Netdev List
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Florian Westphal <fw@strlen.de>
To: "Xiang Mei (Microsoft)" <xmei5@asu.edu>
Cc: steffen.klassert@secunet.com, herbert@gondor.apana.org.au,
	davem@davemloft.net, netdev@vger.kernel.org, horms@kernel.org,
	edumazet@google.com, kuba@kernel.org, pabeni@redhat.com,
	AutonomousCodeSecurity@microsoft.com,
	tgopinath@linux.microsoft.com, kys@microsoft.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH ipsec] xfrm: policy: use hlist_del_init_rcu in xfrm_hash_rebuild to avoid bydst poison
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2026 21:19:03 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <aka5pwAGGI56QrrS@strlen.de> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260702185805.615241-1-xmei5@asu.edu>

Xiang Mei (Microsoft) <xmei5@asu.edu> wrote:
> xfrm_hash_rebuild() unlinks each policy from its bydst chain with
> hlist_del_rcu() and re-inserts it. For an inexact policy the re-insert goes
> through xfrm_policy_inexact_insert(), which can fail on a GFP_ATOMIC
> allocation; on failure the error path only WARN_ONCE()s and continues, so the
> policy is left with a poisoned bydst node (LIST_POISON2). The next rebuild
> calls hlist_del_rcu() on that node again, dereferences the poison, and takes a
> general protection fault.
> 
> Use hlist_del_init_rcu() instead, so a failed-reinsert node is left unhashed
> (pprev == NULL) rather than poisoned. The next rebuild's hlist_del_init_rcu()
> is then a no-op for it, and the non-failing case is unchanged.
> 
> The reinsert allocation is GFP_ATOMIC (it runs under xfrm_policy_lock), so in
> practice this is only reached under memory pressure; the crash below was
> reproduced deterministically by forcing that allocation to fail with fault
> injection (failslab).
> 
> Crash:
>   Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address
>   0xfbd59c0000000024: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI
>   KASAN: maybe wild-memory-access in range [0xdead000000000120-0xdead000000000127]
>   ...
>   Workqueue: events xfrm_hash_rebuild
>   RIP: 0010:xfrm_hash_rebuild+0x5b3/0x1190
>   RAX: dead000000000122   (LIST_POISON2 + offset)
>   ...
>   Call Trace:
>    hlist_del_rcu (include/linux/rculist.h:599)
>    xfrm_hash_rebuild (net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c:1365)
>    process_one_work (kernel/workqueue.c:3322)
>    worker_thread (kernel/workqueue.c:3486)
>    kthread (kernel/kthread.c:436)
>    ret_from_fork (arch/x86/kernel/process.c:158)
>    ret_from_fork_asm (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245)
>    ...
>   Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt
> 
> Fixes: 563d5ca93e88 ("xfrm: switch migrate to xfrm_policy_lookup_bytype")
> Reported-by: AutonomousCodeSecurity@microsoft.com
> Signed-off-by: Xiang Mei (Microsoft) <xmei5@asu.edu>
> ---
>  net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c b/net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c
> index 7ef861a0e823..2612a405542b 100644
> --- a/net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c
> +++ b/net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c
> @@ -1362,7 +1362,7 @@ static void xfrm_hash_rebuild(struct work_struct *work)
>  		if (xfrm_policy_is_dead_or_sk(policy))
>  			continue;
>  
> -		hlist_del_rcu(&policy->bydst);
> +		hlist_del_init_rcu(&policy->bydst);

This patch is dubious.  I looks to me as if it papers over the
actual bug.

Why is there a memory allocation error?

The first loop -- before unlink -- is supposed to preallocate the new
bins and chain heads.

This is also why there is a WARN. No memory allocations are supposed to
occur after the hlist_del_rcu(), there is supposed to be a guarantee
that the insertion succeeds.


  reply	other threads:[~2026-07-02 19:19 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-07-02 18:58 [PATCH ipsec] xfrm: policy: use hlist_del_init_rcu in xfrm_hash_rebuild to avoid bydst poison Xiang Mei (Microsoft)
2026-07-02 19:19 ` Florian Westphal [this message]
2026-07-02 22:11   ` Xiang Mei
2026-07-03  3:58     ` Florian Westphal
2026-07-03  5:22       ` Xiang Mei

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=aka5pwAGGI56QrrS@strlen.de \
    --to=fw@strlen.de \
    --cc=AutonomousCodeSecurity@microsoft.com \
    --cc=davem@davemloft.net \
    --cc=edumazet@google.com \
    --cc=herbert@gondor.apana.org.au \
    --cc=horms@kernel.org \
    --cc=kuba@kernel.org \
    --cc=kys@microsoft.com \
    --cc=netdev@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=pabeni@redhat.com \
    --cc=steffen.klassert@secunet.com \
    --cc=tgopinath@linux.microsoft.com \
    --cc=xmei5@asu.edu \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox