Date:   Tue, 25 Oct 2022 14:00:34 +0300
From:   Nikolay Aleksandrov <razor@...ckwall.org>
To:     Ido Schimmel <idosch@...dia.com>, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
        bridge@...ts.linux-foundation.org
Cc:     davem@...emloft.net, kuba@...nel.org, pabeni@...hat.com,
        edumazet@...gle.com, jiri@...dia.com, petrm@...dia.com,
        ivecera@...hat.com, roopa@...dia.com, netdev@...io-technology.com,
        vladimir.oltean@....com, mlxsw@...dia.com
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH net-next 01/16] bridge: Add MAC Authentication Bypass
 (MAB) support

On 25/10/2022 13:00, Ido Schimmel wrote:
> From: "Hans J. Schultz" <netdev@...io-technology.com>
> 
> Hosts that support 802.1X authentication are able to authenticate
> themselves by exchanging EAPOL frames with an authenticator (Ethernet
> bridge, in this case) and an authentication server. Access to the
> network is only granted by the authenticator to successfully
> authenticated hosts.
> 
> The above is implemented in the bridge using the "locked" bridge port
> option. When enabled, link-local frames (e.g., EAPOL) can be locally
> received by the bridge, but all other frames are dropped unless the host
> is authenticated. That is, unless the user space control plane installed
> an FDB entry according to which the source address of the frame is
> located behind the locked ingress port. The entry can be dynamic, in
> which case learning needs to be enabled so that the entry will be
> refreshed by incoming traffic.
> 
> There are deployments in which not all the devices connected to the
> authenticator (the bridge) support 802.1X. Such devices can include
> printers and cameras. One option to support such deployments is to
> unlock the bridge ports connecting these devices, but a slightly more
> secure option is to use MAB. When MAB is enabled, the MAC address of the
> connected device is used as the user name and password for the
> authentication.
> 
> For MAB to work, the user space control plane needs to be notified about
> MAC addresses that are trying to gain access so that they will be
> compared against an allow list. This can be implemented via the regular
> learning process with the following differences:
> 
> 1. Learned FDB entries are installed with a new "locked" flag indicating
>    that the entry cannot be used to authenticate the device. The flag
>    cannot be set by user space, but user space can clear the flag by
>    replacing the entry, thereby authenticating the device.
> 
> 2. FDB entries cannot roam to locked ports to prevent unauthenticated
>    devices from disrupting traffic destined to already authenticated
>    devices.
> 
> Enable this behavior using a new bridge port option called "mab". It can
> only be enabled on a bridge port that is both locked and has learning
> enabled. A new option is added because there are pure 802.1X deployments
> that are not interested in notifications about "locked" FDB entries.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Hans J. Schultz <netdev@...io-technology.com>
> Signed-off-by: Ido Schimmel <idosch@...dia.com>
> ---
> 
> Notes:
>     Changes made by me:
>     
>      * Reword commit message.
>      * Reword comment regarding 'NTF_EXT_LOCKED'.
>      * Use extack in br_fdb_add().
>      * Forbid MAB when learning is disabled.
> 
>  include/linux/if_bridge.h      |  1 +
>  include/uapi/linux/if_link.h   |  1 +
>  include/uapi/linux/neighbour.h |  8 +++++++-
>  net/bridge/br_fdb.c            | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  net/bridge/br_input.c          | 15 +++++++++++++--
>  net/bridge/br_netlink.c        | 13 ++++++++++++-
>  net/bridge/br_private.h        |  3 ++-
>  net/core/rtnetlink.c           |  5 +++++
>  8 files changed, 65 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
> 

Thanks for finalizing this, the patch looks good to me.
Acked-by: Nikolay Aleksandrov <razor@...ckwall.org>

Thanks,
 Nik

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