Re: Bug in MACSec - stops passing traffic after approx 5TB

[Sabrina Dubroca <sd@queasysnail.net>]

2018-10-14, 10:59:31 -0400, Josh Coombs wrote:
> I initially mistook this for a traffic control issue, but after
> stripping the test beds down to just the MACSec component, I can still
> replicate the issue.  After approximately 5TB of transfer / 4 billion
> packets over a MACSec link it stops passing traffic.

I think you're just hitting packet number exhaustion. After 2^32
packets, the packet number would wrap to 0 and start being reused,
which breaks the crypto used by macsec. Before this point, you have to
add a new SA, and tell the macsec device to switch to it.

That's why you should be using wpa_supplicant. It will monitor the
growth of the packet number, and handle the rekey for you.

If you start with a PN already close to exhaustion (say, 4294967000),
you should hit the "bug" very quickly.

> # Bring up macsec:
> echo "* Enable MACSec"
> modprobe macsec
> ip link add link "$dif" "$eif" type macsec
> ip macsec add "$eif" tx sa 0 pn 1 on key 02 "$txkey"

Keep the rest of the configuration, and replace that one with:
ip macsec add "$eif" tx sa 0 pn 4294967000 on key 02 "$txkey"

to trigger the issue faster.

-- 
Sabrina