From: lihaofeng <lihaofeng@kylinos.cn>

The original implementation of netfilter_link_compar() used subtraction
to compare the netfilter.flags field, which is  an unsigned type.
This could result in incorrect comparison results when the unsigned
value wrapped around due to underflow.

Changed the comparison logic for flags to use explicit conditional
checks (similar to how priority is handled) instead of subtraction,
ensuring correct negative/zero/positive return values regardless of
the underlying data type.

This fixes potential sorting issues when using this comparison function
with algorithms like qsort() or bsearch().

Signed-off-by: lihaofeng <lihaofeng@kylinos.cn>
---
Changes in v2:
- Added conditional checks for all fields (pf, hooknum, flags) to prevent
- overflow while preserving consistent comparison style and original order.
---
 tools/bpf/bpftool/net.c | 21 +++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/bpf/bpftool/net.c b/tools/bpf/bpftool/net.c
index cfc6f944f7c3..a8caea07be8f 100644
--- a/tools/bpf/bpftool/net.c
+++ b/tools/bpf/bpftool/net.c
@@ -801,22 +801,27 @@ static int netfilter_link_compar(const void *a, const void *b)
 {
 	const struct bpf_link_info *nfa = a;
 	const struct bpf_link_info *nfb = b;
-	int delta;
 
-	delta = nfa->netfilter.pf - nfb->netfilter.pf;
-	if (delta)
-		return delta;
+	if (nfa->netfilter.pf < nfb->netfilter.pf)
+		return -1;
+	if (nfa->netfilter.pf > nfb->netfilter.pf)
+		return 1;
 
-	delta = nfa->netfilter.hooknum - nfb->netfilter.hooknum;
-	if (delta)
-		return delta;
+	if (nfa->netfilter.hooknum < nfb->netfilter.hooknum)
+		return -1;
+	if (nfa->netfilter.hooknum > nfb->netfilter.hooknum)
+		return 1;
 
 	if (nfa->netfilter.priority < nfb->netfilter.priority)
 		return -1;
 	if (nfa->netfilter.priority > nfb->netfilter.priority)
 		return 1;
 
-	return nfa->netfilter.flags - nfb->netfilter.flags;
+	if (nfa->netfilter.flags < nfb->netfilter.flags)
+		return -1;
+	if (nfa->netfilter.flags > nfb->netfilter.flags)
+		return 1;
+	return 0;
 }
 
 static void show_link_netfilter(void)
-- 
2.25.1

On Sun, Sep 21, 2025 at 7:17 PM Haofeng Li <920484857@qq.com> wrote:
>
> From: lihaofeng <lihaofeng@kylinos.cn>
>
> The original implementation of netfilter_link_compar() used subtraction
> to compare the netfilter.flags field, which is  an unsigned type.
> This could result in incorrect comparison results when the unsigned
> value wrapped around due to underflow.
>
> Changed the comparison logic for flags to use explicit conditional
> checks (similar to how priority is handled) instead of subtraction,
> ensuring correct negative/zero/positive return values regardless of
> the underlying data type.
>
> This fixes potential sorting issues when using this comparison function
> with algorithms like qsort() or bsearch().
>
> Signed-off-by: lihaofeng <lihaofeng@kylinos.cn>

Nack. We don't fix theoretical issues.

pw-bot: cr