Re: [PATCH 3/3] virarptable: End parsing earlier in case of NLMSG_DONE

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On Sat, Aug 17, 2024 at 01:07:45AM -0400, Laine Stump wrote:
On 8/16/24 8:45 AM, Martin Kletzander wrote:
Check for the last multipart message right as the first thing.  The
presumption probably was that the last message might still contain a
payload we want to parse.  However that cannot be true since that would
have to be a type RTM_NEWNEIGH.
>
This was not caught because older
kernels were note sending NLMSG_DONE and probably relied on the fact
that the parsing just stops after all the messages are walked through,
which the NLMSG_OK macro successfully did.

Resolves: https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RHEL-52449

Also:

Resolves: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/2302245
Fixes: a176d67cdfaf5b8237a7e3a80d8be0e6bdf2d8fd

(Hmm, and BTW I had suggested that patch 2/3 should have that Fixes:
line, but I guess it can't be *totally* fixed until this patch, since
prior to that we're checking the values of a struct ndmsg before
checking the message type (i.e. it might not be an RTM_NEWNEIGH))

Signed-off-by: Martin Kletzander <mkletzan@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
So technically this still has some issues, maybe.

I'm pretty sure there are other issues with our netlink code, but the
effect of those issues is unknown, and unrelated to the current bug
which your code fixes. So, IMO, "this" doesn't have some issues :-)

I could not find if our usage of libnl3 makes it easier for us so that we do not
have to check for NLMSG_{ERROR,OVERRUN,NOOP} or whether these checks should be
here as well

Well, virArpTableGet() calls virNetlinkGetNeighbor(), which allows
responses where the *first* message in the response is NLMSG_NEWNEIGH or
NLMSG_ERROR, and that calls virNetlinkTalk() which fails on any
NLMSG_ERROR that isn't 0 (an NLMSG_ERRO with error==0 is just an ack
packet). virNetlinkTalk() calls virNetLinkCommand(), which just calls
nl_recv(), and as far as I can tell from the libnl API docs, there's no
special handling there for any type of message.

If yes, then we should add them.  And we have (some of) these
checks elsewhere in the code, so "maybe".

Have you ever tried to assimilate the libnl documentation?
(https://www.infradead.org/~tgr/libnl/doc/api/) I'll refer you to my
comment further down marked with "[*]".


I have, that's why it took me almost 2 full days to figure this out and
dig myself out of the hellhole.  It's not _bad_ documentation, it's
definitely below average from what I remember dealing with.  Yet I still
had the libnl3 source code opened on the side to really understand what
the documentation was trying to say.


Another thing is that we could avoid such errors by using nl_socket_set_cb(),
calling nl_recvmsgs_default() and then parsing only the valid messages in a
callback.

This somehow reminds me of code that we had in netcf that I think needed
to get a list of interfaces, and we used the nl_cache_* functions for
this, which in the end (I thought) made the code even more complicated
than if we'd just used lower level functions. There is some very useful
stuff in libnl, but I think some times it complicates in the name of
"simplifying".

I guess I'm trying to say "Maybe, but don't get your hopes up".


It can't be worse than it is now, right?

Anakin^WLaine: ""

It can't be worse than it is now, right?


I guess it's one of those "I can't know until I try!".  That said I am
not promising anything!  I just started to fall down from the mount
stupid of Dunning-Kruger effect when it comes down to libnl3.  I'm sure
it'll be fine!!!

*distant crying noises*

 On top of that we could have an abstraction on top this to utilise in
all the netlink dumps we do, ditching our current abstraction which was a bit
hard for me to go through, to be honest.

Everything about netlink from the very beginning has been "hard to go
through", especially when mixed in with libnl. I think originally there
were a couple different usages of netlink/libnl in libvirt authored by a
couple different people, and then another usage or two came along with
each new user trying to refactor existing code to work for them too, but
without ever any underlying plan. Or something like that. The result is
that (IMO) trying to understand some of our netlink code might do you
more harm than good :-/. Not that I'm cynical or anything.


Too late, I should've known that at the beginning of last week.

(P.S. Ditching the current abstraction(s) and making something new that
works better for everyone would be wonderful to see. As long as someone
else did it. The dreadful side of that is that I may soon need to add
yet another usage of netlink to the code, and that could mean that
either I will a) go through the pain and time consuming frustration of
doing said ditching/rewriting so that my new code can be nicer, or b)
live with the embarrasment of adding yet another hacky house of netlink
cards to the code :-/)


That "as long as someone else did it" is exactly how I feel about it
after going through both libvirt and libnl code just to figure out few
minor things.  I mean look at this fix.  It should not have taken me two
days to figure it out.

But if you already know about the fact you'll need to have new usage for
netlink in our code than it might be the thing that pushes me over the
edge and at least for one of us it will actually be done by "someone
else".  I'll keep you posted if whether I overcame the fear or not.


And of course there might be other places in our codebase that expect the same
behaviour as this code did and we should fix 'em all.

One other problem I noticed during my short dip into our netlink code
last week is that in all cases except getting VFINFO (for SRIOV
devices), we only read a single response packet after we make a request,
when any response could have multiple packets.


Again, depends if it actually is a multipart message, for which's flag
we only check in virNetlinkGetErrorCode().

 After all the debugging
for this piece I did not even check for those, maybe if this gets in I'll have a
long think about it.

[*]Good luck with that. Be sure the beer cooler next to your desk is
well stocked.


Damn, I should buy one then, I guess.  One of the big issues will be to
write some tests for it if I want to do it properly.  That's going to be
a lot of beer...

Anyway, all the commits have your suggestions worked in and are pushed
now.  Thanks.


  src/util/virarptable.c | 6 +++---
  1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/util/virarptable.c b/src/util/virarptable.c
index 8e805fb35332..604019c62a37 100644
--- a/src/util/virarptable.c
+++ b/src/util/virarptable.c
@@ -84,6 +84,9 @@ virArpTableGet(void)
          int len = nh->nlmsg_len;
          void *addr;

+        if (nh->nlmsg_type == NLMSG_DONE)
+            return table;

I would prefer "break;" here rather than "return table;" just in case
someone in the future adds something that requires some sort of cleanup
code at the end of the function. This is fine too though.

Reviewed-by: Laine Stump <laine@xxxxxxxxxx>

+
          if (len < NLMSG_SPACE(sizeof(*r))) {
              virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR, "%s",
                             _("wrong nlmsg len"));
@@ -98,9 +101,6 @@ virArpTableGet(void)
              (!(r->ndm_state == NUD_STALE || r->ndm_state == NUD_REACHABLE)))
              continue;

-        if (nh->nlmsg_type == NLMSG_DONE)
-            return table;
-
          VIR_WARNINGS_NO_CAST_ALIGN
          parse_rtattr(tb, NDA_MAX, NDA_RTA(r), NLMSG_PAYLOAD(nh, sizeof(*r)));
          VIR_WARNINGS_RESET

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