On 1/29/26 9:29 AM, Dumitru Ceara wrote:
> On 1/29/26 7:36 AM, Ales Musil wrote:
>> On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 7:47 PM Ilya Maximets <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> On 1/27/26 2:49 PM, Dumitru Ceara wrote:
>>>> On 1/27/26 2:28 PM, Ilya Maximets wrote:
>>>>> On 1/27/26 2:21 PM, Dumitru Ceara wrote:
>>>>>> On 1/27/26 2:07 PM, Ilya Maximets wrote:
>>>>>>> On 1/27/26 1:29 PM, Dumitru Ceara wrote:
>>>>>>>> On 1/27/26 12:54 PM, Ilya Maximets wrote:
>>>>>>>>> On 1/27/26 10:44 AM, Dumitru Ceara wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> Hi Ales, Ilya,
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On 1/27/26 7:27 AM, Ales Musil via dev wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> On Mon, Jan 26, 2026 at 5:56 PM Ilya Maximets <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> On 1/26/26 3:00 PM, Ales Musil via dev wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>> The RFC defines a Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol [0], in
>>> order
>>>>>>>>>>>>> for that protocol to work the workload might "spoof" MAC address
>>>>>>>>>>>>> within ARP or ND request/response. This wasn't allowed as the
>>> port
>>>>>>>>>>>>> security is specifically designed against spoofing and checks if
>>>>>>>>>>>>> the port security MAC address is the same for source of ARP/ND
>>>>>>>>>>>>> and the inner source/target address. To make the port security
>>>>>>>>>>>>> compliant add an option which when enabled will add extra flows
>>>>>>>>>>>>> that match on the MAC specified by the option (within the range)
>>>>>>>>>>>>> or any MACs.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> [0] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5798
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Reported-at: https://issues.redhat.com/browse/FDP-2979
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Signed-off-by: Ales Musil <[email protected]>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> ---
>>>>>>>>>>>>> v2: Rebase on top of latest main.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>     Add missing checks in the test.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>     Rename the option to "port-security-allow-vrrpv3-arp-nd".
>>>>>>>>>>>>>     Allow the list of MACs to be specified in the option.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> I don't think we finished the discussion on v1, and it seems like
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Just for tracking, the v1 discussion:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>> https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg100992.html
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> v2 is taking the "worst of both worlds" approach when it comes to
>>>>>>>>>>>> user experience, i.e. having a very long option name and also
>>>>>>>>>>>> forcing to specify all the MAC addresses twice.  Why can't we
>>> just
>>>>>>>>>>>> allow all the specified MAC addresses and not require listing
>>> them
>>>>>>>>>>>> again in the port_security column?
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> One thing we didn't discuss on-list until now, which makes me favor
>>>>>>>>>> Ales' v2 proposal is:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> If we allow all the specified MAC addresses and don't require
>>> listing
>>>>>>>>>> them again in the port_security column, then with the following
>>>>>>>>>> configuration:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> - port_security=[<physical-MAC>]
>>>>>>>>>> - port-security-allow-vrrpv3=[<VRRP-MAC1>, <VRRP-MAC2>]
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> we would:
>>>>>>>>>> a. allow traffic from <physical-MAC>
>>>>>>>>>> b. allow ARPs with eth.src=<physical-MAC> && arp.sha=<physical-MAC>
>>>>>>>>>>    (same for ND)
>>>>>>>>>> c. allow traffic from <VRRP-MAC1> and <VRRP-MAC2>
>>>>>>>>>> d. allow ARPs with eth.src=<physical-MAC> && arp.sha=<VRRP-MAC1>
>>>>>>>>>>    and ARPs with eth.src=<physical-MAC> && arp.sha=<VRRP-MAC2>
>>>>>>>>>>    (same for ND)
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> However, if we look at the non-VRRP case, users can rely on
>>>>>>>>>> port_security today to further restrict the traffic they allow on
>>>>>>>>>> a logical port by also specifying a list of allowed IP addresses
>>>>>>>>>> (or CIDRs) for each mac.  That is, if:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> port_security=["<physical-MAC1> IP1 IP2", "<physical-MAC2> IP3
>>> IP4"]
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Then for that LSP traffic is allowed only if it's from/for
>>>>>>>>>> <physical-MAC1> _and_ one of IP1 or IP2 OR if it's from/for
>>>>>>>>>> <physical-MAC2> _and_ one of IP3 or IP4.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Back to the VRRP case, if we go with Ilya's suggestion, if users
>>>>>>>>>> also want to further restrict port security to only allow the VRRP
>>>>>>>>>> VIP for a given VRID the only way to achieve that would be:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> - port_security=["<physical-MAC>", "<VRRP-MAC1> VIP1",
>>> "<VRRP-MAC2> VIP2"]
>>>>>>>>>> - port-security-allow-vrrpv3=[<VRRP-MAC1>, <VRRP-MAC2>]
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> But this will not allow actual routing, i.e. this will only allow
>>> the
>>>>>>>>> virtual router to route packets between VIP1 and VIP2.  Is that a
>>> common
>>>>>>>>> or desired configuration?  It's practically a router for two IPs
>>> that
>>>>>>>>> belong to that same router...?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> That's a good point, I was stuck in my "traditional" OVN view of
>>> things.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In this case the VRRP VR is probably the gateway (for some of the
>>> other
>>>>>>>> LSPs in the switch) so it wouldn't really make sense to configure the
>>>>>>>> VIP into port_security, just the VRRP mac, as it's valid to accept
>>>>>>>> packets with destIP == "external" and dmac == "VRRP-MAC".
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> So users would still have to duplicate the VRRP MACs in some of the
>>>>>>>>>> cases.  I don't have stats about it but my guess is in most
>>> deployments
>>>>>>>>>> port security usually includes both the MACs and the IPs of the
>>> workloads.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> If that's the case then we should not introduce the new option at
>>> all,
>>>>>>>>> but allow multiple MAC addresses within the port_security record, so
>>>>>>>>> OVN can generate rules for permutations of these MAC addresses with
>>> the
>>>>>>>>> corresponding IP addresses.  For simplicity, we may restrict the
>>> number
>>>>>>>>> of addresses to some fairly small number or allow masking.   This
>>>>>>>>> will be the most versatile and user-friendly configuration as no new
>>>>>>>>> knobs will be required, no duplication, and the option will also not
>>>>>>>>> be tied to VRRP, so can be re-purposed for other things,
>>> potentially.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> So, to clarify, your suggestion is to change allowed values for
>>>>>>>> port_security to be a list of:
>>>>>>>> "MAC1 MAC2 .. MAC_N IP1 IP2 .. IP_M"
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> vs the current:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> "MAC1 IP1 IP2 .. IP_M"
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> right?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Right.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> And generate port security flows that allow:
>>>>>>>> - IP packets to/from MAC-X,IP-Y where X=[1..N], Y=[1..M]
>>>>>>>> - ARP packets with eth.src=MAC-X,ARP.sha=MAC-Y,ARP.spa=IP-Z where
>>>>>>>> X=[1..N], Y=[1..N], Z=[1..M]
>>>>>>>> - ND packets too as above
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> So 2 x M x N ^ 2 + M x N flows.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I guess that's doable and up to the user to not add too many mac
>>> addresses.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> With the port-security-allow-vrrpv3-arp-nd="MAC1 MAC2 .. MAC_N"
>>>>>>> we also need the port-security=["MACX IP1 IP2 .. IP_M",
>>>>>>>                                 "MAC1 IP1 IP2 .. IP_M",
>>>>>>>                                 "MAC2 IP1 IP2 .. IP_M",
>>>>>>>                                 ...
>>>>>>>                                 "MAC_N IP1 IP2 .. IP_M"]
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> in order to allow the actual routed traffic, which is
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  - N x M just for port security itself.
>>>>>>>  - M x N ^ 2 for the ARP/ND
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Which is exactly the same as with the multiple MACs in the same
>>>>>>
>>>>>> True.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> port security record, but with a huge pile of extra repeated
>>>>>>> configuration in the database.  We also have no control over
>>>>>>> the MACs in different port security records, so it's harder to
>>>>>>> find duplicates, which is important as only the half of these
>>>>>>> flows will be unique.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Note: these IPs are IPs of the other LSPs from which this VR
>>>>>>> is routing the traffic, i.e. the traffic source.  If we consider
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying here but that's not how
>>>>>> port_security works, it's not an ACL, it should contain addresses (MACs
>>>>>> and IPs) owned by the LSP it's applied on.
>>>>>
>>>>> Routers route traffic from someone else.  It means that traffic
>>>>> that enters OVN from this LSP will have someone else's source IP.
>>>>> If this IP is not in the port security configuration, the packet
>>>>> will be dropped.  Or am I missing something?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Ah, so it's actually traffic coming from "outside" the vrouter, towards
>>>> other LSPs that would have this issue.  Because from OVN perspective
>>>> it's traffic originating from the vrouter LSP.
>>>>
>>>> But in that case it would be a wide range of IPs that would have to be
>>>> allowed as "source".  So probably in practice we'd no see this being
>>> used.
>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> that source traffic IPs do not overlap between VRIDs, then the
>>>>>>> config becomes simpler, but the same is true for the multiple
>>>>>>> MAC in the same port-security option, it will become:
>>>>>>> "MAC_PHY MAC_V1 IP_SET_1", "MAC_PHY MAC_V1 IP_SET_2".  We'll
>>>>>>> be repeating the MAC_PHY here, but it doesn't seem too bad in
>>>>>>> comparison with the v2 option.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> But it will also be hard to implement the "any VRRP MAC" semantics
>>> and
>>>>>>>> users will have to add 512 MACs if they want that behavior.  Which
>>>>>>>> would mean that, in order to have this generic solution, we'd
>>> probably
>>>>>>>> need to allow masked MACs, something like:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> "MAC1/mask1 MAC2/mask2 .. MAC_N/mask_N IP1 IP2 .. IP_M"
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Which becomes very complex very quickly IMO (if I try to put myself
>>> in
>>>>>>>> the shoes of a user).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If we use prefixes instead of arbitrary masks, /40 doesn't seem
>>>>>>> too complicated.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sure, for VRRP MACs it's a relatively easy to read:
>>>>>> 00:00:5E:00:00:00/40
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But in general, this can be any MAC and prefix, e.g.:
>>>>>> 00:00:12:34:56:78/33
>>>>>>
>>>>>> which is incorrect actually, it should be (I think):
>>>>>> 00:00:12:34:00:00/33
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Which makes me step back and think about what we're trying to fix here:
>>>>>> the problem that triggered this long discussion is the fact that VRRP
>>>>>> ARPs use the physical MAC as ethernet source and the virtual mac as ARP
>>>>>> source and port security didn't allow that.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So it really feels to me like we're over-engineering at this point.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I know new knobs are not nice, and it would be a very specific VRRP
>>> knob
>>>>>> but it really feels to me like the alternatives are a bit of
>>>>>> over-engineering at this point.
>>>>>
>>>>> That's why the original proposal was to just have a simple knob that
>>>>> allows all VRRP and the routed traffic, i.e. port-security-allow-vrrpv3.
>>>>> That is simple, targeted, and doesn't force users to put a ton of
>>>>> duplicated addresses into the port security.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> But that did mean, adding implicit port_security rules for VRRP routed
>>>> traffic and VRRP ARPs, duplicating what port_security does for the
>>>> former, just that it would be for all VRRP macs (or for a subset
>>>> specified by MAC/ID).
>>>>
>>>> So it still feels to me like the config duplication (most likely in
>>>> practice we won't have more than a handful of VRRP MACs) is not such a
>>>> huge compromise as it doesn't "hide" some port security rules.
>>>>
>>>> I know internally we had a discussion about the statement in our docs
>>>> saying that port security is "a convenience to cloud management systems,
>>>> but all of the features that it implements can be implemented as ACLs".
>>>>
>>>> Implementing your suggestion would create another (in lack of a better
>>>> term) layer of abstraction.  I.e., the users reading the config:
>>>>
>>>> port_security=[MAC1 MAC2]
>>>> port-security-allow-vrrpv3=[VRRP-MAC1/yes]
>>>>
>>>> would have to interpret it as:
>>>>
>>>> "allow traffic from this LSP only if:
>>>> - it originates from MAC1 or MAC2 or VRRP-MAC1 if it's plain IP
>>>> - it originates from MAC1 or MAC2 and it's an ARP with SHA=VRRP-MAC1
>>>>
>>>> allow traffic to this LSP only if
>>>> - it's destined to MAC1 or MAC2 or VRRP-MAC2 if it's plain IP"
>>>>
>>>> Which is, aside from the duplication of config, exactly the same
>>>> behavior as proposed by this v2 patch.
>>>
>>> The behavior is not the argument from my side.  I'm just trying to argue
>>> for a better UX, i.e. easier to understand configuration.
>>>
>>> Both 'port-security-allow-vrrpv3' and the
>>> 'port-security-allow-vrrpv3-arp-nd'
>>> are modifiers applied to the port security, which require extra
>>> understanding.
>>> In other words, just looking at the port security, user can't have a full
>>> picture of what is allowed and what is not and will have to do the mental
>>> math to map things onto each other in different combinations, as both
>>> options
>>> will affect every port security entry separately.
>>>
>>> The mutli-MAC port security syntax approach ("MAC1 MACN IP1 IPN") has an
>>> advantage of keeping everything in the same place, so if you look at port
>>> security, you know what it allows.
>>>
>>> The exact syntax may be a bit convoluted and may use some work, I agree.
>>>
>>> For example, in practice, I'm not sure we'll need more than one "physical"
>>> MAC, so having an option to allow multiple MACs generically is probably not
>>> necessary.  We could come up with a distinct syntax for VRRP-allowed port
>>> security, e.g.
>>>   "VRRPv3 <MAC_PHY> <VRRP_MAC1> <VRRP_NET/plen> <IP_1> <IP_NET/plen>".
>>> This would mean:
>>>
>>> 1. Allow IP traffic from VRRP_MAC1 or VRRP_NET/plen + IP_1 or IP_NET/plen.
>>> 2. Allow ARP from MAC_PHY with VRRP_MAC1 or VRRP_NET/plen as SHA and
>>>    IP_1 or IP_NET/plen as SIP.

This may not be fully correct.  I wonder if the syntax should be:

  "VRRPv3 PHY-MAC PHY-IPs <delimiter?> VRRP-MACs ROUTABLE-IPs"
or
  "PHY-MAC PHY-IPs VRRPv3 VRRP-MACs ROUTABLE-IPs"

So, allowed SIP would be limited to PHY-IPs, not the ROUTABLE-IPs.
And if not provided, then any SIP would be permitted, like with the
normal port security.

>>>
>>> No inter-operation or side effects on other entries within port-security
>>> column on the same port.
>>>
>>> The "any v4" config would look like:
>>>
>>> port-security=["02:12:34:56:78:9a 192.168.1.2",
>>>                "VRRPv3 02:12:34:56:78:9a 00:00:5e:00:01:00/40"]
>>>
>>> We may also omit the masked MAC address meaning "any", e.g.
>>>
>>> port-security=["02:12:34:56:78:9a 192.168.1.2",
>>>                "VRRPv3 02:12:34:56:78:9a"]
>>>
>>> IMO, seems more clear what it does, and no mental math required.
>>>
>>> If we want to restrict the VR to only some particular networks:
>>>
>>> port-security=[
>>>   "02:12:34:56:78:9a 192.168.1.2",
>>>   "VRRPv3 02:12:34:56:78:9a 00:00:5e:00:01:00/40 192.168.1.0/24
>>> 10.10.0.0/16"]
>>>
>>> This would allow forwarding between internal subnet 192.168.1.0/24 and
>>> some external subnet 10.10.0.0/16.  Though, as you mentioned, it seems
>>> like not a particularly useful restriction to apply as the external
>>> traffic subnet would likely need to be pretty large.
>>>
>>> WDYT?
>>>
>>>
>>> Summarizing all proposals with configuration that allows all the
>>> required types of traffic, including ARP, normal IP, and routed IP:
>>>
>>> 1. "arp-nd option" (I added /40 syntax to avoid listing all 255 MACs).
>>>
>>>    - Any VRID:
>>>    port-security-allow-vrrpv3-arp-nd="any"
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY", "VRRP-v4MAC/40", "VRRP-v6MAC/40"]
>>>
>>>    - 2 VRID, Any IP:
>>>    port-security-allow-vrrpv3-arp-nd="VRRP-MAC1 VRRP-MAC2"
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY", "VRRP-MAC1", "VRRP-MAC2"]
>>>
>>>    - 2 VRID, Specific IPs:
>>>    port-security-allow-vrrpv3-arp-nd="VRRP-MAC1 VRRP-MAC2"
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY", "VRRP-MAC1 IPs-1", "VRRP-MAC2 IPs-2"]
>>>
>>>
>>> 2. "full allow-vrrp".
>>>
>>>    - Any VRID:
>>>    port-security-allow-vrrpv3=["any"]
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY"]
>>>
>>>    - 2 VRID, Any IP:
>>>    port-security-allow-vrrpv3=["VRRP-MAC1", "VRRP-MAC2"]
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY"]
>>>
>>>    - 2 VRID, Specific IPs:
>>>    port-security-allow-vrrpv3=["VRRP-MAC1 IPs-1", "VRRP-MAC2 IPs-2"]
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY"]
>>>
>>>
>>> 3. "multi-MAC port-security".
>>>
>>>    - Any VRID:
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY VRRP-v4MAC/40 VRRP-v6MAC/40"]
>>>
>>>    - 2 VRID, Any IP:
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY VRRP-MAC1", "MAC-PHY VRRP-MAC2"]
>>>
>>>    - 2 VRID, Specific IPs:
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY VRRP-MAC1 IPs-1", "MAC-PHY VRRP-MAC2 IPs-2"]
>>>
>>>
>>> 4. "VRRP-specific port-security".
>>>
>>>    - Any VRID:
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY", "VRRPv3 MAC-PHY"]
>>>
>>>    - 2 VRID, Any IP:
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY",
>>>                   "VRRPv3 MAC-PHY VRRP-MAC1 VRRP-MAC2"]
>>>
>>>    - 2 VRID, Specific IPs:
>>>    port-security=["MAC-PHY",
>>>                   "VRRPv3 MAC-PHY VRRP-MAC1 IPs-1",
>>>                   "VRRPv3 MAC-PHY VRRP-MAC2 IPs-2"]
>>>
> 
> Thanks for summarizing this Ilya!
> 
>>>
>>> My preference here is 4, as it is explicit and the least verbose
>>> for a simple config and still fairly simple for the complex case.
>>> It also tells the full store in a single place with no mental math
>>> required.
>>>
>>> Next in priotity would be 2, as it is the most concise.  Then 3
>>> and then 1.  Note that 1 is not really what this patch is proposing
>>> as it also adds prefix matches on MAC addresses.
>>>
>>> For the implementation complexity point raised by Ales, it feels
>>> like the option 4 should not be hard to implement as a fairly
>>> standalone thing, as it doesn't impose side effects on any other
>>> port security entries.
>>>
>>> Best regards, Ilya Maximets.
>>>
>>>
>> Based on the discussion I will attempt to make the version 4
>> work in v3. Let's see how it goes.
>>
> 
> I agree, version 4 seems the way forward now.
> 
>> Thanks,
>> Ales
>>
> 
> Regards,
> Dumitru
> 
> 

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