This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled netfilter: ctnetlink: netns exit must wait for callbacks to the 5.4-stable tree which can be found at: http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary The filename of the patch is: netfilter-ctnetlink-netns-exit-must-wait-for-callbac.patch and it can be found in the queue-5.4 subdirectory. If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree, please let <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> know about it. commit 85f06af8bc6bcf3be6c06c1bbba4062f9779ee2f Author: Florian Westphal <fw@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Fri Nov 15 12:39:23 2019 +0100 netfilter: ctnetlink: netns exit must wait for callbacks [ Upstream commit 18a110b022a5c02e7dc9f6109d0bd93e58ac6ebb ] Curtis Taylor and Jon Maxwell reported and debugged a crash on 3.10 based kernel. Crash occurs in ctnetlink_conntrack_events because net->nfnl socket is NULL. The nfnl socket was set to NULL by netns destruction running on another cpu. The exiting network namespace calls the relevant destructors in the following order: 1. ctnetlink_net_exit_batch This nulls out the event callback pointer in struct netns. 2. nfnetlink_net_exit_batch This nulls net->nfnl socket and frees it. 3. nf_conntrack_cleanup_net_list This removes all remaining conntrack entries. This is order is correct. The only explanation for the crash so ar is: cpu1: conntrack is dying, eviction occurs: -> nf_ct_delete() -> nf_conntrack_event_report \ -> nf_conntrack_eventmask_report -> notify->fcn() (== ctnetlink_conntrack_events). cpu1: a. fetches rcu protected pointer to obtain ctnetlink event callback. b. gets interrupted. cpu2: runs netns exit handlers: a runs ctnetlink destructor, event cb pointer set to NULL. b runs nfnetlink destructor, nfnl socket is closed and set to NULL. cpu1: c. resumes and trips over NULL net->nfnl. Problem appears to be that ctnetlink_net_exit_batch only prevents future callers of nf_conntrack_eventmask_report() from obtaining the callback. It doesn't wait of other cpus that might have already obtained the callbacks address. I don't see anything in upstream kernels that would prevent similar crash: We need to wait for all cpus to have exited the event callback. Fixes: 9592a5c01e79dbc59eb56fa ("netfilter: ctnetlink: netns support") Signed-off-by: Florian Westphal <fw@xxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@xxxxxxxxxx> diff --git a/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_netlink.c b/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_netlink.c index e2d13cd18875..aa8adf930b3c 100644 --- a/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_netlink.c +++ b/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_netlink.c @@ -3602,6 +3602,9 @@ static void __net_exit ctnetlink_net_exit_batch(struct list_head *net_exit_list) list_for_each_entry(net, net_exit_list, exit_list) ctnetlink_net_exit(net); + + /* wait for other cpus until they are done with ctnl_notifiers */ + synchronize_rcu(); } static struct pernet_operations ctnetlink_net_ops = {