linux-hardening - Re: [PATCH iwl-next v3 16/18] idpf: add support for XDP on Rx

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Message-ID: <202507310955.03E47CFA4@keescook>
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2025 10:05:47 -0700
From: Kees Cook <kees@...nel.org>
To: Simon Horman <horms@...nel.org>
Cc: Alexander Lobakin <aleksander.lobakin@...el.com>,
	intel-wired-lan@...ts.osuosl.org,
	Michal Kubiak <michal.kubiak@...el.com>,
	Maciej Fijalkowski <maciej.fijalkowski@...el.com>,
	Tony Nguyen <anthony.l.nguyen@...el.com>,
	Przemek Kitszel <przemyslaw.kitszel@...el.com>,
	Andrew Lunn <andrew+netdev@...n.ch>,
	"David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>,
	Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>, Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>,
	Alexei Starovoitov <ast@...nel.org>,
	Daniel Borkmann <daniel@...earbox.net>,
	nxne.cnse.osdt.itp.upstreaming@...el.com, bpf@...r.kernel.org,
	netdev@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-hardening@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH iwl-next v3 16/18] idpf: add support for XDP on Rx

On Thu, Jul 31, 2025 at 01:37:34PM +0100, Simon Horman wrote:
> While I appreciate the desire for improved performance and nicer code
> generation. I think the idea of writing 64 bits of data to the
> address of a 32 bit member of a structure goes against the direction
> of hardening work by Kees and others.

Agreed: it's better to avoid obscuring these details from the compiler
so it can have an "actual" view of the object sizes involved.

> Indeed, it seems to me this is the kind of thing that struct_group()
> aims to avoid.
> 
> In this case struct group() doesn't seem like the best option,
> because it would provide a 64-bit buffer that we can memcpy into.
> But it seems altogether better to simply assign u64 value to a u64 member.

Agreed: with struct_group you get a sized pointer, and while you can
provide a struct tag to make it an assignable object, it doesn't make
too much sense here.

> So I'm wondering if an approach along the following lines is appropriate
> (Very lightly compile tested only!).
> 
> And yes, there is room for improvement of the wording of the comment
> I included below.
> 
> diff --git a/include/net/libeth/xdp.h b/include/net/libeth/xdp.h
> index f4880b50e804..a7d3d8e44aa6 100644
> --- a/include/net/libeth/xdp.h
> +++ b/include/net/libeth/xdp.h
> @@ -1283,11 +1283,7 @@ static inline void libeth_xdp_prepare_buff(struct libeth_xdp_buff *xdp,
>  	const struct page *page = __netmem_to_page(fqe->netmem);
>  
>  #ifdef __LIBETH_WORD_ACCESS
> -	static_assert(offsetofend(typeof(xdp->base), flags) -
> -		      offsetof(typeof(xdp->base), frame_sz) ==
> -		      sizeof(u64));
> -
> -	*(u64 *)&xdp->base.frame_sz = fqe->truesize;
> +	xdp->base.frame_sz_le_qword = fqe->truesize;
>  #else
>  	xdp_init_buff(&xdp->base, fqe->truesize, xdp->base.rxq);
>  #endif
> diff --git a/include/net/xdp.h b/include/net/xdp.h
> index b40f1f96cb11..b5eedeb82c9b 100644
> --- a/include/net/xdp.h
> +++ b/include/net/xdp.h
> @@ -85,8 +85,19 @@ struct xdp_buff {
>  	void *data_hard_start;
>  	struct xdp_rxq_info *rxq;
>  	struct xdp_txq_info *txq;
> -	u32 frame_sz; /* frame size to deduce data_hard_end/reserved tailroom*/
> -	u32 flags; /* supported values defined in xdp_buff_flags */
> +	union {
> +		/* Allow setting frame_sz and flags as a single u64 on
> +		 * little endian systems. This may may give optimal
> +		 * performance. */
> +		u64 frame_sz_le_qword;
> +		struct {
> +			/* Frame size to deduce data_hard_end/reserved
> +			 * tailroom. */
> +			u32 frame_sz;
> +			/* Supported values defined in xdp_buff_flags. */
> +			u32 flags;
> +		};
> +	};
>  };

Yeah, this looks like a nice way to express this, and is way more
descriptive than "(u64 *)&xdp->base.frame_sz" :)

-- 
Kees Cook