ovpn_nl_peer_new_doit()'s error path calls ovpn_peer_release() directly rather than ovpn_peer_put(), bypassing the kref. The accompanying comment ("peer was not yet hashed, thus it is not used in any context") holds for UDP but not for TCP. For UDP, the ovpn_socket union uses the .ovpn arm and never points back at a peer; UDP encap_recv looks up peers via the not-yet-populated hashtables, so the new peer is unreachable until ovpn_peer_add() publishes it. For TCP, ovpn_socket_new() sets ovpn_sock->peer and ovpn_tcp_socket_attach() publishes ovpn_sock via rcu_assign_sk_user_data(). From that moment until ovpn_socket_release() detaches in the error path, the TCP fd is fully wired: userspace recvmsg / sendmsg / close / poll on the fd, as well as the strparser-driven ovpn_tcp_rcv() path, can reach the peer through sk_user_data -> ovpn_sock->peer and bump its refcount via ovpn_peer_hold(). ovpn_tcp_socket_wait_finish() (called inside ovpn_socket_release()) drains strparser and the tx work, but does not synchronize with userspace syscall callers that already hold a peer reference. If ovpn_nl_peer_modify() or ovpn_peer_add() returns an error while such a caller is in flight - notably an ovpn_tcp_recvmsg() blocked in __skb_recv_datagram() on peer->tcp.user_queue - the direct ovpn_peer_release() destroys the peer while the caller still holds the reference, and the eventual ovpn_peer_put() from that caller operates on freed memory. Replace the direct destructor call with ovpn_peer_put() so the kref correctly defers destruction until the last reference is dropped. In the common case where no concurrent user is present, behaviour is unchanged: the kref hits zero immediately and ovpn_peer_release_kref() runs the same destructor. Fixes: 11851cbd60ea ("ovpn: implement TCP transport") Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-7 Signed-off-by: David Carlier --- drivers/net/ovpn/netlink.c | 8 +++++--- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/drivers/net/ovpn/netlink.c b/drivers/net/ovpn/netlink.c index 291e2e5bb450..4c66c1ec497e 100644 --- a/drivers/net/ovpn/netlink.c +++ b/drivers/net/ovpn/netlink.c @@ -462,10 +462,12 @@ int ovpn_nl_peer_new_doit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct genl_info *info) sock_release: ovpn_socket_release(peer); peer_release: - /* release right away because peer was not yet hashed, thus it is not - * used in any context + /* For UDP, the peer is unreachable until added to the hashtables, so + * dropping the initial reference is enough. For TCP, the peer may be + * concurrently reachable via sk_user_data->peer until + * ovpn_socket_release() detaches; rely on the refcount. */ - ovpn_peer_release(peer); + ovpn_peer_put(peer); return ret; } -- 2.53.0