Re: [PATCH net v2] ipv4: fib_trie: prevent speculative out-of-bounds child access

From: netdev-bot+sashiko

Date: Sun Oct 11 2026 - 01:54:05 EST


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- [Medium] The patch's Spectre-v1 hardening leaves out
fib_trie_get_next() in net/ipv4/fib_trie.c, which is the depth-first…

--

ipv4: fib_trie: prevent speculative out-of-bounds child access

This patch adds array_index_nospec() sanitization of the child index
before get_child_rcu() in fib_table_lookup(), fib_find_node() and both
loops of leaf_walk_rcu(). It closes a Spectre-v1 gadget where a
mispredicted bounds check lets an out-of-bounds tnode[] slot be
transiently used as a node pointer.

> diff --git a/net/ipv4/fib_trie.c b/net/ipv4/fib_trie.c
> index 248514dce0cdd..bdffeff58c950 100644
> --- a/net/ipv4/fib_trie.c
> +++ b/net/ipv4/fib_trie.c

[ ... ]

> @@ -1787,6 +1794,8 @@ static struct key_vector *leaf_walk_rcu(struct key_vector **tn, t_key key)
> continue;
> }
>
> + cindex = array_index_nospec(cindex, 1ul << pn->bits);
> +
> /* grab the next available node */
> n = get_child_rcu(pn, cindex++);
> if (!n)

[Severity: Medium]

The commit message says "leaf_walk_rcu() has a similar checked cindex
before get_child_rcu(), and the traversed state can be influenced by
userspace actions". Should fib_trie_get_next() get the same treatment?

It has the same shape as this sibling walk in leaf_walk_rcu(). The only
bound is the loop condition:

net/ipv4/fib_trie.c:fib_trie_get_next() {
...
while (!IS_TRIE(pn)) {
while (cindex < child_length(pn)) {
struct key_vector *n = get_child_rcu(pn, cindex++);

if (!n)
continue;

if (IS_LEAF(n)) {
...
/* Current node exhausted, pop back up */
pkey = pn->key;
pn = node_parent_rcu(pn);
cindex = get_index(pkey, pn) + 1;
...
}

Suppose the cindex < child_length(pn) check is mispredicted on the last
iteration. Could pn->tnode[child_length(pn)] then be loaded transiently
and dereferenced as a node pointer by IS_LEAF(n)? This hunk sanitizes
the same one-past-the-end case in leaf_walk_rcu().

fib_trie_get_next() is reachable from the 0444 /proc/net/fib_trie and
/proc/net/fib_triestat files, via fib_trie_seq_ops and
fib_triestat_seq_show()->trie_collect_stats(). Any local user can drive
it, and an unprivileged user and net namespace can shape the trie
contents.

Here the out-of-bounds index is always one past the end, so an attacker
can't choose it. That makes exploitation speculative. Would something
like this keep the hardening consistent?

while (cindex < child_length(pn)) {
struct key_vector *n;

cindex = array_index_nospec(cindex, child_length(pn));
n = get_child_rcu(pn, cindex++);

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Sashiko AI review · https://netdev-ai.bots.linux.dev/sashiko/#/patchset/20261010-fib-trie-nospec-v2-1-30319b4db8d0%40nvidia.com