linux-kernel - [PATCH v2] xfrm: fix memory leak in xfrm_add

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Message-Id: <20251110064125.593311-1-zilin@seu.edu.cn>
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2025 06:41:25 +0000
From: Zilin Guan <zilin@....edu.cn>
To: steffen.klassert@...unet.com
Cc: herbert@...dor.apana.org.au,
	davem@...emloft.net,
	edumazet@...gle.com,
	kuba@...nel.org,
	pabeni@...hat.com,
	horms@...nel.org,
	netdev@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	jianhao.xu@....edu.cn,
	Zilin Guan <zilin@....edu.cn>
Subject: [PATCH v2] xfrm: fix memory leak in xfrm_add_acquire()

The xfrm_add_acquire() function constructs an xfrm policy by calling
xfrm_policy_construct(). This allocates the policy structure and
potentially associates a security context and a device policy with it.

However, at the end of the function, the policy object is freed using
only kfree() . This skips the necessary cleanup for the security context
and device policy, leading to a memory leak.

To fix this, invoke the proper cleanup functions xfrm_dev_policy_delete(),
xfrm_dev_policy_free(), and security_xfrm_policy_free() before freeing the
policy object. This approach mirrors the error handling path in
xfrm_add_policy(), ensuring that all associated resources are correctly
released.

Fixes: 980ebd25794f ("[IPSEC]: Sync series - acquire insert")
Signed-off-by: Zilin Guan <zilin@....edu.cn>
---
Changes in v2:
- Use the correct cleanup functions as per xfrm_add_policy().
---
 net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c b/net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c
index 010c9e6638c0..441d5fa319f4 100644
--- a/net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c
+++ b/net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c
@@ -3035,6 +3035,9 @@ static int xfrm_add_acquire(struct sk_buff *skb, struct nlmsghdr *nlh,
 	}

 	xfrm_state_free(x);
+	xfrm_dev_policy_delete(xp);
+	xfrm_dev_policy_free(xp);
+	security_xfrm_policy_free(xp->security);
 	kfree(xp);

 	return 0;
-- 
2.34.1