[PATCH net 1/2] net: packet: fix skb->protocol not updated after VLAN network header adjustment

From: wei . fang

Date: Wed Aug 05 2026 - 06:54:28 EST


From: Wei Fang <wei.fang@xxxxxxx>

In packet_parse_headers(), when processing a VLAN-tagged frame on a
SOCK_RAW AF_PACKET socket, skb_set_network_header() is called with the
depth returned by vlan_get_protocol_and_depth() to advance network_header
past the VLAN tag to the inner protocol header. However, skb->protocol
was not updated to reflect the inner EtherType resolved by
vlan_get_protocol_and_depth(), leaving it pointing to the outer VLAN
EtherType (e.g. ETH_P_8021Q).

This mismatch causes skb_probe_transport_header() to invoke the flow
dissector with proto=ETH_P_8021Q but nhoff already pointing past the
VLAN tag to the inner header. The dissector interprets the inner header
bytes as a VLAN header, fails to find a recognizable encapsulated
protocol, and returns false. Consequently, transport_header is never
set and remains at its uninitialized sentinel value (~0U = 0xFFFF).

Any subsequent code that calls skb_transport_header() or udp_hdr() on
such an skb will dereference a pointer 65535 bytes past skb->head,
potentially corrupting arbitrary kernel memory.

Save the return value of vlan_get_protocol_and_depth(), which already
resolves the inner EtherType, and assign it to skb->protocol after
skb_set_network_header(). This keeps skb->protocol and network_header
consistent when skb_probe_transport_header() is called, allowing the
flow dissector to correctly identify the transport layer header.

Fixes: dfed913e8b55 ("net/af_packet: add VLAN support for AF_PACKET SOCK_RAW GSO")
Assisted-by: WChat:claude-opus-4-8
Signed-off-by: Wei Fang <wei.fang@xxxxxxx>
---
net/packet/af_packet.c | 12 +++++++++---
1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/packet/af_packet.c b/net/packet/af_packet.c
index 0e1355be89f6..a62d445047c0 100644
--- a/net/packet/af_packet.c
+++ b/net/packet/af_packet.c
@@ -1945,9 +1945,15 @@ static void packet_parse_headers(struct sk_buff *skb, struct socket *sock)

/* Move network header to the right position for VLAN tagged packets */
if (likely(skb->dev->type == ARPHRD_ETHER) &&
- eth_type_vlan(skb->protocol) &&
- vlan_get_protocol_and_depth(skb, skb->protocol, &depth) != 0)
- skb_set_network_header(skb, depth);
+ eth_type_vlan(skb->protocol)) {
+ __be16 proto = vlan_get_protocol_and_depth(skb, skb->protocol,
+ &depth);
+
+ if (proto != 0) {
+ skb_set_network_header(skb, depth);
+ skb->protocol = proto;
+ }
+ }

skb_probe_transport_header(skb);
}
--
2.34.1