[PATCH net-next v2] net/sched: cls_fw: allow filter replace without re-specifying mask
From: Wei Tao
Date: Fri Nov 06 2026 - 01:33:47 EST
The fw classifier keeps the fwmark mask in the fw_head shared by all
filters of a tcf_proto instance, so the mask is a property of the head
and not of the individual filter: it is set when the head is created
and cannot be changed by a filter that is being replaced. Nevertheless
fw_set_parms() rejects such a replace with -EINVAL whenever the head
mask is not the default 0xFFFFFFFF and the mask is not repeated on the
command line:
# tc qdisc add dev lo clsact
# tc filter add dev lo ingress prio 1 handle 1/0xffff fw classid 1:10
# tc filter replace dev lo ingress prio 1 handle 1 fw classid 1:20
RTNETLINK answers: Invalid argument
The same happens for tc filter change, which calls fw_set_parms() on the
existing filter as well.
The check only makes sense for a newly created filter, where the mask
has to be spelled out so that a filter cannot silently match on a
non-default mask inherited from the existing head. A filter that is
being replaced already shares the head mask and inherits it unchanged,
so the check can be skipped for it.
Tell the two cases apart with a new "new_filter" argument to
fw_set_parms(), which fw_change() sets only when it creates a filter,
and report the error through extack instead of failing silently.
When reviewing commit b72e025ac556 ("net/sched: cls_route: reject
change with no routing attribute") and its parent commit 41e85e54e564
("net/sched: cls_route: Fix in-place replace"), I noticed that the
series separates the create and replace paths in cls_route: a new
filter must use a handle that matches the value built from its
attributes, while a replace is not allowed to change the handle without
specifying routing attributes. Then I analyzed the cls_fw code with
an LLM.
Tested on aarch64:
# tc qdisc add dev lo clsact
# tc filter add dev lo ingress prio 1 handle 1/0xffff fw classid 1:10
# tc filter replace dev lo ingress prio 1 handle 1 fw classid 1:20
# tc filter show dev lo ingress | cut -d' ' -f9-
handle 0x1/0xffff classid 1:20
# tc filter change dev lo ingress prio 1 handle 1 fw classid 1:30
# tc filter show dev lo ingress | cut -d' ' -f9-
handle 0x1/0xffff classid 1:30
# tc filter add dev lo ingress prio 1 handle 2 fw classid 1:40
Error: Mask must be provided for new filter.
Signed-off-by: Wei Tao <taowei@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
v2: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20261014024548.37874-1-taowei@xxxxxxxxxx/
- drop the Fixes tag: this is not a regression fix
- describe how the issue was found and add the tested commands
net/sched/cls_fw.c | 12 ++++++++----
1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/net/sched/cls_fw.c b/net/sched/cls_fw.c
index 0f731595f839..3ca0598560c4 100644
--- a/net/sched/cls_fw.c
+++ b/net/sched/cls_fw.c
@@ -204,7 +204,8 @@ static const struct nla_policy fw_policy[TCA_FW_MAX + 1] = {
static int fw_set_parms(struct net *net, struct tcf_proto *tp,
struct fw_filter *f, struct nlattr **tb,
- struct nlattr **tca, unsigned long base, u32 flags,
+ struct nlattr **tca, unsigned long base,
+ bool new_filter, u32 flags,
struct netlink_ext_ack *extack)
{
struct fw_head *head = rtnl_dereference(tp->root);
@@ -229,8 +230,10 @@ static int fw_set_parms(struct net *net, struct tcf_proto *tp,
mask = nla_get_u32(tb[TCA_FW_MASK]);
if (mask != head->mask)
return err;
- } else if (head->mask != 0xFFFFFFFF)
+ } else if (head->mask != 0xFFFFFFFF && new_filter) {
+ NL_SET_ERR_MSG(extack, "Mask must be provided for new filter");
return err;
+ }
if (tb[TCA_FW_CLASSID]) {
f->res.classid = nla_get_u32(tb[TCA_FW_CLASSID]);
@@ -291,7 +294,8 @@ static int fw_change(struct net *net, struct sk_buff *in_skb,
return err;
}
- err = fw_set_parms(net, tp, fnew, tb, tca, base, flags, extack);
+ err = fw_set_parms(net, tp, fnew, tb, tca, base, false,
+ flags, extack);
if (err < 0) {
tcf_exts_destroy(&fnew->exts);
kfree(fnew);
@@ -340,7 +344,7 @@ static int fw_change(struct net *net, struct sk_buff *in_skb,
f->id = handle;
f->tp = tp;
- err = fw_set_parms(net, tp, f, tb, tca, base, flags, extack);
+ err = fw_set_parms(net, tp, f, tb, tca, base, true, flags, extack);
if (err < 0)
goto errout;
base-commit: 6628e7d4c6b25c8d18f1345e3a20d21829aae7e4
--
2.25.1