Re: [PATCH nf] netfilter: conntrack: sctp: verify vtag before state changes

[Yizhou Zhao]

Hi Pablo,

Thank you for the review.

> On Jul 29, 2026, at 03:26, Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> On Tue, Jul 28, 2026 at 03:35:06PM +0800, Yizhou Zhao wrote:
>> The packet-wide vtag check in nf_conntrack_sctp_packet() is skipped when
>> the bundle map contains any chunk type with special vtag handling.  The
>> per-chunk path re-checks INIT, ABORT, SHUTDOWN_COMPLETE, and
>> COOKIE_ECHO, but other state-changing chunks still fall through to
>> sctp_new_state() without validating sh->vtag.
>> 
>> This lets a wrong-vtag packet bundle HEARTBEAT with COOKIE_ACK, ERROR,
>> SHUTDOWN, or SHUTDOWN_ACK and still advance conntrack state.  That can
>> desynchronize conntrack from the real SCTP association and cause denial
>> of service for SCTP traffic behind a stateful firewall.
> 
> Are you assuming a specific policy in place? The connection tracking
> does not police packets, it just provides tracking.

You are right, I overstated the impact.  Conntrack only tracks packet
state, and whether a packet is dropped depends on a firewall rule that
uses that state.

> 
> Can you provide a more specific scenario?

The issue I reproduced is that a wrong-vtag [SHUTDOWN, HEARTBEAT] bundle
changes SCTP conntrack state from ESTABLISHED to SHUTDOWN_SENT, while the
SCTP endpoints discard the packet because of the invalid vtag.  This can
therefore desynchronize conntrack from the association.

For example, a stateful policy that drops INVALID, accepts
ESTABLISHED/RELATED, and accepts new SCTP only for INIT will see the
conntrack timeout change from 210 seconds to 3 seconds.  If the entry
expires while the real association remains established, a later DATA
packet is invalid and that policy drops it.  This requires an attacker
that can inject a matching SCTP 4-tuple into the firewall path, and it does
not require knowing the correct vtag.

> 
> We are seeing several reports related to the connection tracking from
> your university lately.
> 
>> Check sh->vtag before processing those chunks when conntrack already
>> knows the expected direction vtag.  This keeps the existing
>> HEARTBEAT/HEARTBEAT_ACK learning and connection-reuse behavior for the
>> `vtag == 0` cases.
> 
> Proposed patches to hardening the connection tracking state machine
> should be targeted at nf-next.

I agree this is better treated as SCTP conntrack state-machine hardening.
If you agree, I will respin the patch for nf-next without Fixes or stable Cc.

Regards,
Yizhou