[PATCH bpf-next v2 9/9] bpf/docs: Document the nocast aliasing behavior of ___init

David Vernet
2023-01-20T19:26:12Z

When comparing BTF IDs for pointers being passed to kfunc arguments, the
verifier will allow pointer types that are equivalent according to the C
standard. For example, for:

struct bpf_cpumask {
cpumask_t cpumask;
refcount_t usage;
};

The verifier will allow a struct bpf_cpumask * to be passed to a kfunc
that takes a const struct cpumask * (cpumask_t is a typedef of struct
cpumask). The exception to this rule is if a type is suffixed with
___init, such as:

struct nf_conn___init {
struct nf_conn ct;
};

The verifier will _not_ allow a struct nf_conn___init * to be passed to
a kfunc that expects a struct nf_conn *. This patch documents this
behavior in the kfuncs documentation page.

Signed-off-by: David Vernet <void@manifault.com>
---
Documentation/bpf/kfuncs.rst | 43 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 43 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/bpf/kfuncs.rst b/Documentation/bpf/kfuncs.rst
index 560f4ede3a9f..7bdce4955a1b 100644
--- a/Documentation/bpf/kfuncs.rst
+++ b/Documentation/bpf/kfuncs.rst
@@ -247,6 +247,49 @@ type. An example is shown below::
}
late_initcall(init_subsystem);

+2.6 Specifying no-cast aliases with ___init
+--------------------------------------------
+
+The verifier will always enforce that the BTF type of a pointer passed to a
+kfunc by a BPF program, matches the type of pointer specified in the kfunc
+definition. The verifier, does, however, allow types that are equivalent
+according to the C standard to be passed to the same kfunc arg, even if their
+BTF_IDs differ .
+
+For example, for the following type definition:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ struct bpf_cpumask {
+ cpumask_t cpumask;
+ refcount_t usage;
+ };
+
+The verifier would allow a ``struct bpf_cpumask *`` to be passed to a kfunc
+taking a ``cpumask_t *`` (which is a typedef of ``struct cpumask *``). For
+instance, both ``struct cpumask *`` and ``struct bpf_cpmuask *`` can be passed
+to bpf_cpumask_test_cpu().
+
+In some cases, this type-aliasing behavior is not desired. ``struct
+nf_conn___init`` is one such example:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ struct nf_conn___init {
+ struct nf_conn ct;
+ };
+
+The C standard would consider these types to be equivalent, but it would not
+always be safe to pass either type to a trusted kfunc. ``struct
+nf_conn___init`` represents an allocated ``struct nf_conn`` object that has
+*not yet been initialized*, so it would therefore be unsafe to pass a ``struct
+nf_conn___init *`` to a kfunc that's expecting a fully initialized ``struct
+nf_conn *`` (e.g. ``bpf_ct_change_timeout()``).
+
+In order to accommodate such requirements, the verifier will enforce strict
+PTR_TO_BTF_ID type matching if two types have the exact same name, with one
+being suffixed with ``___init``.
+
3. Core kfuncs
==============

--
2.39.0