Lets look at destroy_conntrack: hlist_nulls_del_rcu(&ct->tuplehash[IP_CT_DIR_ORIGINAL].hnnode); ... nf_conntrack_free(ct) kmem_cache_free(net->ct.nf_conntrack_cachep, ct); The hash is protected by rcu, so readers look up conntracks without locks. A conntrack is removed from the hash, but in this moment a few readers still can use the conntrack, so if we call kmem_cache_free now, all readers will read released object. Bellow you can find more tricky race condition of three tasks. task 1 task 2 task 3 nf_conntrack_find_get ____nf_conntrack_find destroy_conntrack hlist_nulls_del_rcu nf_conntrack_free kmem_cache_free __nf_conntrack_alloc kmem_cache_alloc memset(&ct->tuplehash[IP_CT_DIR_MAX], if (nf_ct_is_dying(ct)) In this case the task 2 will not understand, that it uses a wrong conntrack. I'm not sure, that I have ever seen this race condition in a real life. Currently we are investigating a bug, which is reproduced on a few node. In our case one conntrack is initialized from a few tasks concurrently, we don't have any other explanation for this. <2>[46267.083061] kernel BUG at net/ipv4/netfilter/nf_nat_core.c:322! ... <4>[46267.083951] RIP: 0010:[<ffffffffa01e00a4>] [<ffffffffa01e00a4>] nf_nat_setup_info+0x564/0x590 [nf_nat] ... <4>[46267.085549] Call Trace: <4>[46267.085622] [<ffffffffa023421b>] alloc_null_binding+0x5b/0xa0 [iptable_nat] <4>[46267.085697] [<ffffffffa02342bc>] nf_nat_rule_find+0x5c/0x80 [iptable_nat] <4>[46267.085770] [<ffffffffa0234521>] nf_nat_fn+0x111/0x260 [iptable_nat] <4>[46267.085843] [<ffffffffa0234798>] nf_nat_out+0x48/0xd0 [iptable_nat] <4>[46267.085919] [<ffffffff814841b9>] nf_iterate+0x69/0xb0 <4>[46267.085991] [<ffffffff81494e70>] ? ip_finish_output+0x0/0x2f0 <4>[46267.086063] [<ffffffff81484374>] nf_hook_slow+0x74/0x110 <4>[46267.086133] [<ffffffff81494e70>] ? ip_finish_output+0x0/0x2f0 <4>[46267.086207] [<ffffffff814b5890>] ? dst_output+0x0/0x20 <4>[46267.086277] [<ffffffff81495204>] ip_output+0xa4/0xc0 <4>[46267.086346] [<ffffffff814b65a4>] raw_sendmsg+0x8b4/0x910 <4>[46267.086419] [<ffffffff814c10fa>] inet_sendmsg+0x4a/0xb0 <4>[46267.086491] [<ffffffff814459aa>] ? sock_update_classid+0x3a/0x50 <4>[46267.086562] [<ffffffff81444d67>] sock_sendmsg+0x117/0x140 <4>[46267.086638] [<ffffffff8151997b>] ? _spin_unlock_bh+0x1b/0x20 <4>[46267.086712] [<ffffffff8109d370>] ? autoremove_wake_function+0x0/0x40 <4>[46267.086785] [<ffffffff81495e80>] ? do_ip_setsockopt+0x90/0xd80 <4>[46267.086858] [<ffffffff8100be0e>] ? call_function_interrupt+0xe/0x20 <4>[46267.086936] [<ffffffff8118cb10>] ? ub_slab_ptr+0x20/0x90 <4>[46267.087006] [<ffffffff8118cb10>] ? ub_slab_ptr+0x20/0x90 <4>[46267.087081] [<ffffffff8118f2e8>] ? kmem_cache_alloc+0xd8/0x1e0 <4>[46267.087151] [<ffffffff81445599>] sys_sendto+0x139/0x190 <4>[46267.087229] [<ffffffff81448c0d>] ? sock_setsockopt+0x16d/0x6f0 <4>[46267.087303] [<ffffffff810efa47>] ? audit_syscall_entry+0x1d7/0x200 <4>[46267.087378] [<ffffffff810ef795>] ? __audit_syscall_exit+0x265/0x290 <4>[46267.087454] [<ffffffff81474885>] ? compat_sys_setsockopt+0x75/0x210 <4>[46267.087531] [<ffffffff81474b5f>] compat_sys_socketcall+0x13f/0x210 <4>[46267.087607] [<ffffffff8104dea3>] ia32_sysret+0x0/0x5 <4>[46267.087676] Code: 91 20 e2 01 75 29 48 89 de 4c 89 f7 e8 56 fa ff ff 85 c0 0f 84 68 fc ff ff 0f b6 4d c6 41 8b 45 00 e9 4d fb ff ff e8 7c 19 e9 e0 <0f> 0b eb fe f6 05 17 91 20 e2 80 74 ce 80 3d 5f 2e 00 00 00 74 <1>[46267.088023] RIP [<ffffffffa01e00a4>] nf_nat_setup_info+0x564/0x590 Cc: Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Patrick McHardy <kaber@xxxxxxxxx> Cc: Jozsef Kadlecsik <kadlec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: "David S. Miller" <davem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Cyrill Gorcunov <gorcunov@xxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Andrey Vagin <avagin@xxxxxxxxxx> --- include/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack.h | 2 ++ net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_core.c | 11 +++++++++-- 2 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/include/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack.h b/include/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack.h index 01ea6ee..492e857 100644 --- a/include/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack.h +++ b/include/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack.h @@ -76,6 +76,8 @@ struct nf_conn { plus 1 for any connection(s) we are `master' for */ struct nf_conntrack ct_general; + struct rcu_head rcu; + spinlock_t lock; /* XXX should I move this to the tail ? - Y.K */ diff --git a/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_core.c b/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_core.c index 43549eb..40e0d61 100644 --- a/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_core.c +++ b/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_core.c @@ -198,6 +198,14 @@ clean_from_lists(struct nf_conn *ct) nf_ct_remove_expectations(ct); } +static void nf_conntrack_free_rcu(struct rcu_head *head) +{ + struct nf_conn *ct = container_of(head, struct nf_conn, rcu); + + pr_debug("destroy_conntrack: returning ct=%p to slab\n", ct); + nf_conntrack_free(ct); +} + static void destroy_conntrack(struct nf_conntrack *nfct) { @@ -236,8 +244,7 @@ destroy_conntrack(struct nf_conntrack *nfct) if (ct->master) nf_ct_put(ct->master); - pr_debug("destroy_conntrack: returning ct=%p to slab\n", ct); - nf_conntrack_free(ct); + call_rcu(&ct->rcu, nf_conntrack_free_rcu); } static void nf_ct_delete_from_lists(struct nf_conn *ct) -- 1.8.4.2 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netfilter-devel" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html