From: Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>
To: Lorenzo Colitti <lorenzo@google.com>
Cc: netfilter-devel@vger.kernel.org, jscherpelz@google.com,
subashab@codeaurora.org, zlpnobody@gmail.com,
Narayan Kamath <narayan@google.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH iptables v2 2/2] iptables-restore: support acquiring the lock.
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2017 14:20:03 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20170317132003.GC12186@salvia> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20170316075502.2337-3-lorenzo@google.com>
Hi Lorenzo,
On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 04:55:02PM +0900, Lorenzo Colitti wrote:
> Currently, ip[6]tables-restore does not perform any locking, so it
> is not safe to use concurrently with ip[6]tables.
>
> This patch makes ip[6]tables-restore wait for the lock if -w
> was specified. Arguments to -w and -W are supported in the same
> was as they are in ip[6]tables.
>
> The lock is not acquired on startup. Instead, it is acquired when
> a new table handle is created (on encountering '*') and released
> when the table is committed (COMMIT). This makes it possible to
> keep long-running iptables-restore processes in the background
> (for example, reading commands from a pipe opened by a system
> management daemon) and simultaneously run iptables commands.
>
> If -w is not specified, then the command proceeds without taking
> the lock.
>
> Tested as follows:
>
> 1. Run iptables-restore -w, and check that iptables commands work
> with or without -w.
> 2. Type "*filter" into the iptables-restore input. Verify that
> a) ip[6]tables commands without -w fail with "another app is
> currently holding the xtables lock...".
> b) ip[6]tables commands with "-w 2" fail after 2 seconds.
> c) ip[6]tables commands with "-w" hang until "COMMIT" is
> typed into the iptables-restore window.
> 3. With the lock held by an ip6tables-restore process:
> strace -e flock /tmp/iptables/sbin/iptables-restore -w 1 -W 100000
> shows 11 calls to flock and fails.
> 4. Run an iptables-restore with -w and one without -w, and check:
> a) Type "*filter" in the first and then the second, and the
> second exits with an error.
> b) Type "*filter" in the second and "*filter" "-S" "COMMIT"
> into the first. The rules are listed only when the first
> copy sees "COMMIT".
My concern with this is that one iptables-restore instance may
postpone any other iptables call indefinitely, by simply typing
"*filter" with no COMMIT ever.
The other instance can simply kill this process, as they would be both
running with CAP_NET_ADMIN though.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2017-03-17 13:28 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2017-03-16 7:55 [PATCH iptables v2]: Support the iptables lock in ip[6]tables-restore Lorenzo Colitti
2017-03-16 7:55 ` [PATCH iptables v2 1/2] iptables: remove duplicated argument parsing code Lorenzo Colitti
2017-03-17 13:14 ` Pablo Neira Ayuso
2017-03-16 7:55 ` [PATCH iptables v2 2/2] iptables-restore: support acquiring the lock Lorenzo Colitti
2017-03-17 13:20 ` Pablo Neira Ayuso [this message]
2017-03-17 16:46 ` Lorenzo Colitti
2017-03-21 13:54 ` Pablo Neira Ayuso
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