RE: [RFC][PATCHES v2] checksum stuff

[David Laight]

From: Al Viro
> Sent: 05 December 2023 02:21
> 
> We need a way for csum_and_copy_{from,to}_user() to report faults.
> The approach taken back in 2020 (avoid 0 as return value by starting
> summing from ~0U, use 0 to report faults) had been broken; it does
> yield the right value modulo 2^16-1, but the case when data is
> entirely zero-filled is not handled right.  It almost works, since
> for most of the codepaths we have a non-zero value added in
> and there 0 is not different from anything divisible by 0xffff.
> However, there are cases (ICMPv4 replies, for example) where we
> are not guaranteed that.
> 
> In other words, we really need to have those primitives return 0
> on filled-with-zeroes input.

Do we?
I've not seen any justification for this at all.
IIRC the ICMPv4 reply code needs the checksum function return 0xffff
for all-zero input.

So the correct and simple fix is to initialise the sum to 0xffff
in the checksum function.

	David

-
Registered Address Lakeside, Bramley Road, Mount Farm, Milton Keynes, MK1 1PT, UK
Registration No: 1397386 (Wales)