[PATCH] [PATCH v2] net: skb: guard kmalloc_reserve() against oversized allocations

From: Kriish Sharma

Date: Sat Sep 20 2025 - 16:12:13 EST


Add an explicit size check in kmalloc_reserve() to reject requests
larger than KMALLOC_MAX_SIZE before they reach the allocator.

syzbot reported warnings triggered by attempts to allocate buffers
with an object size exceeding KMALLOC_MAX_SIZE. While the existing
code relies on kmalloc() failure and a comment states that truncation
is "harmless", in practice this causes high-order allocation warnings
and noisy kernel logs that interfere with testing.

This patch introduces an early guard in kmalloc_reserve() that returns
NULL if obj_size exceeds KMALLOC_MAX_SIZE. This ensures impossible
requests fail fast and silently, avoiding allocator warnings while
keeping the intended semantics unchanged.

Fixes: 7fa4d8dc380f ("Add linux-next specific files for 20250821")
Reported-by: syzbot+5a2250fd91b28106c37b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=5a2250fd91b28106c37b

---
v2:
- Add WARN_ONCE() to make oversized allocations visible

Signed-off-by: Kriish Sharma <kriish.sharma2006@xxxxxxxxx>
---
net/core/skbuff.c | 7 +++++++
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)

diff --git a/net/core/skbuff.c b/net/core/skbuff.c
index ee0274417948..70588f98c07e 100644
--- a/net/core/skbuff.c
+++ b/net/core/skbuff.c
@@ -591,6 +591,13 @@ static void *kmalloc_reserve(unsigned int *size, gfp_t flags, int node,
/* The following cast might truncate high-order bits of obj_size, this
* is harmless because kmalloc(obj_size >= 2^32) will fail anyway.
*/
+ if (unlikely(obj_size > KMALLOC_MAX_SIZE)) {
+ WARN_ONCE(1,
+ "%s: request size %zu exceeds KMALLOC_MAX_SIZE (%lu)\n",
+ __func__, obj_size, KMALLOC_MAX_SIZE);
+ return NULL;
+ }
+
*size = (unsigned int)obj_size;

/*
--
2.34.1