I ran into the following BUG on a 5.3.8 kernel: ============================================================================= BUG skbuff_head_cache (Tainted: G T): Object already free ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- INFO: Slab 0x000000000d2d2f8f objects=16 used=3 fp=0x0000000064309071 flags=0x3fff00000000201 BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G B T 5.3.8 #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:print_trailer+0x70/0x1d5 Code: 28 4d 8b 4d 00 4d 8b 45 20 81 e2 ff 7f 00 00 e8 86 ce ef ff 8b 4b 20 48 89 ea 48 89 ee 4c 29 e2 48 c7 c7 90 6f d4 89 48 01 e9 <48> 33 09 48 33 8b 70 01 00 00 e8 61 ce ef ff f6 43 09 04 74 35 8b RSP: 0018:ffffbf7680003d58 EFLAGS: 00010046 RAX: 000000000000005d RBX: ffffa3d2bb08e540 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 00005c2d8fdc2000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffffffff89d46f90 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000242 R09: 000000000000006c R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000030 R12: ffffa3d27023e000 R13: fffff11080c08f80 R14: ffffa3d2bb047a80 R15: 0000000000000002 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffffa3d2be400000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 000000007a6c4000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 Call Trace: <IRQ> free_debug_processing.cold.37+0xc9/0x149 ? __kfree_skb_flush+0x30/0x40 ? __kfree_skb_flush+0x30/0x40 __slab_free+0x22a/0x3d0 ? tcp_wfree+0x2a/0x140 ? __sock_wfree+0x1b/0x30 kmem_cache_free_bulk+0x415/0x420 ? __kfree_skb_flush+0x30/0x40 __kfree_skb_flush+0x30/0x40 net_rx_action+0x2dd/0x480 __do_softirq+0xf0/0x246 irq_exit+0x93/0xb0 do_IRQ+0xa0/0x110 common_interrupt+0xf/0xf </IRQ> RIP: 0010:default_idle+0x13/0x20 Code: 24 28 eb 9e 4c 89 ff e8 eb 9f c9 ff eb 9f e8 84 03 8c ff 90 90 90 90 e8 2b 96 bc ff e9 07 00 00 00 0f 00 2d 01 71 41 00 fb f4 <e9> 18 96 bc ff 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 53 65 48 8b 1c 25 00 5d 01 RSP: 0018:ffffffff89e03eb8 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: ffffffffffffffd6 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffffffff89d8fe58 RBP: ffffffff89e85d78 R08: 00000000000d2730 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000222 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffffffff8a2ea920 R15: 000000007efbbd98 ? default_idle+0x5/0x20 do_idle+0x1ad/0x220 cpu_startup_entry+0x14/0x20 start_kernel+0x62f/0x66e secondary_startup_64+0xa4/0xb0 Modules linked in: [...] CR2: 0000000000000000 ---[ end trace 0d08341f1cb4ff43 ]--- RIP: 0010:print_trailer+0x70/0x1d5 Code: 28 4d 8b 4d 00 4d 8b 45 20 81 e2 ff 7f 00 00 e8 86 ce ef ff 8b 4b 20 48 89 ea 48 89 ee 4c 29 e2 48 c7 c7 90 6f d4 89 48 01 e9 <48> 33 09 48 33 8b 70 01 00 00 e8 61 ce ef ff f6 43 09 04 74 35 8b RSP: 0018:ffffbf7680003d58 EFLAGS: 00010046 RAX: 000000000000005d RBX: ffffa3d2bb08e540 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 00005c2d8fdc2000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffffffff89d46f90 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000242 R09: 000000000000006c R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000030 R12: ffffa3d27023e000 R13: fffff11080c08f80 R14: ffffa3d2bb047a80 R15: 0000000000000002 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffffa3d2be400000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 000000007a6c4000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt Shutting down cpus with NMI Kernel Offset: 0x8000000 from 0xffffffff81000000 (relocation range: 0xffffffff80000000-0xffffffffbfffffff) ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt ]--- We first encountered this issue under huge network traffic (system image download), and I was able to reproduce by simply sending a big packet with `ping -s 65507 <ip>`, which crashes the kernel every single time. The BUG only happens when using `slub_debug=F` on the command-line (to enable SLAB_CONSISTENCY_CHECKS), otherwise the double free is not reported and the system keeps running. The code path is: net_rx_action __kfree_skb_flush kmem_cache_free_bulk() # skbuff_head_cache slab_free() do_slab_free() __slab_free() free_debug_processing() free_consistency_check() object_err() # "Object already free" print_trailer() print_tracking() # !(s->flags & SLAB_STORE_USER) => return; print_page_info() # "INFO: Slab ..." pr_err("INFO: Object ...", ..., get_freepointer(s, p)) get_freepointer() freelist_dereference() # NULL pointer dereference Enabling KASAN shows less info because the NULL pointer dereference then apparently happens before reaching free_debug_processing(). Bisection points to the following commit: 1b7e816fc80e ("mm: slub: Fix slab walking for init_on_free"), and indeed the BUG is not triggered when init_on_free is disabled. -- Thibaut Sautereau CLIP OS developer