- Use the existing IP_TUNNEL_RECURSION_LIMIT value of five as a
practical bound. Tracefs observed the sixth entry return -EINVAL on
the final x86_64 revision; rerun both IPv4 PoCs on that revision.
- Avoid rejecting a single-level tunnel based only on header length.
- v4 Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/cover.1790041241.git.zihanx@nebusec.ai/ (local)
include/net/gso.h | 9 +++++++++
net/core/gso.c | 1 +
net/ipv4/af_inet.c | 2 ++
net/ipv6/ip6_offload.c | 2 ++
4 files changed, 14 insertions(+)
diff --git a/include/net/gso.h b/include/net/gso.h
index 29975440c..18944ff06 100644
--- a/include/net/gso.h
+++ b/include/net/gso.h@@ -19,10 +19,19 @@ struct skb_gso_cb { int encap_level; __wsum csum; __u16 csum_start; + /* Number of IPv4/IPv6 GSO handler entries for this packet. */ + u8 recursion_counter; }; #define SKB_GSO_CB_OFFSET 32 #define SKB_GSO_CB(skb) ((struct skb_gso_cb *)((skb)->cb + SKB_GSO_CB_OFFSET)) +#define GSO_RECURSION_LIMIT 5 + +static inline bool gso_recursion_inc_test(struct sk_buff *skb) +{ + return ++SKB_GSO_CB(skb)->recursion_counter > GSO_RECURSION_LIMIT; +} + static inline int skb_tnl_header_len(const struct sk_buff *inner_skb) { return (skb_mac_header(inner_skb) - inner_skb->head) -
diff --git a/net/core/gso.c b/net/core/gso.c
index bcd156372..e96ef6350 100644
--- a/net/core/gso.c
+++ b/net/core/gso.c@@ -117,6 +117,7 @@ struct sk_buff *__skb_gso_segment(struct sk_buff *skb, SKB_GSO_CB(skb)->mac_offset = skb_headroom(skb); SKB_GSO_CB(skb)->encap_level = 0; + SKB_GSO_CB(skb)->recursion_counter = 0; skb_reset_mac_header(skb); skb_reset_mac_len(skb);
diff --git a/net/ipv4/af_inet.c b/net/ipv4/af_inet.c
index 32d006c1a..18037d8d4 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/af_inet.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/af_inet.c@@ -1375,6 +1375,8 @@ struct sk_buff *inet_gso_segment(struct sk_buff *skb, int id; skb_reset_network_header(skb); + if (unlikely(gso_recursion_inc_test(skb))) + goto out; nhoff = skb_network_header(skb) - skb_mac_header(skb); if (unlikely(!pskb_may_pull(skb, sizeof(*iph)))) goto out;
diff --git a/net/ipv6/ip6_offload.c b/net/ipv6/ip6_offload.c
index 78f50c93c..099f14e09 100644
--- a/net/ipv6/ip6_offload.c
+++ b/net/ipv6/ip6_offload.c@@ -104,6 +104,8 @@ static struct sk_buff *ipv6_gso_segment(struct sk_buff *skb, bool gso_partial; skb_reset_network_header(skb); + if (unlikely(gso_recursion_inc_test(skb))) + goto out; nhoff = skb_network_header(skb) - skb_mac_header(skb); if (unlikely(!pskb_may_pull(skb, sizeof(*ipv6h)))) goto out;
--
2.55.0.windows.3