From: Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>
To: kuba@kernel.org
Cc: edumazet@google.com, dsahern@kernel.org, tom@herbertland.com,
willemdebruijn.kernel@gmail.com, idosch@nvidia.com,
pabeni@redhat.com, justin.iurman@gmail.com,
netdev@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH net v5] ipv6: Implement limits on extension header parsing
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:46:48 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260429154648.809751-1-daniel@iogearbox.net> (raw)
ipv6_{skip_exthdr,find_hdr}() and ip6_{tnl_parse_tlv_enc_lim,
protocol_deliver_rcu}() iterate over IPv6 extension headers until they
find a non-extension-header protocol or run out of packet data. The
loops have no iteration counter, relying solely on the packet length
to bound them. For a crafted packet with 8-byte extension headers
filling a 64KB jumbogram, this means a worst case of up to ~8k
iterations with a skb_header_pointer call each. ipv6_skip_exthdr(),
for example, is used where it parses the inner quoted packet inside
an incoming ICMPv6 error:
- icmpv6_rcv
- checksum validation
- case ICMPV6_DEST_UNREACH
- icmpv6_notify
- pskb_may_pull() <- pull inner IPv6 header
- ipv6_skip_exthdr() <- iterates here
- pskb_may_pull()
- ipprot->err_handler() <- sk lookup
The per-iteration cost of ipv6_skip_exthdr itself is generally
light, but skb_header_pointer becomes more costly on reassembled
packets: the first ~1232 bytes of the inner packet are in the skb's
linear area, but the remaining ~63KB are in the frag_list where
skb_copy_bits is needed to read data.
Initially, the idea was to add a configurable limit via a new
sysctl knob with default 8, in line with knobs from commit
47d3d7ac656a ("ipv6: Implement limits on Hop-by-Hop and Destination
options"), but two reasons eventually argued against it:
- It adds to UAPI that needs to be maintained forever, and
upcoming work is restricting extension header ordering anyway,
leaving little reason for another sysctl knob
- exthdrs_core.c is always built-in even when CONFIG_IPV6=n,
where struct net has no .ipv6 member, so the read site would
need an ifdef'd fallback to a constant anyway
Therefore, just use a constant (IP6_MAX_EXT_HDRS_CNT). All four
extension header walking functions are now bound by this limit.
Note that the check in ip6_protocol_deliver_rcu() happens right
before the goto resubmit, such that we don't have to have a test
for ipv6_ext_hdr() in the fast-path.
There's an ongoing IETF draft-iurman-6man-eh-occurrences to enforce
IPv6 extension headers ordering and occurrence. The latter also
discusses security implications. As per RFC8200 section 4.1, the
occurrence rules for extension headers provide a practical upper
bound which is 8. In order to be conservative, let's define
IP6_MAX_EXT_HDRS_CNT as 12 to leave enough room for quirky setups.
In the unlikely event that this is still not enough, then we might
need to reconsider a sysctl.
Signed-off-by: Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>
---
v4->v5:
- Reduce the hard-coded limit from 32 to 12 (Justin)
- Rest as-is
v3->v4:
- Switching to hard-coded define with 32 limit as discussed
earlier, otherwise fixing the kbuild-bot error becomes
to ugly.. was worth a try, but given the case of being
built-in also with CONFIG_IPV6=n define seems better
(Justin, Victor, kbuild-bot)
v2->v3:
- Adding IP6SKB_HOPBYHOP coverage (Justin)
- I left the limit at 8 w/ sysctl, still feels the better
option to me if we can keep the worst-case more tightened
v1->v2:
- Set the default to 8 (Justin)
- Update IETF references (Justin)
- Add core path coverage as well (Justin)
include/net/dropreason-core.h | 6 ++++++
include/net/ipv6.h | 3 +++
net/ipv6/exthdrs_core.c | 7 +++++++
net/ipv6/ip6_input.c | 5 +++++
net/ipv6/ip6_tunnel.c | 4 ++++
5 files changed, 25 insertions(+)
diff --git a/include/net/dropreason-core.h b/include/net/dropreason-core.h
index e0ca3904ff8e..2f312d1f67d6 100644
--- a/include/net/dropreason-core.h
+++ b/include/net/dropreason-core.h
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@
FN(FRAG_TOO_FAR) \
FN(TCP_MINTTL) \
FN(IPV6_BAD_EXTHDR) \
+ FN(IPV6_TOO_MANY_EXTHDRS) \
FN(IPV6_NDISC_FRAG) \
FN(IPV6_NDISC_HOP_LIMIT) \
FN(IPV6_NDISC_BAD_CODE) \
@@ -494,6 +495,11 @@ enum skb_drop_reason {
SKB_DROP_REASON_TCP_MINTTL,
/** @SKB_DROP_REASON_IPV6_BAD_EXTHDR: Bad IPv6 extension header. */
SKB_DROP_REASON_IPV6_BAD_EXTHDR,
+ /**
+ * @SKB_DROP_REASON_IPV6_TOO_MANY_EXTHDRS: Number of IPv6 extension
+ * headers in the packet exceeds IP6_MAX_EXT_HDRS_CNT.
+ */
+ SKB_DROP_REASON_IPV6_TOO_MANY_EXTHDRS,
/** @SKB_DROP_REASON_IPV6_NDISC_FRAG: invalid frag (suppress_frag_ndisc). */
SKB_DROP_REASON_IPV6_NDISC_FRAG,
/** @SKB_DROP_REASON_IPV6_NDISC_HOP_LIMIT: invalid hop limit. */
diff --git a/include/net/ipv6.h b/include/net/ipv6.h
index d042afe7a245..1dec81faff28 100644
--- a/include/net/ipv6.h
+++ b/include/net/ipv6.h
@@ -90,6 +90,9 @@ struct ip_tunnel_info;
#define IP6_DEFAULT_MAX_DST_OPTS_LEN INT_MAX /* No limit */
#define IP6_DEFAULT_MAX_HBH_OPTS_LEN INT_MAX /* No limit */
+/* Hard limit on traversed IPv6 extension headers */
+#define IP6_MAX_EXT_HDRS_CNT 12
+
/*
* Addr type
*
diff --git a/net/ipv6/exthdrs_core.c b/net/ipv6/exthdrs_core.c
index 49e31e4ae7b7..9d06d487e8b1 100644
--- a/net/ipv6/exthdrs_core.c
+++ b/net/ipv6/exthdrs_core.c
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ int ipv6_skip_exthdr(const struct sk_buff *skb, int start, u8 *nexthdrp,
__be16 *frag_offp)
{
u8 nexthdr = *nexthdrp;
+ int exthdr_cnt = 0;
*frag_offp = 0;
@@ -82,6 +83,8 @@ int ipv6_skip_exthdr(const struct sk_buff *skb, int start, u8 *nexthdrp,
if (nexthdr == NEXTHDR_NONE)
return -1;
+ if (unlikely(exthdr_cnt++ >= IP6_MAX_EXT_HDRS_CNT))
+ return -1;
hp = skb_header_pointer(skb, start, sizeof(_hdr), &_hdr);
if (!hp)
return -1;
@@ -190,6 +193,7 @@ int ipv6_find_hdr(const struct sk_buff *skb, unsigned int *offset,
{
unsigned int start = skb_network_offset(skb) + sizeof(struct ipv6hdr);
u8 nexthdr = ipv6_hdr(skb)->nexthdr;
+ int exthdr_cnt = 0;
bool found;
if (fragoff)
@@ -216,6 +220,9 @@ int ipv6_find_hdr(const struct sk_buff *skb, unsigned int *offset,
return -ENOENT;
}
+ if (unlikely(exthdr_cnt++ >= IP6_MAX_EXT_HDRS_CNT))
+ return -EBADMSG;
+
hp = skb_header_pointer(skb, start, sizeof(_hdr), &_hdr);
if (!hp)
return -EBADMSG;
diff --git a/net/ipv6/ip6_input.c b/net/ipv6/ip6_input.c
index 967b07aeb683..8972863c93ee 100644
--- a/net/ipv6/ip6_input.c
+++ b/net/ipv6/ip6_input.c
@@ -403,6 +403,7 @@ INDIRECT_CALLABLE_DECLARE(int tcp_v6_rcv(struct sk_buff *));
void ip6_protocol_deliver_rcu(struct net *net, struct sk_buff *skb, int nexthdr,
bool have_final)
{
+ int exthdr_cnt = IP6CB(skb)->flags & IP6SKB_HOPBYHOP ? 1 : 0;
const struct inet6_protocol *ipprot;
struct inet6_dev *idev;
unsigned int nhoff;
@@ -487,6 +488,10 @@ void ip6_protocol_deliver_rcu(struct net *net, struct sk_buff *skb, int nexthdr,
nexthdr = ret;
goto resubmit_final;
} else {
+ if (unlikely(exthdr_cnt++ >= IP6_MAX_EXT_HDRS_CNT)) {
+ SKB_DR_SET(reason, IPV6_TOO_MANY_EXTHDRS);
+ goto discard;
+ }
goto resubmit;
}
} else if (ret == 0) {
diff --git a/net/ipv6/ip6_tunnel.c b/net/ipv6/ip6_tunnel.c
index c468c83af0f2..9d1037ac082f 100644
--- a/net/ipv6/ip6_tunnel.c
+++ b/net/ipv6/ip6_tunnel.c
@@ -399,11 +399,15 @@ __u16 ip6_tnl_parse_tlv_enc_lim(struct sk_buff *skb, __u8 *raw)
unsigned int nhoff = raw - skb->data;
unsigned int off = nhoff + sizeof(*ipv6h);
u8 nexthdr = ipv6h->nexthdr;
+ int exthdr_cnt = 0;
while (ipv6_ext_hdr(nexthdr) && nexthdr != NEXTHDR_NONE) {
struct ipv6_opt_hdr *hdr;
u16 optlen;
+ if (unlikely(exthdr_cnt++ >= IP6_MAX_EXT_HDRS_CNT))
+ break;
+
if (!pskb_may_pull(skb, off + sizeof(*hdr)))
break;
--
2.43.0
next reply other threads:[~2026-04-29 16:07 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-04-29 15:46 Daniel Borkmann [this message]
2026-04-30 12:40 ` [PATCH net v5] ipv6: Implement limits on extension header parsing Ido Schimmel
2026-04-30 13:25 ` Eric Dumazet
2026-04-30 16:53 ` Justin Iurman
2026-05-01 0:40 ` patchwork-bot+netdevbpf
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