From: Eelco Chaudron echaudro@redhat.com
[ Upstream commit 88906f55954131ed2d3974e044b7fb48129b86ae ]
This change enhances the robustness of validate_userspace() by ensuring that all Netlink attributes are fully contained within the parent attribute. The previous use of nla_parse_nested_deprecated() could silently skip trailing or malformed attributes, as it stops parsing at the first invalid entry.
By switching to nla_parse_deprecated_strict(), we make sure only fully validated attributes are copied for later use.
Signed-off-by: Eelco Chaudron echaudro@redhat.com Reviewed-by: Simon Horman horms@kernel.org Acked-by: Ilya Maximets i.maximets@ovn.org Link: https://patch.msgid.link/67eb414e2d250e8408bb8afeb982deca2ff2b10b.1747037304... Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski kuba@kernel.org Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin sashal@kernel.org ---
**YES** This commit should be backported to stable kernel trees. ## Analysis **Commit Overview:** The commit changes `validate_userspace()` function in `net/openvswitch/flow_netlink.c` by replacing `nla_parse_nested_deprecated()` with `nla_parse_deprecated_strict()` to ensure stricter validation of Netlink attributes for the userspace action. **Specific Code Changes:** The key change is on lines 3052-3054: ```c // Before: error = nla_parse_nested_deprecated(a, OVS_USERSPACE_ATTR_MAX, attr, userspace_policy, NULL); // After: error = nla_parse_deprecated_strict(a, OVS_USERSPACE_ATTR_MAX, nla_data(attr), nla_len(attr), userspace_policy, NULL); ``` **Why This Should Be Backported:** 1. **Security Enhancement:** This commit addresses a parsing vulnerability where malformed attributes could be silently ignored. The original `nla_parse_nested_deprecated()` stops parsing at the first invalid entry, potentially allowing trailing malformed data to bypass validation. 2. **Robustness Fix:** The change ensures all netlink attributes are fully contained within the parent attribute bounds, preventing potential buffer over-reads or under-reads that could lead to security issues. 3. **Pattern Consistency:** Looking at the git blame output (lines 3085-3087), we can see that `nla_parse_deprecated_strict()` was already introduced in 2019 by commit 8cb081746c031 and is used elsewhere in the same file for similar validation (e.g., `validate_and_copy_check_pkt_len()` function). 4. **Low Risk:** This is a small, contained change that only affects input validation - it doesn't change functionality or introduce new features. The change is defensive and follows existing patterns in the codebase. 5. **Similar Precedent:** This commit is very similar to the validated "Similar Commit #2" which was marked for backporting (status: YES). That commit also dealt with netlink attribute validation safety in openvswitch (`validate_set()` function) and was considered suitable for stable trees. 6. **Critical Subsystem:** Open vSwitch is a critical networking component used in virtualization and container environments. Input validation issues in this subsystem could potentially be exploited for privilege escalation or denial of service. 7. **Clear Intent:** The commit message explicitly states this "enhances robustness" and ensures "only fully validated attributes are copied for later use," indicating this is a defensive security improvement. **Risk Assessment:** - Very low regression risk - No API changes - Only affects error handling paths - Follows established validation patterns in the same codebase This commit fits perfectly into the stable tree criteria: it's an important security/robustness fix, has minimal risk of regression, is well- contained, and addresses a clear validation vulnerability in a critical kernel subsystem.
net/openvswitch/flow_netlink.c | 3 ++- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/net/openvswitch/flow_netlink.c b/net/openvswitch/flow_netlink.c index 4ad4c89886ee3..f1f7a0e34c7a9 100644 --- a/net/openvswitch/flow_netlink.c +++ b/net/openvswitch/flow_netlink.c @@ -2912,7 +2912,8 @@ static int validate_userspace(const struct nlattr *attr) struct nlattr *a[OVS_USERSPACE_ATTR_MAX + 1]; int error;
- error = nla_parse_nested_deprecated(a, OVS_USERSPACE_ATTR_MAX, attr, + error = nla_parse_deprecated_strict(a, OVS_USERSPACE_ATTR_MAX, + nla_data(attr), nla_len(attr), userspace_policy, NULL); if (error) return error;