Re: [PATCH] ipv6:ipv6_pinfo dereferenced after NULL check

From: Hannes Frederic Sowa
Date: Wed Nov 23 2016 - 06:33:00 EST


On 23.11.2016 05:45, Rohit Thapliyal wrote:
> |>On 22.11.2016 07:27, Manjeet Pawar wrote:
> >> From: Rohit Thapliyal <r.thapliyal@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:r.thapliyal@xxxxxxxxxxx>>
> >>
> >> np checked for NULL and then dereferenced. It should be modified
> >> for NULL case.
> >>
> >> Signed-off-by: Rohit Thapliyal <r.thapliyal@xxxxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:r.thapliyal@xxxxxxxxxxx>>>
> >> Signed-off-by: Manjeet Pawar <manjeet.p@xxxxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:manjeet.p@xxxxxxxxxxx>>>
> >> ---
> >> net/ipv6/ip6_output.c | 9 +++++----
> >> 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
> >>
> >> diff --git a/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c b/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c
> >> index 1dfc402..c2afa14 100644
> >> --- a/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c
> >> +++ b/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c
> >> @@ -205,14 +205,15 @@ int ip6_xmit(const struct sock *sk, struct sk_buff
> *skb, struct flowi6 *fl6,
> >> /*
> >> * Fill in the IPv6 header
> >> */
> >> - if (np)
> >> + if (np) {
> >> hlimit = np->hop_limit;
> >> + ip6_flow_hdr(
> >> + hdr, tclass, ip6_make_flowlabel(
> >> + net, skb, fl6->flowlabel,
> >> + np->autoflowlabel, fl6));
> >> + }
> >> if (hlimit < 0)
> >> hlimit = ip6_dst_hoplimit(dst);
> >>
> >> - ip6_flow_hdr(hdr, tclass, ip6_make_flowlabel(net, skb, fl6->flowlabel,
> >> - np->autoflowlabel, fl6));
> >> -
> >> hdr->payload_len = htons(seg_len);
> >> hdr->nexthdr = proto;
> >> hdr->hop_limit = hlimit;
> >>
> >
> >
> >We always should initialize hdr and not skip the ip6_flow_hdr call.|
>
> |if np becomes NULL, then anyways hdr won't be initialized due to NULL pointer
> dereference ip6_make_flowlabel.|

Which we would see as a crash. So far no crash has been reported in this
code. Doing a quick code review on the paths leading to ip6_xmit,
inet6_sk must always be set to actually reach up to this point.
Otherwise we would have crashes on all code paths much earler.

Anyway, I would be fine to keep the NULL check in this path, it looks
better because of the inet6_sk you pointed out above but I would
recommend to just use a "np ? np->autoflowlabel :
ip6_default_np_autolabel(net) in the ip6_flow_hdr function.

> |>Do you saw a bug or did you find this by code review? I wonder if np can
> >actually be NULL at this point. Maybe we can just eliminate the NULL check.|
>
> |
>
>
> I must admit that I found it just by code review, and so far didn't face any
> crash whatsoever.
> As we can see in inet6_sk, np could be NULL. Thus, the NULL check seems justified.

Thanks for looking at this!

Bye,
Hannes