From: Christoph Paasch <cpaasch@xxxxxxxxx> If a SYN/FIN-segment is on the write-queue, skb->len is 0, but the segment actually has been transmitted. end_seq and seq of the tcp_skb_cb in that case will indicate this difference. We should not remove such segments from the write-queue as we might be in SYN_SENT-state and a retransmission-timer is running. When that one fires, packets_out will be 1, but the write-queue would be empty, resulting in: [ 61.280214] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 61.281307] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 0 at net/ipv4/tcp_timer.c:429 tcp_retransmit_timer+0x18f9/0x2660 [ 61.283498] Modules linked in: [ 61.284084] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 4.14.142 #58 [ 61.285214] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 0.5.1 01/01/2011 [ 61.286644] task: ffffffff8401e1c0 task.stack: ffffffff84000000 [ 61.287758] RIP: 0010:tcp_retransmit_timer+0x18f9/0x2660 [ 61.288715] RSP: 0018:ffff88806ce07cb8 EFLAGS: 00010206 [ 61.289669] RAX: ffffffff8401e1c0 RBX: ffff88805c998b00 RCX: 0000000000000006 [ 61.290968] RDX: 0000000000000100 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffff88805c9994d8 [ 61.292314] RBP: ffff88805c99919a R08: ffff88807fff901c R09: ffff88807fff9008 [ 61.293547] R10: ffff88807fff9017 R11: ffff88807fff9010 R12: ffff88805c998b30 [ 61.294834] R13: ffffffff844b9380 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffff88805c99930c [ 61.296086] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88806ce00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 61.297523] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 61.298646] CR2: 00007f721da50ff8 CR3: 0000000004014002 CR4: 00000000001606f0 [ 61.299944] Call Trace: [ 61.300403] <IRQ> [ 61.300806] ? kvm_sched_clock_read+0x21/0x30 [ 61.301689] ? sched_clock+0x5/0x10 [ 61.302433] ? sched_clock_cpu+0x18/0x170 [ 61.303173] tcp_write_timer_handler+0x2c1/0x7a0 [ 61.304038] tcp_write_timer+0x13e/0x160 [ 61.304794] call_timer_fn+0x14a/0x5f0 [ 61.305480] ? tcp_write_timer_handler+0x7a0/0x7a0 [ 61.306364] ? __next_timer_interrupt+0x140/0x140 [ 61.307229] ? _raw_spin_unlock_irq+0x24/0x40 [ 61.308033] ? tcp_write_timer_handler+0x7a0/0x7a0 [ 61.308887] ? tcp_write_timer_handler+0x7a0/0x7a0 [ 61.309760] run_timer_softirq+0xc41/0x1080 [ 61.310539] ? trigger_dyntick_cpu.isra.33+0x180/0x180 [ 61.311506] ? ktime_get+0x13f/0x1c0 [ 61.312232] ? clockevents_program_event+0x10d/0x2f0 [ 61.313158] __do_softirq+0x20b/0x96b [ 61.313889] irq_exit+0x1a7/0x1e0 [ 61.314513] smp_apic_timer_interrupt+0xfc/0x4d0 [ 61.315386] apic_timer_interrupt+0x8f/0xa0 [ 61.316129] </IRQ> Followed by a panic. So, before removing an skb with skb->len == 0, let's make sure that the skb is really empty by checking the end_seq and seq. This patch needs to be backported only to 4.14 and older (among those that applied the backport of fdfc5c8594c2). Fixes: fdfc5c8594c2 ("tcp: remove empty skb from write queue in error cases") Cc: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Jason Baron <jbaron@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Vladimir Rutsky <rutsky@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Soheil Hassas Yeganeh <soheil@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Neal Cardwell <ncardwell@xxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Christoph Paasch <cpaasch@xxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- net/ipv4/tcp.c | 3 ++- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) --- a/net/ipv4/tcp.c +++ b/net/ipv4/tcp.c @@ -922,7 +922,8 @@ static int tcp_send_mss(struct sock *sk, */ static void tcp_remove_empty_skb(struct sock *sk, struct sk_buff *skb) { - if (skb && !skb->len) { + if (skb && !skb->len && + TCP_SKB_CB(skb)->end_seq == TCP_SKB_CB(skb)->seq) { tcp_unlink_write_queue(skb, sk); tcp_check_send_head(sk, skb); sk_wmem_free_skb(sk, skb);