8021q: Fix data race when publishing vlan net_device pointers

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A plain C read and assignment of the net_device pointer
in the vlan_devices_arrays leaf entries lack proper atomicity
and ordering barriers. A concurrent lockless reader on the packet
receive fast-path could observe a torn or partially initialized
net_device pointer, leading to a potential out-of-bounds read or kernel
panic.

The data race occurs between the netlink/ioctl configuration paths
(holding the per-netns rtnl_nets_lock or RTNL lock) and the softirq
receive fast-path (holding rcu_read_lock()):

  CPU 0 (Writer, rtnl_nets_lock/RTNL)      CPU 1 (Reader, rcu_read_lock())
  -----------------------------------      -------------------------------
   rtnetlink_rcv_msg()
     // RTM_NEWLINK handler with RTNL_FLAG_DOIT_PERNET
     rtnl_newlink()
       ops->newlink() == vlan_newlink()
   OR
   vlan_ioctl_handler()
     [ADD_VLAN_CMD] -> register_vlan_device()

     register_vlan_dev()
       vlan_group_set_device()
                                      netif_receive_skb_core()
                                          vlan_do_receive()
                                              vlan_find_dev()
                                                 __vlan_group_get_device()
                                                  // Speculative / torn read
                                                  [Loads bad net_device *]
           [Plain C store]
           array[vlan_id] = dev;
                                                  // Dereferences bad pointer
                                                  // during device status check
                                                  vlan_dev->flags (PANIC!)

Fix this by using rcu_assign_pointer() in vlan_group_set_device()
and rcu_dereference_raw() in __vlan_group_get_device() to enforce
proper ordering and memory atomicity for the leaf entry traversal.

Link: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260825095422.3166067-1-ruanjinjie%40huawei.com
Signed-off-by: Jinjie Ruan <ruanjinjie@huawei.com>
Reviewed-by: Kuniyuki Iwashima <kuniyu@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>

...

This commit is contained in:

Jinjie Ruan 2026-09-02 15:33:33 +08:00 • committed by Jakub Kicinski

parent d76beefca7

commit 2e9ff7bb66

2 changed files with 7 additions and 7 deletions

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2

net/8021q/vlan.c

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12

net/8021q/vlan.h

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