Re: [PATCH net-next] net: dropreason: add SKB_DROP_REASON_IP_TTL_EXCEEDED

[Eric Dumazet]

On Tue, Aug 25, 2026 at 9:39 AM Junjie Cao <junjie.cao@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> The forwarding paths report an expired TTL or hop limit as
> SKB_DROP_REASON_IP_INHDR, the reason otherwise used for a header that is
> malformed (ip_input.c, exthdrs.c, br_netfilter). Nothing else in the drop
> path separates the two: IPSTATS_MIB_INHDRERRORS covers both, and the TTL
> check runs before NF_INET_FORWARD, so netfilter tracing stops at
> PREROUTING and never sees the drop.
>
> The Fedora bug linked below shows how that reads in practice. The
> reporter took kfree_skb(reason=IP_INHDR, loc=ip_forward) to mean the
> software header checksum check had failed, and worked through RX checksum
> offload, tc csum actions and both libvirt firewall backends before the
> drops turned out to be replies arriving with TTL 1. ip_forward() never
> verifies the header checksum; that runs earlier, in ip_rcv_core(), and
> reports IP_CSUM.
>
> TTL expiry is not a corner case -- every traceroute through a Linux
> router goes through too_many_hops.
>
> The three loopback hop limit checks in exthdrs.c drop with no reason at
> all; give them the new one.
>
> IPSTATS_MIB_INHDRERRORS stays as it is: RFC 1213 counts time-to-live
> exceeded under ipInHdrErrors. The drop reason has no such constraint.
>
> Link: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2517131
> Signed-off-by: Junjie Cao <junjie.cao@xxxxxxxxx>

## Form letter - net-next-closed

net-next pull request for v7.3 has already been merged, and therefore
the net-next tree is closed for new drivers, features, code refactoring
and optimizations. We are currently accepting bug fixes only.

Please repost when net-next reopens after Aug 31st.

RFC patches sent for review only are obviously welcome at any time.

See: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/next/process/maintainer-netdev.html#development-cycle
--
pw-bot: defer
pv-bot: closed