| From: |
| Antony Antony <antony.antony-AT-secunet.com> |
| To: |
| Steffen Klassert <steffen.klassert-AT-secunet.com>, Herbert Xu <herbert-AT-gondor.apana.org.au>, <netdev-AT-vger.kernel.org> |
| Subject: |
| [PATCH RFC ipsec-next 0/5] xfrm: XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE_STATE new netlink message |
| Date: |
| Tue, 25 Nov 2025 10:27:46 +0100 |
| Message-ID: |
| <cover.1764061158.git.antony.antony@secunet.com> |
| Cc: |
| "David S. Miller" <davem-AT-davemloft.net>, Eric Dumazet <edumazet-AT-google.com>, Jakub Kicinski <kuba-AT-kernel.org>, Paolo Abeni <pabeni-AT-redhat.com>, <devel-AT-linux-ipsec.org> |
| Archive-link: |
| Article |
The current XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE interface is tightly coupled to policy and
SA migration, and it lacks the information required to reliably migrate
individual SAs. This makes it unsuitable for IKEv2 deployments,
dual-stack setups (IPv4/IPv6), and scenarios where policies are managed
externally (e.g., by other daemons than IKE daemon).
Mandatory SA selector list
The current API requires a non-empty SA selector list, which does not reflect
IKEv2 use case. A single Child SA may correspond to multiple policies,
and SA discovery already occurs via address and reqid matching. With
dual-stack Child SAs this leads to excessive churn: the current method
would have to be called up to six times (in/out/fwd × v4/v6) on SA,
while the new method only requires two calls. While polices are
migrated, first installing a block policy
Selectors lack SPI (and marks)
XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE cannot uniquely identify an SA when multiple SAs share
the same policies (per-CPU SAs, SELinux label-based SAs, etc.). Without
the SPI, the kernel may update the wrong SA instance.
Reqid cannot be changed
Some implementations allocate reqids based on traffic selectors. In
host-to-host or selector-changing scenarios, the reqid must change,
which the current API cannot express.
Because strongSwan and other implementations manage policies
independently of the kernel, an interface that updates only a specific
SA — with complete and unambiguous identification — is required.
XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE_STATE provides that interface. It supports migration
of a single SA via xfrm_usersa_id (including SPI) and we fix
encap removal in this patch set, reqid updates, address changes,
and other SA-specific parameters. It avoids the structural limitations of
XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE and provides a simpler, extensible mechanism for
precise per-SA migration without involving policies.
Antony Antony (5):
xfrm: migrate encap should be set in migrate call
xfrm: rename reqid in xfrm_migrate
xfrm: new method XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE_STATE
xfrm: reqid is invarient in old migration
xfrm: check that SA is in VALID state before use
include/net/xfrm.h | 7 +-
include/uapi/linux/xfrm.h | 10 +++
net/key/af_key.c | 10 +--
net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c | 4 +-
net/xfrm/xfrm_replay.c | 16 ++++
net/xfrm/xfrm_state.c | 37 ++++----
net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c | 166 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
security/selinux/nlmsgtab.c | 3 +-
8 files changed, 221 insertions(+), 32 deletions(-)
Antony
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2.39.5