[RFC v2] netlink: add NETLINK_CAP_ACK socket option

[RFC v2] netlink: add NETLINK_CAP_ACK socket option

[Christophe Ricard]

Since commit c05cdb1b864f ("netlink: allow large data transfers from
user-space"), the kernel may fail to allocate the necessary room for the
acknowledgment message back to userspace. This patch introduces a new
socket option that trims off the payload of the original netlink message.

The netlink message header is still included, so the user can guess from
the sequence number what is the message that has triggered the
acknowledgment.

Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>
Signed-off-by: Christophe Ricard <christophe-h.ricard@st.com>
---
 include/uapi/linux/netlink.h |  1 +
 net/netlink/af_netlink.c     | 49 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------
 2 files changed, 37 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/netlink.h b/include/uapi/linux/netlink.h
index cf6a65c..6f3fe16 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/netlink.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/netlink.h
@@ -110,6 +110,7 @@ struct nlmsgerr {
 #define NETLINK_TX_RING			7
 #define NETLINK_LISTEN_ALL_NSID		8
 #define NETLINK_LIST_MEMBERSHIPS	9
+#define NETLINK_CAP_ACK			10
 
 struct nl_pktinfo {
 	__u32	group;
diff --git a/net/netlink/af_netlink.c b/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
index 67d2104..8dff29c 100644
--- a/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
+++ b/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@ struct listeners {
 #define NETLINK_F_BROADCAST_SEND_ERROR	0x4
 #define NETLINK_F_RECV_NO_ENOBUFS	0x8
 #define NETLINK_F_LISTEN_ALL_NSID	0x10
+#define NETLINK_F_CAP_ACK		0x20
 
 static inline int netlink_is_kernel(struct sock *sk)
 {
@@ -2258,6 +2259,13 @@ static int netlink_setsockopt(struct socket *sock, int level, int optname,
 			nlk->flags &= ~NETLINK_F_LISTEN_ALL_NSID;
 		err = 0;
 		break;
+	case NETLINK_CAP_ACK:
+		if (val)
+			nlk->flags |= NETLINK_F_CAP_ACK;
+		else
+			nlk->flags &= ~NETLINK_F_CAP_ACK;
+		err = 0;
+		break;
 	default:
 		err = -ENOPROTOOPT;
 	}
@@ -2332,6 +2340,16 @@ static int netlink_getsockopt(struct socket *sock, int level, int optname,
 		netlink_table_ungrab();
 		break;
 	}
+	case NETLINK_CAP_ACK:
+		if (len < sizeof(int))
+			return -EINVAL;
+		len = sizeof(int);
+		val = nlk->flags & NETLINK_F_CAP_ACK ? 1 : 0;
+		if (put_user(len, optlen) ||
+		    put_user(val, optval))
+			return -EFAULT;
+		err = 0;
+		break;
 	default:
 		err = -ENOPROTOOPT;
 	}
@@ -2869,28 +2887,33 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(__netlink_dump_start);
 
 void netlink_ack(struct sk_buff *in_skb, struct nlmsghdr *nlh, int err)
 {
+	struct netlink_sock *nlk;
 	struct sk_buff *skb;
 	struct nlmsghdr *rep;
 	struct nlmsgerr *errmsg;
 	size_t payload = sizeof(*errmsg);
+	struct sock *sk;
 
-	/* error messages get the original request appened */
-	if (err)
+	sk = netlink_lookup(sock_net(in_skb->sk),
+			    in_skb->sk->sk_protocol,
+			    NETLINK_CB(in_skb).portid);
+	if (!sk)
+		return;
+
+	nlk = nlk_sk(sk);
+
+	/* Error messages get the original request appended, unless the user
+	 * requests to cap the error message.
+	 */
+	if (!(nlk->flags & NETLINK_F_CAP_ACK) && err)
 		payload += nlmsg_len(nlh);
 
 	skb = netlink_alloc_skb(in_skb->sk, nlmsg_total_size(payload),
 				NETLINK_CB(in_skb).portid, GFP_KERNEL);
 	if (!skb) {
-		struct sock *sk;
-
-		sk = netlink_lookup(sock_net(in_skb->sk),
-				    in_skb->sk->sk_protocol,
-				    NETLINK_CB(in_skb).portid);
-		if (sk) {
-			sk->sk_err = ENOBUFS;
-			sk->sk_error_report(sk);
-			sock_put(sk);
-		}
+		sk->sk_err = ENOBUFS;
+		sk->sk_error_report(sk);
+		sock_put(sk);
 		return;
 	}
 
@@ -2898,7 +2921,7 @@ void netlink_ack(struct sk_buff *in_skb, struct nlmsghdr *nlh, int err)
 			  NLMSG_ERROR, payload, 0);
 	errmsg = nlmsg_data(rep);
 	errmsg->error = err;
-	memcpy(&errmsg->msg, nlh, err ? nlh->nlmsg_len : sizeof(*nlh));
+	memcpy(&errmsg->msg, nlh, payload > sizeof(*errmsg) ? nlh->nlmsg_len : sizeof(*nlh));
 	netlink_unicast(in_skb->sk, skb, NETLINK_CB(in_skb).portid, MSG_DONTWAIT);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(netlink_ack);
-- 
2.1.4

Re: [RFC v2] netlink: add NETLINK_CAP_ACK socket option

[Jiri Benc]

On Tue, 25 Aug 2015 21:43:29 +0200, Christophe Ricard wrote:
>  void netlink_ack(struct sk_buff *in_skb, struct nlmsghdr *nlh, int err)
>  {
> +	struct netlink_sock *nlk;
>  	struct sk_buff *skb;
>  	struct nlmsghdr *rep;
>  	struct nlmsgerr *errmsg;
>  	size_t payload = sizeof(*errmsg);
> +	struct sock *sk;
>  
> -	/* error messages get the original request appened */
> -	if (err)
> +	sk = netlink_lookup(sock_net(in_skb->sk),
> +			    in_skb->sk->sk_protocol,
> +			    NETLINK_CB(in_skb).portid);

The necessity to look up the socket for every ack was what I didn't
like about this. Would it be possible to add a socket parameter to
various code paths that lead to netlink_ack (or a boolean, as David
suggested)? It will probably be needed to add it to
netlink_sock->netlink_rcv, netlink_kernel_cfg->input, etc.

As an alternative, David also suggested to attach the sender socket to
in_skb->sk. Could work, too.

Thanks,

 Jiri

-- 
Jiri Benc