summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/include/uapi
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorPablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>2026-06-18 13:56:38 +0200
committerPablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>2026-06-21 00:18:27 +0200
commitb8b09dc2bf35a00d4e0556b5d6308c7b917ebda2 (patch)
tree96ae163ee8d536889414e20b1f755c5c3ae61aa8 /include/uapi
parentaf8d6ae09c0a5f8b8a0d5680203c74b3c1daa85b (diff)
netfilter: nf_conntrack_expect: use conntrack GC to reap expectations
This patch replaces the timer API by GC worker approach for expectations, as it already happened in many other subsystems. Use the existing conntrack GC worker to iterate over the local list of expectations in the master conntrack to reap expired expectations. Check IPS_HELPER_BIT to run GC for expectations, set it on for nft_ct expectation which nevers sets it. Hold the expectation spinlock while iterating over the master conntrack expectation list to synchronize with nf_ct_remove_expectations(). This also performs runtime packet path garbage collection through the expectation insertion and lookup functions while walking over one of the chains of the global expectation hashtables. Unconfirmed conntrack entries are skipped since ct->ext can be reallocated and dying are skipped since those will be gone soon. Set on IPS_HELPER_BIT if the helper ct extension is added, then the new GC worker does not need to bump the ct refcount to check if the ct->ext helper is available. This removes the extra bump on the refcount for expectation timers, this allows to remove several nf_ct_expect_put() calls after the unlink, after this update only refcount remains at 1 while on the expectation hashes. This patch implicitly addresses a race with the existing timer API allowing an expectation to access a stale exp->master pointer which has been already released when expectation removal loses races with an expiring timer, ie. timer_del() reporting false. Add a new NF_CT_EXPECT_DEAD flag to reap this expectation via GC. This is needed by nf_conntrack_unexpect_related() which is called in error paths to invalidate newly created expectations that has been added into the hashes. These expectactions cannot be inmediately released as GC or nf_ct_remove_expectations() could race to make it. On expectation insert, the runtime GC reaps stale expectations before checking the expectation limit set by policy. Set current timestamp in nf_ct_expect_alloc(), then add the expectation policy timeout (or custom timeout specified added on top of this) to specify the expectation lifetime. Fixes: bffcaad9afdf ("netfilter: ctnetlink: ensure safe access to master conntrack") Signed-off-by: Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'include/uapi')
-rw-r--r--include/uapi/linux/netfilter/nf_conntrack_common.h1
1 files changed, 1 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/netfilter/nf_conntrack_common.h b/include/uapi/linux/netfilter/nf_conntrack_common.h
index 56b6b60a814f..ee51045ae1d6 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/netfilter/nf_conntrack_common.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/netfilter/nf_conntrack_common.h
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ enum ip_conntrack_expect_events {
#define NF_CT_EXPECT_USERSPACE 0x4
#ifdef __KERNEL__
+#define NF_CT_EXPECT_DEAD 0x8
#define NF_CT_EXPECT_MASK (NF_CT_EXPECT_PERMANENT | NF_CT_EXPECT_INACTIVE | \
NF_CT_EXPECT_USERSPACE)
#endif