CVE-2025-68768

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

inet: frags: flush pending skbs in fqdir_pre_exit()

We have been seeing occasional deadlocks on pernet_ops_rwsem since
September in NIPA. The stuck task was usually modprobe (often loading
a driver like ipvlan), trying to take the lock as a Writer.
lockdep does not track readers for rwsems so the read wasn’t obvious
from the reports.

On closer inspection the Reader holding the lock was conntrack looping
forever in nf_conntrack_cleanup_net_list(). Based on past experience
with occasional NIPA crashes I looked thru the tests which run before
the crash and noticed that the crash follows ip_defrag.sh. An immediate
red flag. Scouring thru (de)fragmentation queues reveals skbs sitting
around, holding conntrack references.

The problem is that since conntrack depends on nf_defrag_ipv6,
nf_defrag_ipv6 will load first. Since nf_defrag_ipv6 loads first its
netns exit hooks run _after_ conntrack’s netns exit hook.

Flush all fragment queue SKBs during fqdir_pre_exit() to release
conntrack references before conntrack cleanup runs. Also flush
the queues in timer expiry handlers when they discover fqdir->dead
is set, in case packet sneaks in while we’re running the pre_exit
flush.

The commit under Fixes is not exactly the culprit, but I think
previously the timer firing would eventually unblock the spinning
conntrack.