Affected: Linux

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

tcp: avoid too many retransmit packets

If a TCP socket is using TCP_USER_TIMEOUT, and the other peer retracted its window to zero, tcp_retransmit_timer() can retransmit a packet every two jiffies (2 ms for HZ=1000), for about 4 minutes after TCP_USER_TIMEOUT has 'expired'.

The fix is to make sure tcp_rtx_probe0_timed_out() takes icsk->icsk_user_timeout into account.

Before blamed commit, the socket would not timeout after icsk->icsk_user_timeout, but would use standard exponential backoff for the retransmits.

Also worth noting that before commit e89688e3e978 ("net: tcp: fix unexcepted socket die when snd_wnd is 0"), the issue would last 2 minutes instead of 4.