Re: [PATCH V3] netrom: Prevent race conditions between neighbor operations

Paolo Abeni
2025-10-23T11:44:24Z

On 10/21/25 10:35 AM, Lizhi Xu wrote:
> The root cause of the problem is that multiple different tasks initiate
> SIOCADDRT & NETROM_NODE commands to add new routes, there is no lock
> between them to protect the same nr_neigh.
>
> Task0 can add the nr_neigh.refcount value of 1 on Task1 to routes[2].
> When Task2 executes nr_neigh_put(nr_node->routes[2].neighbour), it will
> release the neighbour because its refcount value is 1.
>
> In this case, the following situation causes a UAF on Task2:
>
> Task0 Task1 Task2
> ===== ===== =====
> nr_add_node()
> nr_neigh_get_dev() nr_add_node()
> nr_node_lock()
> nr_node->routes[2].neighbour->count--
> nr_neigh_put(nr_node->routes[2].neighbour);
> nr_remove_neigh(nr_node->routes[2].neighbour)
> nr_node_unlock()
> nr_node_lock()
> nr_node->routes[2].neighbour = nr_neigh
> nr_neigh_hold(nr_neigh); nr_add_node()
> nr_neigh_put()
> if (nr_node->routes[2].neighbour->count
> Description of the UAF triggering process:
> First, Task 0 executes nr_neigh_get_dev() to set neighbor refcount to 3.
> Then, Task 1 puts the same neighbor from its routes[2] and executes
> nr_remove_neigh() because the count is 0. After these two operations,
> the neighbor's refcount becomes 1. Then, Task 0 acquires the nr node
> lock and writes it to its routes[2].neighbour.
> Finally, Task 2 executes nr_neigh_put(nr_node->routes[2].neighbour) to
> release the neighbor. The subsequent execution of the neighbor->count
> check triggers a UAF.
>
> The solution to the problem is to use a lock to synchronize each add a
> route to node, but for rigor, I'll add locks to related ioctl and route
> frame operations to maintain synchronization.

I think that adding another locking mechanism on top of an already
complex and not well understood locking and reference infra is not the
right direction.

Why reordering the statements as:

if (nr_node->routes[2].neighbour->count == 0 &&
!nr_node->routes[2].neighbour->locked)
nr_remove_neigh(nr_node->routes[2].neighbour);
nr_neigh_put(nr_node->routes[2].neighbour);

is not enough?

> syzbot reported:
> BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in nr_add_node+0x25db/0x2c00 net/netrom/nr_route.c:248
> Read of size 4 at addr ffff888051e6e9b0 by task syz.1.2539/8741
>
> Call Trace:
> <TASK>
> nr_add_node+0x25db/0x2c00 net/netrom/nr_route.c:248
>
> Reported-by: syzbot+2860e75836a08b172755@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
> Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=2860e75836a08b172755
> Signed-off-by: Lizhi Xu <lizhi.xu@windriver.com>

> ---
> V1 -> V2: update comments for cause uaf
> V2 -> V3: sync neighbor operations in ioctl and route frame, update comments
>
> net/netrom/nr_route.c | 4 ++++
> 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/net/netrom/nr_route.c b/net/netrom/nr_route.c
> index b94cb2ffbaf8..debe3e925338 100644
> --- a/net/netrom/nr_route.c
> +++ b/net/netrom/nr_route.c
> @@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ static HLIST_HEAD(nr_node_list);
> static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(nr_node_list_lock);
> static HLIST_HEAD(nr_neigh_list);
> static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(nr_neigh_list_lock);
> +static DEFINE_MUTEX(neighbor_lock);
>
> static struct nr_node *nr_node_get(ax25_address *callsign)
> {
> @@ -633,6 +634,8 @@ int nr_rt_ioctl(unsigned int cmd, void __user *arg)
> ax25_digi digi;
> int ret;
>
> + guard(mutex)(&neighbor_lock);

See:

https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.18-rc1/source/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst#L395

/P