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Commit b53deef0 authored by Florian Westphal's avatar Florian Westphal Committed by Pablo Neira Ayuso
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netfilter: log: work around missing softdep backend module

iptables/nftables has two types of log modules:

1. backend, e.g. nf_log_syslog, which implement the functionality
2. frontend, e.g. xt_LOG or nft_log, which call the functionality
   provided by backend based on nf_tables or xtables rule set.

Problem is that the request_module() call to load the backed in
nf_logger_find_get() might happen with nftables transaction mutex held
in case the call path is via nf_tables/nft_compat.

This can cause deadlocks (see 'Fixes' tags for details).

The chosen solution as to let modprobe deal with this by adding 'pre: '
soft dep tag to xt_LOG (to load the syslog backend) and xt_NFLOG (to
load nflog backend).

Eric reports that this breaks on systems with older modprobe that
doesn't support softdeps.

Another, similar issue occurs when someone either insmods xt_(NF)LOG
directly or unloads the backend module (possible if no log frontend
is in use): because the frontend module is already loaded, modprobe is
not invoked again so the softdep isn't evaluated.

Add a workaround: If nf_logger_find_get() returns -ENOENT and call
is not via nft_compat, load the backend explicitly and try again.

Else, let nft_compat ask for deferred request_module via nf_tables
infra.

Softdeps are kept in-place, so with newer modprobe the dependencies
are resolved from userspace.

Fixes: cefa31a9 ("netfilter: nft_log: perform module load from nf_tables")
Fixes: a38b5b56

 ("netfilter: nf_log: add module softdeps")
Reported-and-tested-by: default avatarEric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
Signed-off-by: default avatarFlorian Westphal <fw@strlen.de>
Signed-off-by: default avatarPablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org>
parent cc807215
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