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From: Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>
To: netfilter-devel@vger.kernel.org
Cc: davem@davemloft.net, netdev@vger.kernel.org, kuba@kernel.org,
	pabeni@redhat.com, edumazet@google.com, fw@strlen.de,
	horms@kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH net 09/14] netfilter: ctnetlink: do not allow to reset helper on existing conntrack
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:15:42 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260623221548.701545-10-pablo@netfilter.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260623221548.701545-1-pablo@netfilter.org>

This feature allows to reset a helper for an existing conntrack, but it
is not safe. This requires a synchronized_rcu() call after resetting the
helper, which is going to be expensive for a large batch of conntrack
entries. This also needs to call to the .destroy callback to release the
GRE/PPTP mappings to fix it.

This feature antedates the creation of the conntrack-tools and I cannot
find a good use-case for this. Given that I cannot find any user in the
netfilter.org userspace tree, I prefer to remove this feature.

Fixes: c1d10adb4a52 ("[NETFILTER]: Add ctnetlink port for nf_conntrack")
Signed-off-by: Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>
---
 net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_netlink.c | 13 -------------
 1 file changed, 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_netlink.c b/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_netlink.c
index 4e78d2482989..cb38ef42e9e6 100644
--- a/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_netlink.c
+++ b/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_netlink.c
@@ -1953,19 +1953,6 @@ static int ctnetlink_change_helper(struct nf_conn *ct,
 		return err;
 	}
 
-	if (!strcmp(helpname, "") && help) {
-		helper = rcu_dereference(help->helper);
-		if (helper) {
-			/* we had a helper before ... */
-			nf_ct_remove_expectations(ct);
-			RCU_INIT_POINTER(help->helper, NULL);
-			if (refcount_dec_and_test(&helper->ct_refcnt))
-				kfree_rcu(helper, rcu);
-		}
-		rcu_read_unlock();
-		return 0;
-	}
-
 	helper = __nf_conntrack_helper_find(helpname, nf_ct_l3num(ct),
 					    nf_ct_protonum(ct));
 	if (helper == NULL) {
-- 
2.47.3


  parent reply	other threads:[~2026-06-23 22:16 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 15+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-06-23 22:15 [PATCH net 00/14] Netfilter fixes for net Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 01/14] netfilter: nf_nat: avoid invalid nat_net pointer use on failed nf_nat_init() Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 02/14] netfilter: nf_conncount: prevent connlimit drops for early confirmed ct Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 03/14] netfilter: flowtable: Validate iph->ihl in nf_flow_ip4_tunnel_proto() Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 04/14] netfilter: x_tables.h: fix all kernel-doc warnings Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 05/14] netfilter: nft_synproxy: stop bypassing the priv->info snapshot Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 06/14] selftests: netfilter: conntrack_sctp_collision.sh: Introduce SCTP INIT collision test Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 07/14] netfilter: nft_compat: ebtables emulation must reject non-bridge targets Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 08/14] selftests: nft_queue.sh: add a bridge queue test Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` Pablo Neira Ayuso [this message]
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 10/14] netfilter: conntrack: add deprecation warnings for irc and pptp trackers Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 11/14] netfilter: nf_conntrack_expect: store master_tuple in expectation Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 12/14] netfilter: nf_conntrack_expect: run expectation eviction with no helper Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 13/14] netfilter: nft_ct: expectation timeouts are passed in milliseconds Pablo Neira Ayuso
2026-06-23 22:15 ` [PATCH net 14/14] netfilter: nf_conntrack_helper: cap maximum number of expectation at helper registration Pablo Neira Ayuso

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