[PATCH ipsec-next v2 0/4] xfrm: XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE_STATE new netlink message
From: Antony Antony <hidden>
Date: 2026-01-17 20:05:15
The current XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE interface is tightly coupled to policy and SA migration, and it lacks the information required to reliably migrate individual SAs. This makes it unsuitable for IKEv2 deployments, dual-stack setups (IPv4/IPv6), and scenarios where policies are managed externally (e.g., by other daemons than IKE daemon). Mandatory SA selector list The current API requires a non-empty SA selector list, which does not reflect IKEv2 use case. A single Child SA may correspond to multiple policies, and SA discovery already occurs via address and reqid matching. With dual-stack Child SAs this leads to excessive churn: the current method would have to be called up to six times (in/out/fwd × v4/v6) on SA, while the new method only requires two calls. Selectors lack SPI (and marks) XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE cannot uniquely identify an SA when multiple SAs share the same policies (per-CPU SAs, SELinux label-based SAs, etc.). Without the SPI, the kernel may update the wrong SA instance. Reqid cannot be changed Some implementations allocate reqids based on traffic selectors. In host-to-host or selector-changing scenarios, the reqid must change, which the current API cannot express. Because strongSwan and other implementations manage policies independently of the kernel, an interface that updates only a specific SA - with complete and unambiguous identification - is required. XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE_STATE provides that interface. It supports migration of a single SA via xfrm_usersa_id (including SPI) and we fix encap removal in this patch set, reqid updates, address changes, and other SA-specific parameters. It avoids the structural limitations of XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE and provides a simpler, extensible mechanism for precise per-SA migration without involving policies. New migration steps: first install block policy, remove the old policy, call XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE_STATE for each state, then re-install the policies and remove the block policy. Antony Antony (4): xfrm: remove redundant assignments xfrm: allow migration from UDP encapsulated to non-encapsulated ESP xfrm: rename reqid in xfrm_migrate xfrm: add XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE_STATE for single SA migration include/net/xfrm.h | 3 +- include/uapi/linux/xfrm.h | 11 +++ net/key/af_key.c | 10 +-- net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c | 4 +- net/xfrm/xfrm_state.c | 34 +++----- net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c | 164 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- security/selinux/nlmsgtab.c | 3 +- 7 files changed, 198 insertions(+), 31 deletions(-) --- v1->v2: dropped 6/6. That check is already there where the func is called - merged patch 4/6 and 5/6, to fix use uninitialized value - fix commit messages v2->v3: fix commit message - fixes to error path --- -antony