Hi guys : We encountered a kernel crash on one of our boxes running 3.4.43 kernel in the conntrack code. We are using dnsmasq as a proxy to relay our dns requests to the real dns server. We verified that the conntrack tables were not full. running conntrack -L around the time of the crash showed that it had more than 2100 entries for dnsmasq. Looking upstream, I see a couple of patches which fixes race condition around the use of the conntrack hash table with RCU (lock free read) primitives : commit c6825c0976fa7893692e0e43b09740b419b23c09 Author: Andrey Vagin <avagin@xxxxxxxxxx> Date: Wed Jan 29 19:34:14 2014 +0100 netfilter: nf_conntrack: fix RCU race in nf_conntrack_find_get and a followup patch : commit e53376bef2cd97d3e3f61fdc677fb8da7d03d0da Author: Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Mon Feb 3 20:01:53 2014 +0100 netfilter: nf_conntrack: don't release a conntrack with non-zero refcnt We are trying to reproduce the crash again but it is very rare. Meanwhile, I have two questions: - Do you guys think the race condition described in the above two patches have anything to do with the crash I mention below? - If answer to the above is a NO, then have you guys have any other reports of a similar crash or any idea what could be going on? We are still investigating and I will update this thread if I can get additional info. Thanks Ani <1>[10618591.817967] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at (null) <1>[10618591.914483] IP: [<ffffffffa007b3f7>] __nf_conntrack_confirm+0x1fb/0x36c [nf_conntrack] <4>[10618592.012027] PGD 5aa67067 PUD 5b4f4067 PMD 0 <4>[10618592.012035] Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP <4>[10618592.012041] CPU 1 <4>[10618592.012043] Modules linked in: xt_comment sch_prio fpdma(PO) msr nf_conntrack_ipv6 nf_defrag_ipv6 ip6t_REJECT ip6table_mangle nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defr ag_ipv4 xt_LOG xt_limit xt_hl xt_state ipt_REJECT xt_multiport xt_tcpudp iptable_mangle kbfd(O) 8021q garp stp llc tun nf_conntrack_tftp iptable_raw iptable_fil ter ip_tables xt_NOTRACK nf_conntrack xt_mark ip6table_raw ip6table_filter ip6_tables x_tables k10temp hwmon amd64_edac_mod scd(O) microcode kvm_amd kvm <4>[10618592.012092] <4>[10618592.012096] Pid: 5586, comm: dnsmasq Tainted: P O 3.4.43 #1 <4>[10618592.012102] RIP: 0010:[<ffffffffa007b3f7>] [<ffffffffa007b3f7>] __nf_conntrack_confirm+0x1fb/0x36c [nf_conntrack] <4>[10618592.012112] RSP: 0018:ffff88005aa1fb98 EFLAGS: 00010202 <4>[10618592.012116] RAX: 0000000000002769 RBX: ffff880063d58658 RCX: 000000001cc74948 <4>[10618592.012120] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffff88010cd80000 RDI: 0000000000004000 <4>[10618592.012123] RBP: ffff88005aa1fbc8 R08: 00000000872541be R09: 000000007aa31682 <4>[10618592.012127] R10: ffff880063d586d8 R11: ffff88005aa1fb68 R12: ffffffff81648180 <4>[10618592.012130] R13: 00000000000017ef R14: 000000000000bf78 R15: 0000000000009da0 <4>[10618592.012135] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88013fb00000(0063) knlGS:00000000f74126d0 <4>[10618592.012139] CS: 0010 DS: 002b ES: 002b CR0: 0000000080050033 <4>[10618592.012142] CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 000000005b412000 CR4: 00000000000007e0 <4>[10618592.012146] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 <4>[10618592.012149] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 <4>[10618592.012154] Process dnsmasq (pid: 5586, threadinfo ffff88005aa1e000, task ffff8800727d6050) <4>[10618592.012156] Stack: <4>[10618592.012159] 0000000000000000 ffff8800889050c0 ffff8800889050c0 ffff880063d58658 <4>[10618592.012166] 0000000000000004 0000000000000002 ffff88005aa1fc38 ffffffffa00e3c54 <4>[10618592.012172] 0000000000000004 0000000000000000 ffff88005aa1fc38 ffffffffa0078168 <4>[10618592.012179] Call Trace: <4>[10618592.012186] [<ffffffffa00e3c54>] ipv4_confirm+0x17e/0x1a5 [nf_conntrack_ipv4] <4>[10618592.012192] [<ffffffffa0078168>] ? iptable_mangle_hook+0xfa/0x116 [iptable_mangle] <4>[10618592.012199] [<ffffffff81324afe>] ? ip_finish_output+0x0/0x36f <4>[10618592.012205] [<ffffffff8131900f>] nf_iterate+0x43/0x78 <4>[10618592.012210] [<ffffffff81324afe>] ? ip_finish_output+0x0/0x36f <4>[10618592.012214] [<ffffffff813191a1>] nf_hook_slow+0x6e/0x106 <4>[10618592.012219] [<ffffffff81324afe>] ? ip_finish_output+0x0/0x36f <4>[10618592.012224] [<ffffffff813222e8>] ? dst_output+0x0/0x11 <4>[10618592.012229] [<ffffffff81324ef0>] ip_output+0x83/0x97 <4>[10618592.012234] [<ffffffff813240a3>] ? __ip_local_out+0x9c/0x9e <4>[10618592.012239] [<ffffffff813240c9>] ip_local_out+0x24/0x28 <4>[10618592.012244] [<ffffffff8132462f>] ip_queue_xmit+0x2e4/0x322 <4>[10618592.012249] [<ffffffff81336f97>] tcp_transmit_skb+0x766/0x7a7 <4>[10618592.012254] [<ffffffff81337345>] tcp_send_active_reset+0xd8/0x104 <4>[10618592.012258] [<ffffffff8132b8c6>] tcp_close+0x101/0x335 <4>[10618592.012264] [<ffffffff8134b8f2>] inet_release+0x7b/0x82 <4>[10618592.012269] [<ffffffff812ea36e>] sock_release+0x1a/0x72 <4>[10618592.012273] [<ffffffff812ea3e8>] sock_close+0x22/0x26 <4>[10618592.012278] [<ffffffff810aad2d>] fput+0x117/0x1f8 <4>[10618592.012283] [<ffffffff810a7ce2>] filp_close+0x6d/0x78 <4>[10618592.012288] [<ffffffff810a7d7b>] sys_close+0x8e/0xc8 <4>[10618592.012293] [<ffffffff813dcacb>] cstar_dispatch+0x7/0x1e <4>[10618592.012296] Code: 31 d2 0f b6 d2 85 d2 0f 85 61 01 00 00 48 8b 00 a8 01 75 0d 8b 53 68 3b 50 10 75 94 e9 6a ff ff ff 48 8b 43 20 48 8b 53 28 a8 01 <48> 89 02 75 04 48 89 50 08 49 bd 00 02 20 00 00 00 ad de 48 8d <1>[10618592.012355] RIP [<ffffffffa007b3f7>] __nf_conntrack_confirm+0x1fb/0x36c [nf_conntrack] <4>[10618592.110942] RSP <ffff88005aa1fb98> <4>[10618592.110944] CR2: 0000000000000000 The crash happened here in this code : static inline void __hlist_nulls_del(struct hlist_nulls_node *n) { struct hlist_nulls_node *next = n->next; struct hlist_nulls_node **pprev = n->pprev; *pprev = next; 1ac1: 48 89 02 mov %rax,(%rdx) <==== CRASH if (!is_a_nulls(next)) 1ac4: 75 04 jne 1aca <nf_ct_delete_from_lists+0x62> next->pprev = pprev; 1ac6: 48 89 50 08 mov %rdx,0x8(%rax) * hlist_nulls_for_each_entry(). */ The instruction is *prev = next and pprev pointer is NULL (RDX) -- 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