[PATCH v2] ipv6: fix memory leak in __ip6_make_skb() when queue is empty
From: Mingyu Wang
Date: Thu Apr 23 2026 - 04:25:41 EST
During fuzzing with failslab enabled, a memory leak was observed in the
IPv6 UDP send path.
The root cause resides in __ip6_make_skb(). In extremely rare cases
(such as fault injection or specific empty payload conditions),
__ip6_append_data() may succeed but leave the socket's write queue
empty.
When __ip6_make_skb() is subsequently called, __skb_dequeue(queue)
returns NULL. The previous logic handled this by executing a 'goto out;',
which completely bypassed the call to ip6_cork_release(cork).
Since the 'cork' structure actively holds a reference to the routing
entry (dst_entry) and potentially other allocated options, skipping
the release cleanly leaks these resources.
Fix this by introducing an 'out_cork_release' label and jumping to it
when skb is NULL, ensuring the cork state is always properly cleaned up.
The now-unused 'out' label is also removed to prevent compiler warnings.
Fixes: 1da177e4c3f4 ("Linux-2.6.12-rc2")
Reported-by: syzbot+e5d6936b9f4545fd88ab@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Mingyu Wang <25181214217@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
net/ipv6/ip6_output.c | 4 ++--
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c b/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c
index 7e92909ab5be..82210dd5eb96 100644
--- a/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c
+++ b/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c
@@ -1934,7 +1934,7 @@ struct sk_buff *__ip6_make_skb(struct sock *sk,
skb = __skb_dequeue(queue);
if (!skb)
- goto out;
+ goto out_cork_release;
tail_skb = &(skb_shinfo(skb)->frag_list);
/* move skb->data to ip header from ext header */
@@ -1998,8 +1998,8 @@ struct sk_buff *__ip6_make_skb(struct sock *sk,
ICMP6_INC_STATS(net, idev, ICMP6_MIB_OUTMSGS);
}
+out_cork_release:
ip6_cork_release(cork);
-out:
return skb;
}
--
2.34.1