Suppose that we're trying to use an xt_string netfilter module to match a string in a specially crafted packet that has "a nice string" starting at offset 28. It could be done in iptables like this: -A some_chain -m string --string "a nice string" --algo bm --from 28 --to 38 -j DROP And it would work as expected. Now changing that to -A some_chain -m string --string "a nice string" --algo bm --from 29 --to 38 -j DROP breaks the match, as expected. But, if we try to make -A some_chain -m string --string "a nice string" --algo bm --from 20 --to 28 -j DROP then it suddenly works again! So the 'to' parameter seems to be inclusive, not working as an offset after which no search should be done. OK, now if we try: -A some_chain -m string --string "a nice string" --algo bm --from 28 --to 28 -j DROP it doesn't work. So, for the case of equal 'from' and 'to' it's treated in a different way. The first behaviour (matching at 'to' offset) comes from skb_find_text() comparison. The second one (not matching if 'from' and 'to' are equal) comes from skb_seq_read() check for (abs_offset >= st->upper_offset). I think that the way skb_find_text() handles 'to' is wrong and should be fixed so that we always have predictable behaviour -- only match before 'to' offset. There are currently only five usages of skb_find_text() in the kernel and it looks to me that none of them expect to match something at the 'to' offset, so probably this change is safe. Reported-by: Edward Makarov <makarov@xxxxxxxxx> Tested-by: Edward Makarov <makarov@xxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Roman I Khimov <khimov@xxxxxxxxx> Cc: Phil Oester <kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxx> --- net/core/skbuff.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/net/core/skbuff.c b/net/core/skbuff.c index 3cfff2a..0d32be7 100644 --- a/net/core/skbuff.c +++ b/net/core/skbuff.c @@ -2901,7 +2901,7 @@ unsigned int skb_find_text(struct sk_buff *skb, unsigned int from, skb_prepare_seq_read(skb, from, to, TS_SKB_CB(&state)); ret = textsearch_find(config, &state); - return (ret <= to - from ? ret : UINT_MAX); + return (ret < to - from ? ret : UINT_MAX); } EXPORT_SYMBOL(skb_find_text); -- 2.1.4 -- 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