[PATCH v3 1/2] tcp: clamp return value of tcp_wmem_schedule() to non-negative

From: Octavian Purdila

Date: Wed Oct 21 2026 - 14:58:43 EST


When sk_wmem_schedule(sk, copy) fails under TCP memory pressure and
sk->sk_wmem_queued already reaches or exceeds sysctl_tcp_wmem[0],
tcp_wmem_schedule() returns min(copy, sk->sk_forward_alloc).

However, sk->sk_forward_alloc is a signed int that can transiently
become negative when tcp_collapse() re-packs partially read or high
payload-to-truesize SKBs in the receive queue and charges newly
allocated SKBs via sk_mem_charge() before freeing the original SKB.

If tcp_wmem_schedule() returns a negative value, tcp_sendmsg_locked()
passes that negative copy length to skb_copy_to_page_nocache() ->
copy_from_iter_full() -> check_copy_size(), where it is converted to an
unsigned size_t > INT_MAX, triggering a WARN_ON_ONCE(bytes > INT_MAX)
in production and returning -EFAULT instead of waiting for memory or
returning -EAGAIN:

WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 939331 at include/linux/thread_info.h:249 tcp_sendmsg+0x10c1/0x1530
Call Trace:
<TASK>
__sys_sendmsg+0x292/0x490
do_syscall_64+0x88/0x340
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

Clamp the return value of tcp_wmem_schedule() to [0, copy] so callers
treat negative sk_forward_alloc as 0 available bytes.

Fixes: 849b425cd091 ("tcp: fix possible freeze in tx path under memory pressure")
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Octavian Purdila <tavip@xxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Kuniyuki Iwashima <kuniyu@xxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
net/ipv4/tcp.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp.c b/net/ipv4/tcp.c
index 87ef6d5cbfeba..0e062fcd94a6c 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp.c
@@ -1037,7 +1037,7 @@ int tcp_wmem_schedule(struct sock *sk, int copy)
left = READ_ONCE(sock_net(sk)->ipv4.sysctl_tcp_wmem[0]) - sk->sk_wmem_queued;
if (left > 0)
sk_forced_mem_schedule(sk, min(left, copy));
- return min(copy, sk->sk_forward_alloc);
+ return clamp(sk->sk_forward_alloc, 0, copy);
}

void tcp_free_fastopen_req(struct tcp_sock *tp)
--
2.56.0.307.g5fe7bd680c-goog