From: "Jérémy Jean" <jeremy.jean@oss.cyber.gouv.fr>
To: Kumar Kartikeya Dwivedi <memxor@gmail.com>
Cc: pablo@netfilter.org, fw@strlen.de, phil@nwl.cc,
netfilter-devel@vger.kernel.org, coreteam@netfilter.org,
netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
bpf@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] netfilter: bpf: disallow conntrack kfuncs for token programs
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2026 21:40:10 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <fab86b47f4fcc7fa3f180f86c6e3f914@oss.cyber.gouv.fr> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <DKWK8L9QBA37.2QGA0WNXIBV9C@gmail.com>
On 2026-08-23 21:12, Kumar Kartikeya Dwivedi wrote:
> On Sat Aug 22, 2026 at 11:09 PM CEST, Jérémy Jean wrote:
>> BPF tokens delegate BPF and network-admin capability checks to the
>> token
>> owning user namespace. Conntrack kfuncs nevertheless accept a network
>> namespace ID relative to the program context without checking whether
>> the
>> token has authority over the resolved namespace.
>>
>> An XDP program attached to a veth in a child network namespace can use
>> the peer namespace ID for init_net. bpf_xdp_ct_alloc() then allocates
>> an
>> entry in init_net, bpf_ct_insert_entry() publishes it, and the lookup
>> and
>> mutation kfuncs can subsequently access that host state.
>>
>> The verifier retains the token in prog->aux, but it cannot determine
>> the
>> runtime namespace selected through bpf_ct_opts. Conservatively reject
>> the
>> conntrack kfunc set for token-loaded programs. The kfunc interface is
>> explicitly unstable, and ordinary token-authorized XDP programs remain
>> available.
>>
>> Fixes: caf8f28e036c ("bpf: Add BPF token support to BPF_PROG_LOAD
>> command")
>> Assisted-by: Codex:gpt-5
>> Signed-off-by: Jérémy Jean <Jeremy.Jean@oss.cyber.gouv.fr>
>
> So your solution is to just begin rejecting its use? Proper scoping and
> containerization of programs is a bigger project that needs more
> thought.
> It needs to be addressed properly across the API surface, we probably
> have
> several other helpers/kfuncs that have similar ns-unaware behavior.
>
> If we went on to simply reject each case programs using BPF tokens
> would
> basically become useless.
>
> pw-bot: cr
>
>> [...]
Hello,
Thanks for your answer.
I merely raised the issue to you; there indeed may exist more similar
ones.
However, I unfortunately don't have enough time to allocate to a broader
fix.
Regards,
Jérémy
prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-08-23 19:40 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-22 21:09 Jérémy Jean
2026-08-23 19:12 ` Kumar Kartikeya Dwivedi
2026-08-23 19:40 ` Jérémy Jean [this message]
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