[PATCH net-next] tcp: Accept ECT on SYN in the presence of RFC8311

[Tilmans, Olivier (Nokia - BE/Antwerp)]

Linux currently disable ECN for incoming connections when the SYN
requests ECN and the IP header has ECT(0)/ECT(1) set, as some
networks were reportedly mangling the ToS byte, hence could later
trigger false congestion notifications.

RFC8311 Â4.3 relaxes RFC3168's requirements such that ECT can be set
one TCP control packets (including SYNs). The main benefit of this
is the decreased probability of losing a SYN in a congested
ECN-capable network (i.e., it avoids the initial 1s timeout).
Additionally, this allows the development of newer TCP extensions,
such as AccECN.

This patch relaxes the previous check, by enabling ECN on incoming
connections using SYN+ECT if at least one bit of the reserved flags
of the TCP header is set. Such bit would indicate that the sender of
the SYN is using a newer TCP feature than what the host implements,
such as AccECN, and is thus implementing RFC8311. This enables
end-hosts not supporting such extensions to still negociate ECN, and
to have some of the benefits of using ECN on control packets.

Signed-off-by: Olivier Tilmans <olivier.tilmans@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Suggested-by: Bob Briscoe <research@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Koen De Schepper <koen.de_schepper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
 net/ipv4/tcp_input.c | 7 ++++++-
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_input.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_input.c
index 5dfbc333e79a..6660ce2a7333 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_input.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_input.c
@@ -6263,6 +6263,11 @@ static inline void pr_drop_req(struct request_sock *req, __u16 port, int family)
  * congestion control: Linux DCTCP asserts ECT on all packets,
  * including SYN, which is most optimal solution; however,
  * others, such as FreeBSD do not.
+ *
+ * Exception: At least one of the reserved bits of the TCP header (th->res1) is
+ * set, indicating the use of a future TCP extension (such as AccECN). See
+ * RFC8311 Â4.3 which updates RFC3168 to allow the development of such
+ * extensions.
  */
 static void tcp_ecn_create_request(struct request_sock *req,
 				   const struct sk_buff *skb,
@@ -6282,7 +6287,7 @@ static void tcp_ecn_create_request(struct request_sock *req,
 	ecn_ok_dst = dst_feature(dst, DST_FEATURE_ECN_MASK);
 	ecn_ok = net->ipv4.sysctl_tcp_ecn || ecn_ok_dst;
 
-	if ((!ect && ecn_ok) || tcp_ca_needs_ecn(listen_sk) ||
+	if (((!ect || th->res1) && ecn_ok) || tcp_ca_needs_ecn(listen_sk) ||
 	    (ecn_ok_dst & DST_FEATURE_ECN_CA) ||
 	    tcp_bpf_ca_needs_ecn((struct sock *)req))
 		inet_rsk(req)->ecn_ok = 1;
-- 
2.21.0