Re: [PATCH nf v2] netfilter: conntrack: connection timeout after re-register

Jozsef Kadlecsik
2020-10-09T06:59:36Z

Hi Francesco,

On Thu, 8 Oct 2020, Francesco Ruggeri wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 12:32 PM Francesco Ruggeri <fruggeri@arista.com> wrote:
> >
> > If the first packet conntrack sees after a re-register is an outgoing
> > keepalive packet with no data (SEG.SEQ = SND.NXT-1), td_end is set to
> > SND.NXT-1. When the peer correctly acknowledges SND.NXT, tcp_in_window
> > fails check III (Upper bound for valid (s)ack: sack <=
> > receiver.td_end) and returns false, which cascades into
> > nf_conntrack_in setting skb->_nfct = 0 and in later conntrack iptables
> > rules not matching. In cases where iptables are dropping packets that
> > do not match conntrack rules this can result in idle tcp connections
> > to time out.
> >
> > v2: adjust td_end when getting the reply rather than when sending out
> > the keepalive packet.
> >
>
> Any comments?
> Here is a simple reproducer. The idea is to show that keepalive packets
> in an idle tcp connection will be dropped (and the connection will time
> out) if conntrack hooks are de-registered and then re-registered. The
> reproducer has two files. client_server.py creates both ends of a tcp
> connection, bounces a few packets back and forth, and then blocks on a
> recv on the client side. The client's keepalive is configured to time
> out in 20 seconds. This connection should not time out. test is a bash
> script that creates a net namespace where it sets iptables rules for the
> connection, starts client_server.py, and then clears and restores the
> iptables rules (which causes conntrack hooks to be de-registered and
> re-registered).

In my opinion an iptables restore should not cause conntrack hooks to be
de-registered and re-registered, because important TCP initialization
parameters cannot be "restored" later from the packets. Therefore the
proper fix would be to prevent it to happen. Otherwise your patch looks OK
to handle the case when conntrack is intentionally restarted.

Best regards,
Jozsef

> ================ file client_server.py
> #!/usr/bin/python
>
> import socket
>
> PORT=4446
>
> # create server socket
> sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
> sock.bind(('localhost', PORT))
> sock.listen(1)
>
> # create client socket
> cl_sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
> cl_sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_KEEPALIVE, 1)
> cl_sock.setsockopt(socket.IPPROTO_TCP, socket.TCP_KEEPIDLE, 2)
> cl_sock.setsockopt(socket.IPPROTO_TCP, socket.TCP_KEEPINTVL, 2)
> cl_sock.setsockopt(socket.IPPROTO_TCP, socket.TCP_KEEPCNT, 10)
> cl_sock.connect(('localhost', PORT))
>
> srv_sock, _ = sock.accept()
>
> # Bounce a packet back and forth a few times
> buf = 'aaaaaaaaaaaa'
> for i in range(5):
> cl_sock.send(buf)
> buf = srv_sock.recv(100)
> srv_sock.send(buf)
> buf = cl_sock.recv(100)
> print buf
>
> # idle the connection
> try:
> buf = cl_sock.recv(100)
> except socket.error, e:
> print "Error: %s" % e
>
> sock.close()
> cl_sock.close()
> srv_sock.close()
>
> ============== file test
> #!/bin/bash
>
> ip netns add dummy
> ip netns exec dummy ip link set lo up
> echo "Created namespace"
>
> ip netns exec dummy iptables-restore <<END
> *filter
> :INPUT DROP [0:0]
> :FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
> :OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
> -A INPUT -m conntrack --ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
> -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 4446 -j ACCEPT
> COMMIT
> END
> echo "Installed iptables rules"
>
> ip netns exec dummy ./client_server.py &
> echo "Created tcp connection"
> sleep 2
>
> ip netns exec dummy iptables-restore << END
> *filter
> :INPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
> :FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
> :OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
> COMMIT
> END
> echo "Cleared iptables rules"
> sleep 4
>
> ip netns exec dummy iptables-restore << END
> *filter
> :INPUT DROP [0:0]
> :FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
> :OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
> -A INPUT -m conntrack --ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
> -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 4446 -j ACCEPT
> COMMIT
> END
> echo "Restored original iptables rules"
>
> wait
> ip netns del dummy
> exit 0
>

-
E-mail : kadlec@blackhole.kfki.hu, kadlecsik.jozsef@wigner.hu
PGP key : https://wigner.hu/~kadlec/pgp_public_key.txt
Address : Wigner Research Centre for Physics
H-1525 Budapest 114, POB. 49, Hungary