Re: [PATCH net-next v1 1/1] net: bridge: ensure that link-local traffic cannot unlock a locked port

From: Hans S
Date: Sun Jul 17 2022 - 15:23:10 EST


On Sun, Jul 17, 2022 at 8:38 PM Vladimir Oltean <olteanv@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Jul 17, 2022 at 06:22:57PM +0200, Hans S wrote:
> > On Sun, Jul 17, 2022 at 4:03 PM Vladimir Oltean <olteanv@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > Yes, it creates an FDB entry in the bridge without the locked flag
> > set, and sends an ADD_TO_DEVICE notice with it.
> > And furthermore link-local packets include of course EAPOL packets, so
> > that's why +learning is a problem.
>
> So if we fix that, and make the dynamically learned FDB entry be locked
> because the port is locked (and offload them correctly in mv88e6xxx),
> what would be the problem, exactly? The +learning is what would allow
> these locked FDB entries to be created, and would allow the MAB to work.
> User space may still decide to not authorize this address, and it will
> remain locked.

The alternative is to have -learning and let the driver only enable
the PAV to admit the interrupts, which is what this implementation
does.
The plus side of this is that having EAPOL packets triggering locked
entries from the bridge side is not really so nice IMHO. In a
situation with 802.1X and MAB on the same port, there will then not be
any triggering of MAB when initiating the 802.1X session, which I
think is the best option. It then also lessens the confusion between
hostapd and the daemon that handles MAB sessions.