[PATCH v2] nvmet-auth: reject short AUTH_RECEIVE buffers
From: Michael Bommarito
Date: Tue Jun 09 2026 - 14:33:50 EST
nvmet_execute_auth_receive() trusts the AUTH_RECEIVE allocation length
after checking only that it is nonzero and matches the transfer length.
In the SUCCESS1 and FAILURE1/default states, that lets a remote NVMe-oF
initiator reach the fixed-size DH-HMAC-CHAP response builders with a
kmalloc() buffer shorter than the response, so nvmet_auth_success1() and
nvmet_auth_failure1() write past the allocation; both only WARN_ON the
short length and then format the message anyway.
Impact: A remote NVMe-oF initiator with access to an auth-enabled target
can trigger a 16-byte heap out-of-bounds write via a one-byte
AUTH_RECEIVE allocation length.
Compute the minimum response length for the current DH-HMAC-CHAP step in
nvmet_auth_receive_data_len() and report a zero data length when the
host-supplied allocation length is shorter, so the existing zero-length
check in nvmet_execute_auth_receive() rejects the command before any
builder runs. The SUCCESS1 minimum is sizeof(struct
nvmf_auth_dhchap_success1_data) plus the HMAC hash length, because the
response hash is written into the rval[] flexible-array tail, so the
minimum is state dependent rather than a flat sizeof. CHALLENGE keeps its
existing variable-length guard in nvmet_auth_challenge().
This is reachable only when in-band DH-HMAC-CHAP authentication is
configured on the target.
Fixes: db1312dd9548 ("nvmet: implement basic In-Band Authentication")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Assisted-by: Codex:gpt-5-5-xhigh
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8
Signed-off-by: Michael Bommarito <michael.bommarito@xxxxxxxxx>
---
v2:
- Move the length check into nvmet_auth_receive_data_len() and reject
via the existing zero-length guard in nvmet_execute_auth_receive(),
per Hannes Reinecke's review. No separate helper, and
nvmet_execute_auth_receive() itself is unchanged.
With CONFIG_FORTIFY_SOURCE and KASAN enabled, a short al (for example
al=1) on the SUCCESS1 path aborts in the sizeof(*data)=16 header memset
in nvmet_auth_success1() with "memset: detected buffer overflow: 16 byte
write of buffer size 1". After this change the same input is rejected
before allocation and the abort no longer occurs. Validated with a
KUnit/KASAN harness under UML: the stock kernel crashed and the patched
kernel passed; the in-tree nvme-auth KUnit suite still passes.
---
drivers/nvme/target/fabrics-cmd-auth.c | 26 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/drivers/nvme/target/fabrics-cmd-auth.c b/drivers/nvme/target/fabrics-cmd-auth.c
index f1e613e7c63e5..d4271fc43a95c 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/target/fabrics-cmd-auth.c
+++ b/drivers/nvme/target/fabrics-cmd-auth.c
@@ -484,7 +484,31 @@ static void nvmet_auth_failure1(struct nvmet_req *req, void *d, int al)
u32 nvmet_auth_receive_data_len(struct nvmet_req *req)
{
- return le32_to_cpu(req->cmd->auth_receive.al);
+ struct nvmet_ctrl *ctrl = req->sq->ctrl;
+ u32 al = le32_to_cpu(req->cmd->auth_receive.al);
+ u32 min_len;
+
+ /*
+ * Reject too-short al before kmalloc(al), since the SUCCESS1 and
+ * FAILURE1/default builders write fixed response headers into it.
+ */
+ switch (req->sq->dhchap_step) {
+ case NVME_AUTH_DHCHAP_MESSAGE_CHALLENGE:
+ return al;
+ case NVME_AUTH_DHCHAP_MESSAGE_SUCCESS1:
+ min_len = sizeof(struct nvmf_auth_dhchap_success1_data);
+ if (req->sq->dhchap_c2)
+ min_len += nvme_auth_hmac_hash_len(ctrl->shash_id);
+ break;
+ default:
+ min_len = sizeof(struct nvmf_auth_dhchap_failure_data);
+ break;
+ }
+
+ if (al < min_len)
+ return 0;
+
+ return al;
}
void nvmet_execute_auth_receive(struct nvmet_req *req)
--
2.53.0