[PATCH] svcrdma: silently discard undersized messages

[PATCH] svcrdma: silently discard undersized messages

[Hyunsol Mun]

RFC 8166 requires an RPC-over-RDMA message shorter than the 28-byte
minimum header to be silently discarded because its XID cannot be
trusted.

svc_rdma_xdr_decode_req() instead returns -EINVAL when the fixed header
cannot be decoded. svc_rdma_recvfrom() turns that into an RDMA_ERROR,
whose encoder copies the first two words from rc_recv_buf without
checking rc_byte_len. A zero- to seven-byte SEND can therefore return
up to eight bytes that were not supplied by the peer.

Check the complete minimum header length before parsing and use the
decoder's existing silent-drop return for undersized input. This keeps
the error encoder from reading beyond the received message and follows
the protocol requirement.

On an unpatched nfsd-testing kernel at 764ffa45f3f2, a two-VM Soft-iWARP
test sent 128 complete 28-byte bad-version headers over connection A.
After closing that connection, it sent 128 zero-byte SENDs over
connection B. All 128 zero-byte requests received replies, and 56 of
those replies contained the exact XID and version markers left by
connection A. The test process ran as uid/gid 65534 with no effective
capabilities and NoNewPrivs set.

With this patch applied, all eight complete 28-byte bad-version headers
elicited replies. A zero-byte SEND and a 27-byte SEND each elicited no
reply during a five-second observation interval. A normal NFSv4.1/RDMA
mount, write, readback, and unmount completed successfully. The server
remained running without an oops or panic. Both x86-64 kernels built
with GCC 12.2 and CONFIG_WERROR=y without warnings.

The vulnerability research and validation were conducted by members of
the Tobabz team as part of the Best of the Best 15th program.

Fixes: f3ea53fb3bc3 ("svcrdma: Use correct XID in error replies")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Hyunsol Mun <muumthf@gmail.com>
---
 net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/svc_rdma_recvfrom.c | 5 ++++-
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/svc_rdma_recvfrom.c b/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/svc_rdma_recvfrom.c
index ed5a83e9edd2..f2fbba4b30d4 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/svc_rdma_recvfrom.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/svc_rdma_recvfrom.c
@@ -714,6 +714,9 @@ static int svc_rdma_xdr_decode_req(struct xdr_buf *rq_arg,
 	__be32 *p, *rdma_argp;
 	unsigned int hdr_len;
 
+	if (unlikely(rq_arg->len < RPCRDMA_HDRLEN_MIN))
+		goto out_short;
+
 	rdma_argp = rq_arg->head[0].iov_base;
 	xdr_init_decode(&rctxt->rc_stream, rq_arg, rdma_argp, NULL);
 
@@ -758,7 +761,7 @@ static int svc_rdma_xdr_decode_req(struct xdr_buf *rq_arg,
 
 out_short:
 	trace_svcrdma_decode_short_err(rctxt, rq_arg->len);
-	return -EINVAL;
+	return 0;
 
 out_version:
 	trace_svcrdma_decode_badvers_err(rctxt, rdma_argp);

base-commit: 764ffa45f3f2189cd86ec6d46d248fc0440507b6
-- 
2.50.1 (Apple Git-155)

Re: [PATCH] svcrdma: silently discard undersized messages

[sashiko-bot]

> RFC 8166 requires an RPC-over-RDMA message shorter than the 28-byte
> minimum header to be silently discarded because its XID cannot be
> trusted.
> 
> svc_rdma_xdr_decode_req() instead returns -EINVAL when the fixed header
> cannot be decoded. svc_rdma_recvfrom() turns that into an RDMA_ERROR,
> whose encoder copies the first two words from rc_recv_buf without
> checking rc_byte_len. A zero- to seven-byte SEND can therefore return
> up to eight bytes that were not supplied by the peer.
> 
> Check the complete minimum header length before parsing and use the
> decoder's existing silent-drop return for undersized input. This keeps
> the error encoder from reading beyond the received message and follows
> the protocol requirement.
> 
> [ ... ]
> 
> Fixes: f3ea53fb3bc3 ("svcrdma: Use correct XID in error replies")
> Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
> Assisted-by: LLM
> Signed-off-by: Hyunsol Mun <muumthf@gmail.com>

Sashiko has reviewed this patch and found no issues.

-- 
Sashiko AI review · https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20261022034629.430954-1-muumthf@gmail.com?part=1

Re: [PATCH] svcrdma: silently discard undersized messages

[Chuck Lever]

On Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:46:29 +0900, Hyunsol Mun wrote:
> RFC 8166 requires an RPC-over-RDMA message shorter than the 28-byte
> minimum header to be silently discarded because its XID cannot be
> trusted.
> 
> svc_rdma_xdr_decode_req() instead returns -EINVAL when the fixed header
> cannot be decoded. svc_rdma_recvfrom() turns that into an RDMA_ERROR,
> whose encoder copies the first two words from rc_recv_buf without
> checking rc_byte_len. A zero- to seven-byte SEND can therefore return
> up to eight bytes that were not supplied by the peer.
> 
> [...]

Applied to nfsd-testing, thanks!

[1/1] svcrdma: silently discard undersized messages
      commit: 667147c17f15824c00a5b2fcfdb66283c3f4cad6

--
Chuck Lever