[erlang-patches] [PATCH] Fix SCTP multihoming for IPv6

[Henrik Nord]

On 05/05/2012 08:02 PM, Tomas Abrahamsson wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 16:11, Raimo Niskanen
> <raimo+erlang-patches@REDACTED>  wrote:
>> On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 11:21:08PM +0200, Tomas Abrahamsson wrote:
>>> On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 16:16 +02:00, Raimo Niskanen wrote:
>>>> Is it so that the sctp_bindx argument 2 declared as (struct sockaddr *)
>>>> is in fact misused to be able to contain IPv6 addresses by packing
>>>> them unaligned?
>>>>
>>>> If so, I would like this fact more visible in the code by defining 'addrs' as:
>>>>         char addrs[256 * sizeof(struct inet_address)]
>> But before that the Linux man page says:
>>         If sd is an IPv4 socket, the addresses passed must be IPv4 addresses.
>>         If sd is an IPv6 socket, the addresses passed can be either IPv4 or
>>         IPv6 addresses.
>>
>> So it might be possible to mix them... And if that is allowed the only way
>> I can see is packing them in a char array.
>>
>> If it is not allowed to pack them in a char array, the sctp_bindx call
>> should be able to detect mixed addresses immediately on the first
>> differing address.
> I've done some experimenting.  It seems I was a bit too
> early in claiming that multihoming works with the patch.
> Should have tested other OSes.  There are several issues.
>
> I have tested Linux, Solaris 11 (OpenIndiana 151a3)
> and to some extent also FreeBSD 8.2.
>
> On Solaris and FreeBSD, one must call bind before calling
> sctp_bindx.  On Linux it is required according to the man
> page, but in practice, it seems to work also with no call to
> bind at all.  This means ipv4 multihoming currently does not
> work on Solaris and FreeBSD, with or without any patch.
> I've verified that on OpenIndiana and FreeBSD 8.2.
>
> Additionally, FreeBSD accepts only one address at a time in
> the sctp_bindx call.  Quoting the man page: "The argument
> addrs is a list of addresses (where the list may be only 1
> in length)".
>
> On Solaris, mixing ipv4 addresses and ipv6 adresses in the
> call to sctp_bindx is not allowed according to the man page.
> Specifying ipv4-mapped ipv6 addresses is allowed, though.
> But it seems to half-work in practice: sctp_bindx does not
> return an error when adding an ipv4 address to an ipv6 sctp
> socket, but on the other hand, it does not seem to work to
> connect to it over ipv4 and send sctp messages.  The client
> thinks it successfully connects, but the server does not see
> anything.  Same symptoms both when specifying an ipv4
> address and an ipv4-mapped ipv6 address to sctp_bindx:
> can't get ipv4 sctp communication to work.
>
> On Linux, mixing ipv4 and ipv6 addresses seems to work in
> the call to sctp_bindx seems to work well.  It is possible
> to connect and send messages also over ipv4 to an ipv6
> socket with ipv4 addresses added to it, and even to connect
> over ipv4 to an ipv6 socket with ipv4-mapped ipv6 addresses
> added to it.  (Tested internally within one host, though, not
> between hosts.)
>
> So to make multihoming work also on Solaris and FreeBSD, we
> would need to make it call bind before calling
> sctp_bindx, and call sctp_bindx repeatedly with only one
> address at a time.
>
> About calling bind before sctp_bindx, I guess the proper
> place to change would be to make gen_sctp:open call bind on
> the first ip address, and sctp_bindx any following ip
> addresses.  Currenty, it calls sctp_bindx (only), if more
> than one ip address is specified, otherwise it calls bind.
> The decision to call bind or sctp_bindx happens in
> inet:open/8.
>
>     ~ ~ ~
>
> If we would like to go the route of allowing mixing ipv4 and
> ipv6 addresses in the sctp_bindx call, then we would also
> need to change the inet_drv.c and prim_inet.erl, so that the
> SCTP_REQ_BINDX and INET_REQ_BIND messages also carry some
> kind of indication saying if the address(es) is/are ipv4 or
> ipv6 address(es).  Currently, the prim_inet.erl sends 2
> bytes port number followed by 4 or 16 bytes of address, and
> inet_drv.c expects 4 or 16 byte addresses, depending on the
> socket's/port's family (ipv4 or ipv6).
>
> With the patch previously submitted, specifying for instance
> two ipv6 addresses and one ipv4 address to gen_sctp:open,
> will cause a badarg, because inet_set_address in inet_drv.c
> will not find enough bytes to unpack, thus returning einval.
> Specifying 3 ipv4 addresses (3 * (2+4) = 18 bytes) for an
> ipv6 sctp socket (expected number of bytes = 2+16) might not
> cause an error, but unexpected surprises instead.  Ouch :(
>
>     ~ ~ ~
>
> Regarding patching, I suppose it ought to be split into
> something like 3 commits: one fixing the bind + sctp_bindx
> issue, another adding support for mixing ipv4 and ipv6
> addresses and the last commit updating the preloaded
> prim_inet (never done that before, so please forgive any
> error in reasoning here).  The first commit would have a
> value in its own, since it would add multihoming support for
> non-Linux OSes, while also adding ipv6 multihoming support
> for Linux.  Does this sound ok?
This sounds splendid, as long as there are tests included in said commits.

Thank you for the contribution!
>
>
> BRs
> Tomas
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-- 
/Henrik Nord Erlang/OTP