[PATCH net 1/5] ipv6: restrict gc_elasticity to 31

From: Jiayuan Chen

Date: Fri Oct 23 2026 - 05:15:54 EST


Every counted IPv6 dst allocation runs ip6_dst_gc() once the number of
live dst goes over gc_thresh (1024 by default). ip6_dst_gc() decays
ip6_rt_gc_expire by gc_elasticity: the smaller gc_elasticity is, the
smaller ip6_rt_gc_expire gets, i.e. the more aggressive the gc.

ip6_rt_gc_expire is a u32, but gc_elasticity has no upper bound, so
writing >= 32 shifts a 32-bit value by >= 32 bits, which is UB:

val = atomic_read(&net->ipv6.ip6_rt_gc_expire);
atomic_set(&net->ipv6.ip6_rt_gc_expire, val - (val >> rt_elasticity));

UBSAN: shift-out-of-bounds in net/ipv6/route.c:3369:53
shift exponent 32 is too large for 32-bit type 'unsigned int'
CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 615 Comm: ping6 Not tainted 7.3.0-rc7+ #364 PREEMPT
Call Trace:
<IRQ>
dump_stack_lvl+0xc1/0xf0
dump_stack+0x10/0x20
__ubsan_handle_shift_out_of_bounds+0x1d1/0x390
ip6_dst_gc.cold+0x15/0x1a
dst_alloc+0x4e0/0x620
ip6_rt_cache_alloc+0x189/0x7e0
__ip6_rt_update_pmtu+0x68e/0x1160
ip6_update_pmtu+0x30c/0x3a0
icmpv6_err+0x1fa/0x330
icmpv6_notify+0x303/0x770
icmpv6_rcv+0xc12/0x1670
ip6_protocol_deliver_rcu+0xb4a/0x1520
ip6_input_finish+0x19c/0x400
ip6_input+0xd4/0x240
ipv6_rcv+0x1fd/0x330
__netif_receive_skb_one_core+0x118/0x1c0
__netif_receive_skb+0x21/0x150
process_backlog+0x37e/0x1200
__napi_poll.constprop.0+0xa5/0x5e0
net_rx_action+0x4c0/0xf70
handle_softirqs+0x204/0x9b0
__do_softirq+0x10/0x18

Cap it at 31. 31 and 32 are equivalent anyway: ip6_rt_gc_expire starts
at 30*HZ (~30000 with HZ=1000), and such a value shifted right by 15 or
more is already 0, so val - (val >> rt_elasticity) stops decaying well
before 31. Values above 31 add no new behaviour, they only hit the UB.

Fixes: 1da177e4c3f4 ("Linux-2.6.12-rc2")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Jiayuan Chen <jiayuan.chen@xxxxxxxxx>
---
net/ipv6/route.c | 6 +++++-
1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/net/ipv6/route.c b/net/ipv6/route.c
index 94e5ef1c4f83..6f2efc219f39 100644
--- a/net/ipv6/route.c
+++ b/net/ipv6/route.c
@@ -6579,6 +6579,8 @@ static int ipv6_sysctl_rtcache_flush(const struct ctl_table *ctl, int write,
return 0;
}

+static int ip6_rt_gc_elasticity_max = 31;
+
static const struct ctl_table ipv6_route_table_template[] = {
{
.procname = "max_size",
@@ -6627,7 +6629,9 @@ static const struct ctl_table ipv6_route_table_template[] = {
.data = &init_net.ipv6.sysctl.ip6_rt_gc_elasticity,
.maxlen = sizeof(int),
.mode = 0644,
- .proc_handler = proc_dointvec,
+ .proc_handler = proc_dointvec_minmax,
+ .extra1 = SYSCTL_ZERO,
+ .extra2 = &ip6_rt_gc_elasticity_max,
},
{
.procname = "mtu_expires",
--
2.43.0