From: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
To: "David S . Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>,
Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>,
Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>
Cc: Simon Horman <horms@kernel.org>,
netdev@vger.kernel.org, eric.dumazet@gmail.com,
Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>,
James Burton <jamesburton@meta.com>
Subject: [PATCH net] netlink: do not free nlk->groups while lockless readers can use it
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2026 16:08:04 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260911160804.917099-1-edumazet@google.com> (raw)
netlink_realloc_groups() uses krealloc() under netlink_table_grab().
Whenever NLGRPSZ(groups) lands in a different kmalloc bucket, the old
bitmap is freed immediately.
Two readers of nlk->groups / nlk->ngroups do not hold the netlink
table lock:
1) sk_diag_dump_groups(). Hashed (bound) sockets are dumped from the
rhashtable walk in __netlink_diag_dump(), which only holds RCU.
Only the mc_list part of the dump takes nl_table_lock.
2) netlink_native_seq_show() (/proc/net/netlink), whose walk has been
lockless since commit 21e4902aea80 ("netlink: Lockless lookup with
RCU grace period in socket release").
Both can read a freed buffer, and sk_diag_dump_groups() can also read
past the end of the old (smaller) buffer if it happens to load the old
@groups pointer together with the new @ngroups value, copying the
result into a NETLINK_DIAG_GROUPS attribute.
This is the same class of bug that commit f773608026ee ("netlink:
access nlk groups safely in netlink bind and getname") fixed for bind()
and getname(); these two readers were missed. Simply grabbing the table
lock in sk_diag_dump_groups() is not an option, because it is also
called with nl_table_lock already held from the mc_list section of the
dump.
Make the lockless readers safe instead:
- Allocate a new bitmap and free the old one after an RCU grace period,
instead of relying on the implicit kfree() done by krealloc().
- Publish @groups before @ngroups, both with release semantics, and have
the lockless readers load @ngroups first. A reader can then never pair
the new (bigger) size with the old (smaller) buffer, and a reader
picking up the new pointer while still seeing the old size is
guaranteed to see the initialized bitmap.
netlink_realloc_groups() is called from process context (bind() and
setsockopt()), so kfree_rcu_mightsleep() can be used, once the table
has been released.
Fixes: 21e4902aea80 ("netlink: Lockless lookup with RCU grace period in socket release")
Fixes: ad202074320c ("netlink: Use rhashtable walk interface in diag dump")
Reported-by: James Burton <jamesburton@meta.com>
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
---
net/netlink/af_netlink.c | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------
net/netlink/diag.c | 20 +++++++++++++++----
2 files changed, 50 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
diff --git a/net/netlink/af_netlink.c b/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
index e6b1d9758c9c92ee465888ed206e84339ac8e52c..9fdf964224ab48407ff4915d2b07cc76325ae6af 100644
--- a/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
+++ b/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
@@ -922,9 +922,9 @@ netlink_update_subscriptions(struct sock *sk, unsigned int subscriptions)
static int netlink_realloc_groups(struct sock *sk)
{
+ unsigned long *new_groups, *old_groups = NULL;
struct netlink_sock *nlk = nlk_sk(sk);
unsigned int groups;
- unsigned long *new_groups;
int err = 0;
netlink_table_grab();
@@ -938,18 +938,37 @@ static int netlink_realloc_groups(struct sock *sk)
if (nlk->ngroups >= groups)
goto out_unlock;
- new_groups = krealloc(nlk->groups, NLGRPSZ(groups), GFP_ATOMIC);
- if (new_groups == NULL) {
+ /* Can not use krealloc(), because the old buffer might be freed
+ * immediately, while lockless readers (netlink diag dump and
+ * /proc/net/netlink) can still be looking at it.
+ */
+ new_groups = kzalloc(NLGRPSZ(groups), GFP_ATOMIC);
+ if (!new_groups) {
err = -ENOMEM;
goto out_unlock;
}
- memset((char *)new_groups + NLGRPSZ(nlk->ngroups), 0,
- NLGRPSZ(groups) - NLGRPSZ(nlk->ngroups));
+ old_groups = nlk->groups;
+ if (old_groups)
+ memcpy(new_groups, old_groups, NLGRPSZ(nlk->ngroups));
+
+ /* Publish the new bitmap and its content: pairs with the address
+ * dependency in lockless readers, which can pick up the new pointer
+ * while still seeing the old (smaller) nlk->ngroups.
+ */
+ smp_store_release(&nlk->groups, new_groups);
+
+ /* Then publish the new size: pairs with smp_load_acquire() from
+ * lockless readers, so that they can not read NLGRPSZ(new ngroups)
+ * bytes from the old buffer.
+ */
+ smp_store_release(&nlk->ngroups, groups);
- nlk->groups = new_groups;
- nlk->ngroups = groups;
out_unlock:
netlink_table_ungrab();
+
+ if (old_groups)
+ kfree_rcu_mightsleep(old_groups);
+
return err;
}
@@ -2705,12 +2724,19 @@ static int netlink_native_seq_show(struct seq_file *seq, void *v)
} else {
struct sock *s = v;
struct netlink_sock *nlk = nlk_sk(s);
+ const unsigned long *groups;
+
+ /* Lockless read : netlink_realloc_groups() can change
+ * nlk->groups under us. The old buffer is freed after an
+ * RCU grace period, and this walk is RCU protected.
+ */
+ groups = READ_ONCE(nlk->groups);
seq_printf(seq, "%pK %-3d %-10u %08x %-8d %-8d %-5d %-8d %-8u %-8llu\n",
s,
s->sk_protocol,
nlk->portid,
- nlk->groups ? (u32)nlk->groups[0] : 0,
+ groups ? (u32)groups[0] : 0,
sk_rmem_alloc_get(s),
sk_wmem_alloc_get(s),
READ_ONCE(nlk->cb_running),
diff --git a/net/netlink/diag.c b/net/netlink/diag.c
index 0b3e021bd0ed29edc094fad2c79c7c067edcdd50..7979bd9b26060ea1812a7b4ac09f74ea74ff0759 100644
--- a/net/netlink/diag.c
+++ b/net/netlink/diag.c
@@ -12,12 +12,24 @@
static int sk_diag_dump_groups(struct sock *sk, struct sk_buff *nlskb)
{
struct netlink_sock *nlk = nlk_sk(sk);
-
- if (nlk->groups == NULL)
+ unsigned long *groups;
+ unsigned int ngroups;
+
+ /* Hashed sockets are dumped from the rhashtable walk, which only
+ * holds rcu_read_lock(), while netlink_realloc_groups() can replace
+ * nlk->groups and nlk->ngroups at any time.
+ *
+ * Read nlk->ngroups first : this pairs with smp_store_release()
+ * from netlink_realloc_groups(), so that we can not use the new
+ * (bigger) size with the old (smaller) buffer. The old buffer is
+ * freed after an RCU grace period.
+ */
+ ngroups = smp_load_acquire(&nlk->ngroups);
+ groups = READ_ONCE(nlk->groups);
+ if (!groups)
return 0;
- return nla_put(nlskb, NETLINK_DIAG_GROUPS, NLGRPSZ(nlk->ngroups),
- nlk->groups);
+ return nla_put(nlskb, NETLINK_DIAG_GROUPS, NLGRPSZ(ngroups), groups);
}
static int sk_diag_put_flags(struct sock *sk, struct sk_buff *skb)
--
2.55.0.1007.g17ff1f9808-goog
next reply other threads:[~2026-09-11 16:08 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-09-11 16:08 Eric Dumazet [this message]
2026-09-11 16:49 ` [PATCH net] netlink: do not free nlk->groups while lockless readers can use it Jakub Kicinski
2026-09-11 16:59 ` Eric Dumazet
2026-09-16 1:50 ` patchwork-bot+netdevbpf
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