[PATCH net] ppp: fix memory leak in pad_compress_skb

Qingfang Deng <[email protected]> Wed, 3 Sep 2025 18:07:26 +0800
Newsgroups gmane.linux.ppp,gmane.linux.network,gmane.linux.kernel
Message-ID <[email protected]>
If alloc_skb() fails in pad_compress_skb(), it returns NULL without
releasing the old skb. The caller does:

    skb = pad_compress_skb(ppp, skb);
    if (!skb)
        goto drop;

drop:
    kfree_skb(skb);

When pad_compress_skb() returns NULL, the reference to the old skb is
lost and kfree_skb(skb) ends up doing nothing, leading to a memory leak.

Align pad_compress_skb() semantics with realloc(): only free the old
skb if allocation and compression succeed.  At the call site, use the
new_skb variable so the original skb is not lost when pad_compress_skb()
fails.

Fixes: b3f9b92a6ec1 ("[PPP]: add PPP MPPE encryption module")
Signed-off-by: Qingfang Deng <[email protected]>
---
 drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c | 6 +++---
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c b/drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c
index 65795d099166..f9f0f16c41d1 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c
@@ -1744,7 +1744,6 @@ pad_compress_skb(struct ppp *ppp, struct sk_buff *skb)
 		 */
 		if (net_ratelimit())
 			netdev_err(ppp->dev, "ppp: compressor dropped pkt\n");
-		kfree_skb(skb);
 		consume_skb(new_skb);
 		new_skb = NULL;
 	}
@@ -1845,9 +1844,10 @@ ppp_send_frame(struct ppp *ppp, struct sk_buff *skb)
 					   "down - pkt dropped.\n");
 			goto drop;
 		}
-		skb = pad_compress_skb(ppp, skb);
-		if (!skb)
+		new_skb = pad_compress_skb(ppp, skb);
+		if (!new_skb)
 			goto drop;
+		skb = new_skb;
 	}
 
 	/*
-- 
2.43.0