nvme-host: disk corruptions when issuing IDENTIFY commands via ioctl()

[Ming Lei]

On Tue, Mar 08, 2022 at 05:14:29PM -0800, Keith Busch wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 09, 2022 at 09:02:42AM +0800, Ming Lei wrote:
> > On Tue, Mar 08, 2022 at 04:39:04PM -0800, Keith Busch wrote:
> > > On Wed, Mar 09, 2022 at 08:18:47AM +0800, Ming Lei wrote:
> > > > Given NVMe spec states that data length of IDENTIFY command should be
> > > > 4096bytes, and PRP list can't be used. 
> > > > 
> > > > So looks nvme driver need to validate the command before submitting to
> > > > hardware, otherwise any buggy application can break FS or memory easily.
> > > 
> > > No way. The driver does not police the user passthrough interface for
> > > these kinds of things.
> > 
> > So you trust application to provide correct data always?
> >
> > From user viewpoint, this defect provides one easy hole to break FS or
> > memory, it is one serious issue, IMO. The FS/memory corruption can
> > be reproduced easily even in VM.
> 
> It doesn't seem so serious considering it's been this way for 10 years,
> and we already knew about this. It's even been reported before:
> 
>   http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-nvme/2013-August/000365.html

BTW, this issue is actually one real report from one Red Hat Customer.

> 
> > > It couldn't ever be complete or future proof if
> > > it did.
> > 
> > But the spec states clearly the data length of IDENTIFY command is 4096
> > and PRP list can't be used, so why do you think it isn't complete or
> > future proof to validate data length of IDENTIFY in nvme driver?
> 
> The current spec says that opcode uses 4k today. What about some time in
> the future?

spec change should only be applied on future hardware, which can not break
current in-market hardware.

nvme target has validated the Identify's transfer length already.

> And why are you focusing on Identify anyway?

Nvme spec states explicitly that the following 4 commands can't use PRP list:

- Identify command
- Namespace Attachment command
- Namespace Management command
- Set Features command

So it should be enough to just validate these commands.

Thanks, 
Ming