[PATCH v2 0/2] smb: client: fix CIFS SWN notify lifetime and permissions

Michael Bommarito <[email protected]> Sun, 17 May 2026 20:11:48 -0400
Newsgroups gmane.linux.kernel,gmane.linux.kernel.cifs,gmane.network.samba.internals
Message-ID <[email protected]>
This is v2 of the CIFS witness notify fix series.  v1 fixed the
basic cifs_swn_notify() use-after-free and added GENL_ADMIN_PERM to
the incoming notify command, but review pointed out that the lifetime
fix still trusted the raw tcon pointer cached in cifs_swn_reg.

That cache is unsafe because cifs_get_swn_reg() lets multiple tcons
for the same net/share name share one witness registration id.  If the
first tcon goes away while another same-share tcon keeps the
registration alive, swnreg->tcon can dangle.  Taking tc_lock through
that pointer is therefore still a use-after-free, and taking tc_lock
while holding cifs_swnreg_idr_mutex also violates the documented CIFS
lock order.

Patch 1 changes the SWN registration model so the registration stores
only stable witness identity: registration id, net name, share name,
and notify flags.  Notify handling copies that identity under
cifs_swnreg_idr_mutex, drops the mutex, and then finds and pins a live
matching tcon under the normal cifs_tcp_ses_lock -> tc_lock order.
Register and unregister messages use the caller's live tcon rather
than a cached registration tcon, and the unregister path no longer
finds a registration, drops the mutex, and later puts a raw pointer.

The intended one-registration/many-tcon semantics are therefore:
a registration id represents a net/share pair, and notify handling acts
on a live representative selected at use time.  If the registration id
exists but no live matching tcon remains, cifs_swn_notify() reports
that separately instead of logging "registration id not found".

Patch 2 keeps the GENL_ADMIN_PERM gate for SWN_NOTIFY and also adds
GENL_MCAST_CAP_NET_ADMIN to CIFS_GENL_MCGRP_SWN.  The multicast group
carries register messages that include the registration id and, for
NTLM-authenticated mounts, username/domain/password attributes copied
from the CIFS session, so unprivileged local users should not be able
to join the group.

Build, static, and runtime validation for this revision:

Targeted UM build of fs/smb/client/cifs_swn.o and fs/smb/client/netlink.o
on top of v7.1-rc2 rebuilt both touched objects with no new warnings.
scripts/checkpatch.pl --strict on both patches is clean.

I also ran a KASAN + PROVE_LOCKING QEMU build with the existing ksmbd
test harness that advertises CLUSTER capability so the client witness
path is exercised:

  - root-sender race campaign, four parallel mount/umount profiles,
    using root notify senders to bypass GENL_ADMIN_PERM and stress the
    lifetime fix directly: no KASAN, oops, or lockdep signatures
  - same-share regression: two witness mounts with nosharesock shared
    one registration id; after unmounting the first tcon, CLIENT_MOVE
    against that id completed successfully on the remaining live tcon
  - CLIENT_MOVE trace: unregister-for-old-IP still precedes
    register-for-new-IP
  - echo/check path: echo_interval=1 drove cifs_swn_check() while
    DebugData exercised cifs_swn_dump()
  - SWN_NOTIFY permission probe: uid 65534 gets -EPERM; root reaches
    the handler and receives the expected no-registration -EINVAL
  - multicast permission probe: uid 65534 gets -EPERM joining
    CIFS_GENL_MCGRP_SWN; root joins successfully

The notable runtime results are summarized above.

Changes since v1:

  - remove the raw struct cifs_tcon pointer from struct cifs_swn_reg
  - resolve and pin a live matching tcon after dropping the SWN idr
    mutex
  - avoid taking tc_lock while holding cifs_swnreg_idr_mutex
  - keep unregister send and kref put under one SWN mutex section
  - distinguish "registration id not found" from "no live tcon"
  - mirror extract_hostname() / extract_sharename() byte-for-byte in
    the new cifs_swn_tcon_matches() helper to avoid GFP_KERNEL
    allocations under cifs_tcp_ses_lock and tcon->tc_lock
  - restrict joins to the CIFS SWN multicast group
  - add runtime coverage for the shared-registration case called out
    in v1 review

Michael Bommarito (2):
  smb: client: resolve SWN tcon from live registrations
  smb: client: require net admin for CIFS SWN netlink

 fs/smb/client/cifs_swn.c | 314 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------
 fs/smb/client/netlink.c  |   6 +-
 fs/smb/client/trace.h    |   2 +
 3 files changed, 267 insertions(+), 55 deletions(-)

-- 
2.53.0