Re: [PATCH v3 net] ax25: fix OOB read after address header strip in ax25_rcv()

On Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:36:54 +0000
Ashutosh Desai <[email protected]> wrote:

> A remote station can send a crafted KISS frame that is just long enough
> to pass ax25_addr_parse() (minimum 14 address bytes) but carries no
> control or PID bytes. After ax25_kiss_rcv() strips the KISS framing
> byte and ax25_rcv() strips the address header with skb_pull(), skb->len
> drops to zero. The subsequent reads of skb->data[0] (control byte) and
> skb->data[1] (PID byte) are then out of bounds, which can crash the
> kernel or leak heap memory to a remote attacker.
> 
> Use pskb_may_pull(skb, 2) after the skb_pull() to ensure both bytes
> are in the linear area before reading them. Discard malformed frames
> that carry no control/PID pair.

Is it just worth linearising the skb on entry to all this code?
I believe all the frames are relatively short and low frequency.
So the actual overhead is insignificant, but it makes all the sanity
checks trivial.
It is even likely (hand waving) that the extra copy for non-linear data
is faster than all the checks for non-linear data.

	David