commit efa95b01da18 ("netpoll: fix use after free") incorrectly ignored the refcount and prematurely set dev->npinfo to NULL during netpoll cleanup, leading to improper behavior and memory leaks.
Scenario causing lack of proper cleanup:
1) A netpoll is associated with a NIC (e.g., eth0) and netdev->npinfo is allocated, and refcnt = 1 - Keep in mind that npinfo is shared among all netpoll instances. In this case, there is just one.
2) Another netpoll is also associated with the same NIC and npinfo->refcnt += 1. - Now dev->npinfo->refcnt = 2; - There is just one npinfo associated to the netdev.
3) When the first netpolls goes to clean up: - The first cleanup succeeds and clears np->dev->npinfo, ignoring refcnt. - It basically calls `RCU_INIT_POINTER(np->dev->npinfo, NULL);` - Set dev->npinfo = NULL, without proper cleanup - No ->ndo_netpoll_cleanup() is either called
4) Now the second target tries to clean up - The second cleanup fails because np->dev->npinfo is already NULL. * In this case, ops->ndo_netpoll_cleanup() was never called, and the skb pool is not cleaned as well (for the second netpoll instance) - This leaks npinfo and skbpool skbs, which is clearly reported by kmemleak.
Revert commit efa95b01da18 ("netpoll: fix use after free") and adds clarifying comments emphasizing that npinfo cleanup should only happen once the refcount reaches zero, ensuring stable and correct netpoll behavior.
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org Cc: jv@jvosburgh.net Fixes: efa95b01da18 ("netpoll: fix use after free") Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao leitao@debian.org --- I have a selftest that shows the memory leak when kmemleak is enabled and I will be submitting to net-next.
Also, giving I am reverting commit efa95b01da18 ("netpoll: fix use after free"), which was supposed to fix a problem on bonding, I am copying Jay. --- net/core/netpoll.c | 7 +++++-- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/net/core/netpoll.c b/net/core/netpoll.c index 5f65b62346d4e..19676cd379640 100644 --- a/net/core/netpoll.c +++ b/net/core/netpoll.c @@ -815,6 +815,10 @@ static void __netpoll_cleanup(struct netpoll *np) if (!npinfo) return;
+ /* At this point, there is a single npinfo instance per netdevice, and + * its refcnt tracks how many netpoll structures are linked to it. We + * only perform npinfo cleanup when the refcnt decrements to zero. + */ if (refcount_dec_and_test(&npinfo->refcnt)) { const struct net_device_ops *ops;
@@ -824,8 +828,7 @@ static void __netpoll_cleanup(struct netpoll *np)
RCU_INIT_POINTER(np->dev->npinfo, NULL); call_rcu(&npinfo->rcu, rcu_cleanup_netpoll_info); - } else - RCU_INIT_POINTER(np->dev->npinfo, NULL); + }
skb_pool_flush(np); }
--- base-commit: 864ecc4a6dade82d3f70eab43dad0e277aa6fc78 change-id: 20250901-netpoll_memleak-90d0d4bc772c
Best regards, -- Breno Leitao leitao@debian.org