[PATCH v1 1/6] tls: Fix dangling skb pointer in tls_sw_read_sock()

Chuck Lever <[email protected]> Thu, 5 Mar 2026 16:13:57 -0500
Newsgroups dev.linux.lists.kernel-tls-handshake,org.kernel.vger.netdev
Message-ID <[email protected]>
From: Chuck Lever <[email protected]>

Evaluating a dangling pointer is undefined behavior under the C
standard. In tls_sw_read_sock(), consume_skb(skb) in the fully-
consumed path frees the skb, but the "do { } while (skb)" loop
condition then evaluates that freed pointer. Although the value is
never dereferenced -- the loop either continues and overwrites skb,
or exits -- any future change that adds a dereference between
consume_skb() and the loop condition would produce a silent
use-after-free.

Fixes: 662fbcec32f4 ("net/tls: implement ->read_sock()")
Reviewed-by: Hannes Reinecke <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Alistair Francis <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Chuck Lever <[email protected]>
---
 net/tls/tls_sw.c | 7 ++++---
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/tls/tls_sw.c b/net/tls/tls_sw.c
index a656ce235758..108d417dcfb7 100644
--- a/net/tls/tls_sw.c
+++ b/net/tls/tls_sw.c
@@ -2355,7 +2355,7 @@ int tls_sw_read_sock(struct sock *sk, read_descriptor_t *desc,
 		goto read_sock_end;
 
 	decrypted = 0;
-	do {
+	for (;;) {
 		if (!skb_queue_empty(&ctx->rx_list)) {
 			skb = __skb_dequeue(&ctx->rx_list);
 			rxm = strp_msg(skb);
@@ -2406,10 +2406,11 @@ int tls_sw_read_sock(struct sock *sk, read_descriptor_t *desc,
 				goto read_sock_requeue;
 		} else {
 			consume_skb(skb);
+			skb = NULL;
 			if (!desc->count)
-				skb = NULL;
+				break;
 		}
-	} while (skb);
+	}
 
 read_sock_end:
 	tls_rx_reader_release(sk, ctx);
-- 
2.53.0