Re: [PATCH] netlink: netlink_sendmsg: memset unused tail bytes in skb

From: Phillip Potter
Date: Tue May 11 2021 - 18:17:42 EST


On Sun, May 09, 2021 at 03:10:51PM +0200, Florian Westphal wrote:
> Phillip Potter <phil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > When allocating the skb within netlink_sendmsg, with certain supplied
> > len arguments, extra bytes are allocated at the end of the data buffer,
> > due to SKB_DATA_ALIGN giving a larger size within __alloc_skb for
> > alignment reasons. This means that after using skb_put with the same
> > len value and then copying data into the skb, the skb tail area is
> > non-zero in size and contains uninitialised bytes. Wiping this area
> > (if it exists) fixes a KMSAN-found uninit-value bug reported by syzbot at:
> > https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?id=3e63bcec536b7136b54c72e06adeb87dc6519f69
>
> This patch papers over the real bug.
>
> Please fix TIPC instead.
> Incomplete patch as a starting point:
>
> diff --git a/net/tipc/node.c b/net/tipc/node.c
> --- a/net/tipc/node.c
> +++ b/net/tipc/node.c
> @@ -2481,7 +2481,6 @@ int tipc_nl_node_get_link(struct sk_buff *skb, struct genl_info *info)
> struct net *net = genl_info_net(info);
> struct nlattr *attrs[TIPC_NLA_LINK_MAX + 1];
> struct tipc_nl_msg msg;
> - char *name;
> int err;
>
> msg.portid = info->snd_portid;
> @@ -2499,13 +2498,11 @@ int tipc_nl_node_get_link(struct sk_buff *skb, struct genl_info *info)
> if (!attrs[TIPC_NLA_LINK_NAME])
> return -EINVAL;
>
> - name = nla_data(attrs[TIPC_NLA_LINK_NAME]);
> -
> msg.skb = nlmsg_new(NLMSG_GOODSIZE, GFP_KERNEL);
> if (!msg.skb)
> return -ENOMEM;
>
> - if (strcmp(name, tipc_bclink_name) == 0) {
> + if (nla_strcmp(attrs[TIPC_NLA_LINK_NAME], tipc_bclink_name) == 0) {
> err = tipc_nl_add_bc_link(net, &msg, tipc_net(net)->bcl);
> if (err)
> goto err_free;
>
>
> You will also need to change tipc_node_find_by_name() to pass the nla
> attr.
>
> Alternatively TIPC_NLA_LINK_NAME policy can be changed:
>
> diff --git a/net/tipc/netlink.c b/net/tipc/netlink.c
> --- a/net/tipc/netlink.c
> +++ b/net/tipc/netlink.c
> @@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ const struct nla_policy tipc_nl_net_policy[TIPC_NLA_NET_MAX + 1] = {
>
> const struct nla_policy tipc_nl_link_policy[TIPC_NLA_LINK_MAX + 1] = {
> [TIPC_NLA_LINK_UNSPEC] = { .type = NLA_UNSPEC },
> - [TIPC_NLA_LINK_NAME] = { .type = NLA_STRING,
> + [TIPC_NLA_LINK_NAME] = { .type = NLA_NUL_STRING,
>
>
> ... which makes it safe to treat the raw attribute payload as a c-string,
> but this might break existing userspace applications.
>
> Its probably a good idea to audit all NLA_STRING attributes in tipc for
> similar problems.

Dear Florian,

Thank you for your feedback and code + suggestions, I will take a look at this over
the next few days and then resubmit.

Regards,
Phil