From: Stanislav Fomichev <sdf.kernel@gmail.com>
To: Naman Gulati <namangulati@google.com>
Cc: "David S . Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>,
Eric Dumazet <edumazet@kernel.org>,
Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>,
Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>, Simon Horman <horms@kernel.org>,
Kuniyuki Iwashima <kuniyu@google.com>,
netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
syzbot+1269fe6cc2016008124e@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH net] netdev-genl: ignore NETDEV_UNREGISTER rebroadcasts
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2026 15:28:44 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <at_TlVBS-5KVZAkg@devvm16445.scu0.facebook.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261026221306.3151025-1-namangulati@google.com>
On 10/26, Naman Gulati wrote:
> netdev_wait_allrefs_any() re-sends NETDEV_UNREGISTER every second while
> it waits for the last references on a device to be dropped. By then
> netdev_run_todo() has already marked the device NETREG_UNREGISTERED and
> RTNL has been dropped at least once since the initial notification sent
> by unregister_netdevice_many_notify().
>
> netdev_genl_netdevice_event() does not tell these rebroadcasts apart
> from the initial notification and sends a NETDEV_CMD_DEV_DEL_NTF
> multicast for each of them. At best this spams NETDEV_NLGRP_MGMT
> listeners with duplicate notifications; at worst the pernet state of
> the netns the device belongs to is already gone and the handler
> dereferences a NULL pointer.
>
> default_device_exit_batch() only unregisters the devices still listed
> in the exiting netns; it does not wait for in-flight unregistrations of
> devices that were already unlisted (the barrier doing that was removed
> by commit 8a4fc54b07d7 ("net: get rid of rtnl_lock_unregistering()")).
> So when a device is unregistered by something other than the
> cleanup_net() of its own netns while references on it are still held,
> e.g. a veth whose peer in another netns gets deleted, and that netns
> exits while the device is stuck in netdev_wait_allrefs_any(), the
> remaining pernet exit handlers run and genl_pernet_exit() sets
> net->genl_sock to NULL. The next rebroadcast then crashes in
> genl_has_listeners():
>
> BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in netlink_has_listeners+0x3d/0x3f0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1388
> Read of size 8 at addr 0000000000000578 by task syz.0.0/5325
> Call Trace:
> <TASK>
> netlink_has_listeners+0x3d/0x3f0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1388
> genl_has_listeners include/net/genetlink.h:644 [inline]
> netdev_genl_dev_notify+0x161/0x450 net/core/netdev-genl.c:93
> netdev_genl_netdevice_event+0x98/0x3c0 net/core/netdev-genl.c:1491
> notifier_call_chain+0x1a5/0x3d0 kernel/notifier.c:85
> netdev_wait_allrefs_any net/core/dev.c:11690 [inline]
> netdev_run_todo+0x731/0x1060 net/core/dev.c:11808
> rtnl_unlock net/core/rtnetlink.c:157 [inline]
> rtnl_dellink+0x68f/0x810 net/core/rtnetlink.c:3707
>
> syzbot hit this by moving one end of a veth pair into a short-lived
> netns while netdevsim's deferred FIB event processing still held a
> reference on it, and then deleting the other end (repro [1]). While the
> source of this bug is netdevsim deferring FIB processing for and holding
> onto the device reference for O(seconds) which is being fixed
> separately [2], any driver may introduce such a delay and trigger the
> null-ptr-deref.
>
> Skip the rebroadcasts, which are the only NETDEV_UNREGISTER events
> delivered with reg_state == NETREG_UNREGISTERED. The notifications sent
> by unregister_netdevice_many_notify() and, for a device leaving a netns,
> by __dev_change_net_namespace() are issued under RTNL in the same
> critical section that unlists the device, before its netns can be torn
> down, and keep being handled. This mirrors what ip6_route_dev_notify()
> already does to cope with the rebroadcasts.
>
> This change should not break the UAPI spec as it defines dev-del-ntf as
> a "Notification about device disappearing." which is a single event. The
> rebroadcast in netdev_wait_allrefs_any() exists to re-kick in-kernel
> subsystems holding references; netdev-genl happens to be on the notifier
> chain and forwards it.
>
> [1] https://gist.github.com/NamanGulati/2d1b49b8757f9a88b0bd6e55018c02ae
> [2] https://lore.kernel.org/r/20261023191517.607834-1-kuniyu@google.com
>
> Fixes: d3d854fd6a1d ("netdev-genl: create a simple family for netdev stuff")
> Reported-by: syzbot+1269fe6cc2016008124e@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
> Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/6adf9f64.6200f071.51519.0ed1.GAE@google.com/
> Reviewed-by: Kuniyuki Iwashima <kuniyu@google.com>
> Signed-off-by: Naman Gulati <namangulati@google.com>
> ---
> Note that the reproducer attached to the syzbot bug targets a different
> bug (via devlink_port_notify() on netns teardown) that happens to share
> the same crash title, not the one in the original reported crash report.
> ---
> net/core/netdev-genl.c | 6 ++++++
> 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/net/core/netdev-genl.c b/net/core/netdev-genl.c
> index 33b9f4eb9565a..2032ab9a864c2 100644
> --- a/net/core/netdev-genl.c
> +++ b/net/core/netdev-genl.c
> @@ -1487,6 +1487,12 @@ static int netdev_genl_netdevice_event(struct notifier_block *nb,
> netdev_unlock_full_to_ops(netdev);
> break;
> case NETDEV_UNREGISTER:
> + /* netdev_wait_allrefs_any() rebroadcasts NETDEV_UNREGISTER
> + * while waiting for the last references to be dropped; the
> + * netns may already be torn down by then. Notify only once.
> + */
[..]
> + if (READ_ONCE(netdev->reg_state) == NETREG_UNREGISTERED)
> + break;
Same as
https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20261026063743.1797-1-lege.wang@jaguarmicro.com/
?
reg_state is protected by netdev, why not do this under netdev_lock?
Also seems like we are fixing a symptom, not the problem?
> netdev_lock(netdev);
> netdev_genl_dev_notify(netdev, NETDEV_CMD_DEV_DEL_NTF);
> netdev_unlock(netdev);
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-10-26 22:28 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-10-26 22:13 Naman Gulati
2026-10-26 22:28 ` Stanislav Fomichev [this message]
2026-10-26 23:27 ` Naman Gulati
2026-10-27 1:47 ` Kuniyuki Iwashima
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