A reproducible rcuref - imbalanced put() warning is observed under IPv6 L2TP (pppol2tp) traffic with blackhole routes, indicating an imbalance in dst reference counting for routes cached in sk->sk_dst_cache and pointing to a subtle lifetime/synchronization issue between the helpers that validate and drop cached dst entries. rcuref - imbalanced put() WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 899 at lib/rcuref.c:266 rcuref_put_slowpath+0x1ce/0x240 lib/rcuref.c:266 Modules linked in: CPSocket connected tcp:127.0.0.1:48148,server=on <-> 127.0.0.1:33750 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:rcuref_put_slowpath+0x1ce/0x240 lib/rcuref.c:266 Call Trace: __rcuref_put include/linux/rcuref.h:97 [inline] rcuref_put include/linux/rcuref.h:153 [inline] dst_release+0x291/0x310 net/core/dst.c:167 __sk_dst_check+0x2d4/0x350 net/core/sock.c:604 __inet6_csk_dst_check net/ipv6/inet6_connection_sock.c:76 [inline] inet6_csk_route_socket+0x6ed/0x10c0 net/ipv6/inet6_connection_sock.c:104 inet6_csk_xmit+0x12f/0x740 net/ipv6/inet6_connection_sock.c:121 l2tp_xmit_queue net/l2tp/l2tp_core.c:1214 [inline] l2tp_xmit_core net/l2tp/l2tp_core.c:1309 [inline] l2tp_xmit_skb+0x1404/0x1910 net/l2tp/l2tp_core.c:1325 pppol2tp_sendmsg+0x3ca/0x550 net/l2tp/l2tp_ppp.c:302 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:729 [inline] __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:744 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0xab2/0xc70 net/socket.c:2609 ___sys_sendmsg+0x11d/0x1c0 net/socket.c:2663 __sys_sendmmsg+0x188/0x450 net/socket.c:2749 __do_sys_sendmmsg net/socket.c:2778 [inline] __se_sys_sendmmsg net/socket.c:2775 [inline] __x64_sys_sendmmsg+0x98/0x100 net/socket.c:2775 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x64/0x140 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7fe6960ec719 The race occurs between the lockless UDPv6 transmit path (udpv6_sendmsg() -> sk_dst_check()) and the locked L2TP/pppol2tp transmit path (pppol2tp_sendmsg() -> l2tp_xmit_skb() -> ... -> inet6_csk_xmit() → __sk_dst_check()), when both handle the same obsolete dst from sk->sk_dst_cache: the UDPv6 side takes an extra reference and atomically steals and releases the cached dst, while the L2TP side, using a stale cached pointer, still calls dst_release() on it, and together these updates produce an extra final dst_release() on that dst, triggering rcuref - imbalanced put(). The Race Condition: Initial: sk->sk_dst_cache = dst ref(dst) = 1 Thread 1: sk_dst_check() Thread 2: __sk_dst_check() ------------------------ ---------------------------- sk_dst_get(sk): rcu_read_lock() dst = rcu_dereference(sk->sk_dst_cache) rcuref_get(dst) succeeds rcu_read_unlock() // ref = 2 dst = __sk_dst_get(sk) // reads same dst from sk_dst_cache // ref still = 2 (no extra get) [both see dst obsolete & check() == NULL] sk_dst_reset(sk): old = xchg(&sk->sk_dst_cache, NULL) // old = dst dst_release(old) // drop cached ref // ref: 2 -> 1 RCU_INIT_POINTER(sk->sk_dst_cache, NULL) // cache already NULL after xchg dst_release(dst) // ref: 1 -> 0 dst_release(dst) // tries to drop its own ref after final put // rcuref_put_slowpath() -> "rcuref - imbalanced put()" The fix is applied locally in L2TP’s IPv6 transmit path before calling inet6_csk_xmit(). First, it performs a lockless pre-validation of the socket route cache via sk_dst_check(), so that any obsolete cached dst is atomically removed from sk->sk_dst_cache by the lockless helper (through its xchg() path); this prevents the locked __sk_dst_check() inside inet6_csk_xmit() from issuing a second dst_release() on the same cache-owned reference. Second, it takes an additional reference to the current cached dst with sk_dst_get() and drops it after inet6_csk_xmit() returns, ensuring the dst lifetime is guarded while L2TP transmits, even if the cache is concurrently updated. Together these steps eliminate the double-release race without changing sock-core semantics. Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller. Fixes: d14730b8e911 ("ipv6: use RCU in inet6_csk_xmit()") Signed-off-by: Mikhail Lobanov --- v2: move fix to L2TP as suggested by Eric Dumazet. net/l2tp/l2tp_core.c | 12 ++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/net/l2tp/l2tp_core.c b/net/l2tp/l2tp_core.c index 369a2f2e459c..93dafac9117f 100644 --- a/net/l2tp/l2tp_core.c +++ b/net/l2tp/l2tp_core.c @@ -1210,9 +1210,17 @@ static int l2tp_xmit_queue(struct l2tp_tunnel *tunnel, struct sk_buff *skb, stru skb->ignore_df = 1; skb_dst_drop(skb); #if IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_IPV6) - if (l2tp_sk_is_v6(tunnel->sock)) + if (l2tp_sk_is_v6(tunnel->sock)) { + struct dst_entry *pre_dst, *hold_dst; + + pre_dst = sk_dst_check(tunnel->sock, 0); + if (pre_dst) + dst_release(pre_dst); + hold_dst = sk_dst_get(tunnel->sock); err = inet6_csk_xmit(tunnel->sock, skb, NULL); - else + if (hold_dst) + dst_release(hold_dst); + } else #endif err = ip_queue_xmit(tunnel->sock, skb, fl); -- 2.47.2