Commit be0502a3f2e9 ("netfilter: conntrack: tcp: only close if RST matches exact sequence") keeps an established conntrack entry in ESTABLISHED when an in-window RST does not match the expected sequence number exactly, so the endpoint can validate the RST with a challenge ACK. The timeout selection nevertheless uses the CLOSE timeout for every RST packet. The bug is that timeout selection is based on the packet type, not on the state transition result: even when RST validation keeps new_state in ESTABLISHED, the timeout is still forced to TCP_CONNTRACK_CLOSE. Linux TCP independently rate limits challenge ACKs per socket. A second non-exact RST can therefore arrive after the first challenge ACK has restored the timeout but before the rate limit expires. The second RST lowers the timeout to 10 seconds again while the endpoint suppresses the second challenge ACK, allowing the conntrack entry to expire while both TCP endpoints remain established. Using the ESTABLISHED timeout for such RSTs would avoid this short expiration window, but it could also retain stale entries for the five-day default because conntrack cannot reliably match the endpoint's exact TCP state. Use the UNACK timeout for RST packets that leave the conntrack entry in TCP_CONNTRACK_ESTABLISHED. Exact-match RSTs and accepted RST packet trains still fall through to timeouts[new_state], which preserves the CLOSE timeout when conntrack accepts the RST as closing the flow. This avoids the exploitable 10-second expiration window for non-exact RSTs while preserving the short timeout for RSTs that conntrack accepts as closing the flow. Fixes: be0502a3f2e9 ("netfilter: conntrack: tcp: only close if RST matches exact sequence") Suggested-by: Florian Westphal Reported-by: Minghao Zhang Reported-by: Jianjun Chen Signed-off-by: Minghao Zhang --- v2: - Simplify the timeout selection as suggested by Pablo. - Use the UNACK timeout only when an RST leaves the conntrack entry in TCP_CONNTRACK_ESTABLISHED. RST packets that move the entry to TCP_CONNTRACK_CLOSE now fall through to timeouts[new_state]. net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_proto_tcp.c | 5 +++-- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_proto_tcp.c b/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_proto_tcp.c index 0c1d086e9..79fba5b8b 100644 --- a/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_proto_tcp.c +++ b/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_proto_tcp.c @@ -1280,8 +1280,9 @@ int nf_conntrack_tcp_packet(struct nf_conn *ct, if (ct->proto.tcp.retrans >= tn->tcp_max_retrans && timeouts[new_state] > timeouts[TCP_CONNTRACK_RETRANS]) timeout = timeouts[TCP_CONNTRACK_RETRANS]; - else if (unlikely(index == TCP_RST_SET)) - timeout = timeouts[TCP_CONNTRACK_CLOSE]; + else if (unlikely(index == TCP_RST_SET && + new_state == TCP_CONNTRACK_ESTABLISHED)) + timeout = timeouts[TCP_CONNTRACK_UNACK]; else if ((ct->proto.tcp.seen[0].flags | ct->proto.tcp.seen[1].flags) & IP_CT_TCP_FLAG_DATA_UNACKNOWLEDGED && timeouts[new_state] > timeouts[TCP_CONNTRACK_UNACK]) -- 2.43.0