CVE-2025-23163 net: vlan: don't propagate flags on open
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: vlan: don't propagate flags on open

With the device instance lock, there is now a possibility of a deadlock:

[    1.211455] ============================================
[    1.211571] WARNING: possible recursive locking detected
[    1.211687] 6.14.0-rc5-01215-g032756b4ca7a-dirty #5 Not tainted
[    1.211823] --------------------------------------------
[    1.211936] ip/184 is trying to acquire lock:
[    1.212032] ffff8881024a4c30 (&dev->lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: dev_set_allmulti+0x4e/0xb0
[    1.212207]
[    1.212207] but task is already holding lock:
[    1.212332] ffff8881024a4c30 (&dev->lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: dev_open+0x50/0xb0
[    1.212487]
[    1.212487] other info that might help us debug this:
[    1.212626]  Possible unsafe locking scenario:
[    1.212626]
[    1.212751]        CPU0
[    1.212815]        ----
[    1.212871]   lock(&dev->lock);
[    1.212944]   lock(&dev->lock);
[    1.213016]
[    1.213016]  *** DEADLOCK ***
[    1.213016]
[    1.213143]  May be due to missing lock nesting notation
[    1.213143]
[    1.213294] 3 locks held by ip/184:
[    1.213371]  #0: ffffffff838b53e0 (rtnl_mutex){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: rtnl_nets_lock+0x1b/0xa0
[    1.213543]  #1: ffffffff84e5fc70 (&net->rtnl_mutex){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: rtnl_nets_lock+0x37/0xa0
[    1.213727]  #2: ffff8881024a4c30 (&dev->lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: dev_open+0x50/0xb0
[    1.213895]
[    1.213895] stack backtrace:
[    1.213991] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 184 Comm: ip Not tainted 6.14.0-rc5-01215-g032756b4ca7a-dirty #5
[    1.213993] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS Arch Linux 1.16.3-1-1 04/01/2014
[    1.213994] Call Trace:
[    1.213995]  <TASK>
[    1.213996]  dump_stack_lvl+0x8e/0xd0
[    1.214000]  print_deadlock_bug+0x28b/0x2a0
[    1.214020]  lock_acquire+0xea/0x2a0
[    1.214027]  __mutex_lock+0xbf/0xd40
[    1.214038]  dev_set_allmulti+0x4e/0xb0 # real_dev->flags & IFF_ALLMULTI
[    1.214040]  vlan_dev_open+0xa5/0x170 # ndo_open on vlandev
[    1.214042]  __dev_open+0x145/0x270
[    1.214046]  __dev_change_flags+0xb0/0x1e0
[    1.214051]  netif_change_flags+0x22/0x60 # IFF_UP vlandev
[    1.214053]  dev_change_flags+0x61/0xb0 # for each device in group from dev->vlan_info
[    1.214055]  vlan_device_event+0x766/0x7c0 # on netdevsim0
[    1.214058]  notifier_call_chain+0x78/0x120
[    1.214062]  netif_open+0x6d/0x90
[    1.214064]  dev_open+0x5b/0xb0 # locks netdevsim0
[    1.214066]  bond_enslave+0x64c/0x1230
[    1.214075]  do_set_master+0x175/0x1e0 # on netdevsim0
[    1.214077]  do_setlink+0x516/0x13b0
[    1.214094]  rtnl_newlink+0xaba/0xb80
[    1.214132]  rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x440/0x490
[    1.214144]  netlink_rcv_skb+0xeb/0x120
[    1.214150]  netlink_unicast+0x1f9/0x320
[    1.214153]  netlink_sendmsg+0x346/0x3f0
[    1.214157]  __sock_sendmsg+0x86/0xb0
[    1.214160]  ____sys_sendmsg+0x1c8/0x220
[    1.214164]  ___sys_sendmsg+0x28f/0x2d0
[    1.214179]  __x64_sys_sendmsg+0xef/0x140
[    1.214184]  do_syscall_64+0xec/0x1d0
[    1.214190]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
[    1.214191] RIP: 0033:0x7f2d1b4a7e56

Device setup:

     netdevsim0 (down)
     ^        ^
  bond        netdevsim1.100@netdevsim1 allmulticast=on (down)

When we enslave the lower device (netdevsim0) which has a vlan, we
propagate vlan's allmuti/promisc flags during ndo_open. This causes
(re)locking on of the real_dev.

Propagate allmulti/promisc on flags change, not on the open. There
is a slight semantics change that vlans that are down now propagate
the flags, but this seems unlikely to result in the real issues.

Reproducer:

  echo 0 1 > /sys/bus/netdevsim/new_device

  dev_path=$(ls -d /sys/bus/netdevsim/devices/netdevsim0/net/*)
  dev=$(echo $dev_path | rev | cut -d/ -f1 | rev)

  ip link set dev $dev name netdevsim0
  ip link set dev netdevsim0 up

  ip link add link netdevsim0 name netdevsim0.100 type vlan id 100
  ip link set dev netdevsim0.100 allm
---truncated---
CVSS v3.1 score: 5.5