> [PATCH v2 0/8] do not leave dangling sk pointers in pf->create functions For the future patches, please specify the target tree, net or net-next. From: Ignat Korchagin <ignat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2024 22:34:54 +0100 > Some protocol family create() implementations have an error path after > allocating the sk object and calling sock_init_data(). sock_init_data() > attaches the allocated sk object to the sock object, provided by the > caller. > > If the create() implementation errors out after calling sock_init_data(), > it releases the allocated sk object, but the caller ends up having a > dangling sk pointer in its sock object on return. Subsequent manipulations > on this sock object may try to access the sk pointer, because it is not > NULL thus creating a use-after-free scenario. > > While the first patch in the series should be enough to handle this > scenario Eric Dumazet suggested that it would be a good idea to refactor > the code for the af_packet implementation to avoid the error path, which > leaves a dangling pointer, because it may be better for some tools like > kmemleak. I went a bit further and tried to actually fix all the > implementations, which could potentially leave a dangling sk pointer. I feel patch 2-8 are net-next materials as the first patch is enough to fix the issue. Also, once all protocols have moved sock_init_data() after the last failure point, we can change the patch 1's part to err = pf->create(net, sock, protocol, kern); if (err) { DEBUG_NET_WARN_ON_ONCE(sock->sk); goto out_module_put; } for the future protocols.