[PATCH 1/2] wifi: nl80211: force WLAN_AKM_SUITE_SAE in big endian in NL80211_CMD_EXTERNAL_AUTH

From: Alexis Lothoré
Date: Thu Feb 15 2024 - 09:14:47 EST


User-space supplicant (observed at least on wpa_supplicant) historically
parses the NL80211_ATTR_AKM_SUITES from the NL80211_CMD_EXTERNAL_AUTH
message as big endian _only_ when its value is WLAN_AKM_SUITE_SAE, while
processing anything else in host endian. This behavior makes any driver
relying on SAE external auth to switch AKM suite to big endian if it is
WLAN_AKM_SUITE_SAE. A fix bringing compatibility with both endianness
has been brought into wpa_supplicant, however we must keep compatibility
with older versions, while trying to reduce the occurences of this manual
conversion in wireless drivers.

Add the be32 conversion specifically on WLAN_AKM_SUITE_SAE in nl80211 layer
to keep compatibility with older wpa_supplicant versions.

Suggested-by: Johannes Berg <johannes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Alexis Lothoré <alexis.lothore@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
Only a few minor modifications from Johannes' initial suggestion:
- fixed unbalanced parenthesis
- slightly reworded the inlined documentation
---
net/wireless/nl80211.c | 19 ++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/net/wireless/nl80211.c b/net/wireless/nl80211.c
index 5f18cbf7cc3d..046ce0513d31 100644
--- a/net/wireless/nl80211.c
+++ b/net/wireless/nl80211.c
@@ -20136,9 +20136,26 @@ int cfg80211_external_auth_request(struct net_device *dev,
if (!hdr)
goto nla_put_failure;

+ /* Some historical mistakes in drivers <-> userspace interface (notably
+ * between drivers and wpa_supplicant) led to a big-endian conversion
+ * being needed on NL80211_ATTR_AKM_SUITES _only_ when its value is
+ * WLAN_AKM_SUITE_SAE. This is now fixed on userspace side, but for the
+ * benefit of older wpa_supplicant versions, send this particular value
+ * in big-endian. Note that newer wpa_supplicant will also detect this
+ * particular value in big endian still, so it all continues to work.
+ */
+ if (params->key_mgmt_suite == WLAN_AKM_SUITE_SAE) {
+ if (nla_put_be32(msg, NL80211_ATTR_AKM_SUITES,
+ cpu_to_be32(WLAN_AKM_SUITE_SAE)))
+ goto nla_put_failure;
+ } else {
+ if (nla_put_u32(msg, NL80211_ATTR_AKM_SUITES,
+ params->key_mgmt_suite))
+ goto nla_put_failure;
+ }
+
if (nla_put_u32(msg, NL80211_ATTR_WIPHY, rdev->wiphy_idx) ||
nla_put_u32(msg, NL80211_ATTR_IFINDEX, dev->ifindex) ||
- nla_put_u32(msg, NL80211_ATTR_AKM_SUITES, params->key_mgmt_suite) ||
nla_put_u32(msg, NL80211_ATTR_EXTERNAL_AUTH_ACTION,
params->action) ||
nla_put(msg, NL80211_ATTR_BSSID, ETH_ALEN, params->bssid) ||

--
2.43.0