Re: [PATCH 2/2 net-next] net: openvswitch: drop IP fragments on SCTP set action

On 10/17/26 6:38 AM, netdev-bot+sashiko@kernel.org wrote:

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- [High] net/openvswitch: set_sctp corrupts SCTP checksum for padded
   packets
- [Medium] In net/openvswitch/actions.c, set_sctp() now returns -EINVAL
   whenever `flow_key->ip.frag != OVS_FRAG_TYPE_NONE`.
- [Low] The commit message says first and later fragments failed the same
   way: the skb holds part of the SCTP packet and 'the CRC delta of a…
- [Low] set_tcp() and set_udp() (actions.c:644-645, 598-599) skip
   OVS_FRAG_TYPE_LATER packets: they return 0 and the action list…

--

net: openvswitch: drop IP fragments on SCTP set action

This patch makes set_sctp() return -EINVAL for any packet whose flow key
has ip.frag set to anything other than OVS_FRAG_TYPE_NONE. The goal is to
drop SCTP fragments with OVS_DROP_ACTION_ERROR instead of forwarding them
with rewritten ports and an invalid CRC32c checksum.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/d4fc14f3-4308-4560-9012-43c09c1b3845@ovn.org/ (local)

quoted

For a first fragment, and for
a later fragment, it holds just a part of it, and the CRC delta of a
change at the start of the packet depends on how many bytes follow, so
the checksum written is wrong.

[...]>

[Severity: High]
This patch doesn't introduce it, but does the same CRC delta problem
also hit unfragmented packets that carry trailing link layer padding?

sctp_compute_cksum() covers skb->len - sctphoff bytes. As far as I can
see, nothing on the OVS receive path trims skb->len down to the IPv4
total length or the IPv6 payload length before actions run. The only
trim I can find is ovs_skb_network_trim() in
net/openvswitch/conntrack.c, and that only runs for ct actions. So a
small SCTP packet that was padded to the 60 byte Ethernet minimum
reaches set_sctp() with the pad bytes still in the skb.

In that case old_correct_csum and new_csum are both computed over the
SCTP packet plus the padding. As the commit message says, the CRC delta
of a change at the start of the packet depends on how many bytes follow
it. That makes old_correct_csum ^ new_csum the wrong delta for the
receiver, and old_correct_csum also no longer matches a correct
old_csum. The value written to sh->checksum is wrong even for a packet
that arrived with a valid checksum. ip_rcv() or ipv6_rcv() on the
receiver trims the padding, sctp_rcv() then sees a CRC32c mismatch, and
the packet is dropped.

This looks easy to hit. Over IPv4, an SCTP packet that carries only a
COOKIE ACK, SHUTDOWN ACK or SHUTDOWN COMPLETE chunk is 36 bytes of IP,
well under the Ethernet minimum. A flow that rewrites SCTP ports, for
example for NAT, would then corrupt those chunks. I think losing COOKIE
ACK would keep an association from ever being established.

Could set_sctp() limit the CRC computation to the length taken from the
IP header? Another option would be to trim the skb first, the way
ovs_skb_network_trim() does. Do you want to handle this in this series,
or as a separate fix?

This might be right. I need to look better into SCTP and openvswitch flows, I will write this down and look into it later. I think it should be a separated patch

[Severity: Medium]
Does this also drop IPv6 atomic fragments? These are packets with a
Fragment header whose offset is 0 and whose M bit is clear, so the skb
holds the complete SCTP packet.

parse_ipv6hdr() in net/openvswitch/flow.c marks any Fragment header with
a zero offset as OVS_FRAG_TYPE_FIRST:

	nexthdr = ipv6_find_hdr(skb, &payload_ofs, -1, &frag_off, &flags);
	if (flags & IP6_FH_F_FRAG) {
		if (frag_off) {
			...
		}
		key->ip.frag = OVS_FRAG_TYPE_FIRST;

ipv6_find_hdr() in net/ipv6/exthdrs_core.c sets IP6_FH_F_FRAG whenever a
Fragment header is present, and it masks off the M bit:

	_frag_off = ntohs(*fp) & ~0x7;

As a result, set_sctp() cannot tell an atomic fragment from a real first
fragment.

Before this patch, sctp_compute_cksum() covered the whole SCTP packet in
this case, so the old_csum ^ old_correct_csum ^ new_csum update was
correct and the packet was forwarded with its ports rewritten. Now
do_execute_actions() frees it with OVS_DROP_ACTION_ERROR and skips the
rest of the action list.

RFC 8021 deprecates generating atomic fragments, but RFC 6946 still says
receivers must process them.

Could the check look at the M bit, or confirm that the skb covers the
full IPv6 payload, rather than rejecting every OVS_FRAG_TYPE_FIRST packet?
IPv4 SCTP looks fine here, because key_extract() only sets
OVS_FRAG_TYPE_FIRST for it when IP_MF is set.

Yes, it does that and AFAIU, we do not care about it. Indeed, the next step is to reject the flow directly for fragments.

[Severity: Low]
This isn't a bug, but should later fragments be handled the same way here
as in set_tcp() and set_udp()? Both of those treat OVS_FRAG_TYPE_LATER as
a successful no-op:

	if (flow_key->ip.frag == OVS_FRAG_TYPE_LATER)
		return 0;

This check returns -EINVAL for both FIRST and LATER. Take a flow that
wildcards ip.frag and rewrites L4 ports. IPv4 TCP/UDP later fragments are
forwarded unchanged and the action list continues. IPv4 SCTP later
fragments are dropped with OVS_DROP_ACTION_ERROR, and any actions after
the set are skipped.

The commit message says the drop is intended. The same flow drops the
first fragment anyway, so the visible difference is mostly drop
accounting and whether later actions run.

The uAPI description of OVS_ACTION_ATTR_SET in
include/uapi/linux/openvswitch.h also doesn't mention that a validated
SCTP set can fail at runtime on fragments while TCP/UDP sets are skipped.

Based on the discussions with the maintainers, we do not care about it and in the future we are rejecting it directly.