Historically, it has been shown that intercepting kernel faults with userfaultfd (thereby forcing the kernel to wait for an arbitrary amount of time) can be exploited, or at least can make some kinds of exploits easier. So, in 37cd0575b8 "userfaultfd: add UFFD_USER_MODE_ONLY" we changed things so, in order for kernel faults to be handled by userfaultfd, either the process needs CAP_SYS_PTRACE, or this sysctl must be configured so that any unprivileged user can do it.

In a typical implementation of a hypervisor with live migration (take QEMU/KVM as one such example), we do indeed need to be able to handle kernel faults. But, both options above are less than ideal:

- Toggling the sysctl increases attack surface by allowing any unprivileged user to do it.

- Granting the live migration process CAP_SYS_PTRACE gives it this ability, but *also* the ability to "observe and control the execution of another process [...], and examine and change [its] memory and registers" (from ptrace(2)). This isn't something we need or want to be able to do, so granting this permission violates the "principle of least privilege".

This is all a long winded way to say: we want a more fine-grained way to grant access to userfaultfd, without granting other additional permissions at the same time.

To achieve this, add a /dev/userfaultfd misc device. This device provides an alternative to the userfaultfd(2) syscall for the creation of new userfaultfds. The idea is, any userfaultfds created this way will be able to handle kernel faults, without the caller having any special capabilities. Access to this mechanism is instead restricted using e.g. standard filesystem permissions.

Acked-by: Mike Rapoport rppt@linux.ibm.com Acked-by: Nadav Amit namit@vmware.com Acked-by: Peter Xu peterx@redhat.com Signed-off-by: Axel Rasmussen axelrasmussen@google.com --- fs/userfaultfd.c | 71 +++++++++++++++++++++++++------- include/uapi/linux/userfaultfd.h | 4 ++ 2 files changed, 59 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/userfaultfd.c b/fs/userfaultfd.c index 1c44bf75f916..03ba23e144ec 100644 --- a/fs/userfaultfd.c +++ b/fs/userfaultfd.c @@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ #include <linux/security.h> #include <linux/hugetlb.h> #include <linux/swapops.h> +#include <linux/miscdevice.h>

int sysctl_unprivileged_userfaultfd __read_mostly;

@@ -415,13 +416,8 @@ vm_fault_t handle_userfault(struct vm_fault *vmf, unsigned long reason)

if (ctx->features & UFFD_FEATURE_SIGBUS) goto out; - if ((vmf->flags & FAULT_FLAG_USER) == 0 && - ctx->flags & UFFD_USER_MODE_ONLY) { - printk_once(KERN_WARNING "uffd: Set unprivileged_userfaultfd " - "sysctl knob to 1 if kernel faults must be handled " - "without obtaining CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability\n"); + if (!(vmf->flags & FAULT_FLAG_USER) && (ctx->flags & UFFD_USER_MODE_ONLY)) goto out; - }

/* * If it's already released don't get it. This avoids to loop @@ -2052,20 +2048,11 @@ static void init_once_userfaultfd_ctx(void *mem) seqcount_spinlock_init(&ctx->refile_seq, &ctx->fault_pending_wqh.lock); }

-SYSCALL_DEFINE1(userfaultfd, int, flags) +static int new_userfaultfd(int flags) { struct userfaultfd_ctx *ctx; int fd;

- if (!sysctl_unprivileged_userfaultfd && - (flags & UFFD_USER_MODE_ONLY) == 0 && - !capable(CAP_SYS_PTRACE)) { - printk_once(KERN_WARNING "uffd: Set unprivileged_userfaultfd " - "sysctl knob to 1 if kernel faults must be handled " - "without obtaining CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability\n"); - return -EPERM; - } - BUG_ON(!current->mm);

/* Check the UFFD_* constants for consistency. */ @@ -2098,8 +2085,60 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE1(userfaultfd, int, flags) return fd; }

+static inline bool userfaultfd_syscall_allowed(int flags) +{ + /* Userspace-only page faults are always allowed */ + if (flags & UFFD_USER_MODE_ONLY) + return true; + + /* + * The user is requesting a userfaultfd which can handle kernel faults. + * Privileged users are always allowed to do this. + */ + if (capable(CAP_SYS_PTRACE)) + return true; + + /* Otherwise, access to kernel fault handling is sysctl controlled. */ + return sysctl_unprivileged_userfaultfd; +} + +SYSCALL_DEFINE1(userfaultfd, int, flags) +{ + if (!userfaultfd_syscall_allowed(flags)) + return -EPERM; + + return new_userfaultfd(flags); +} + +static long userfaultfd_dev_ioctl(struct file *file, unsigned int cmd, unsigned long flags) +{ + if (cmd != USERFAULTFD_IOC_NEW) + return -EINVAL; + + return new_userfaultfd(flags); +} + +static const struct file_operations userfaultfd_dev_fops = { + .unlocked_ioctl = userfaultfd_dev_ioctl, + .compat_ioctl = userfaultfd_dev_ioctl, + .owner = THIS_MODULE, + .llseek = noop_llseek, +}; + +static struct miscdevice userfaultfd_misc = { + .minor = MISC_DYNAMIC_MINOR, + .name = "userfaultfd", + .fops = &userfaultfd_dev_fops +}; + static int __init userfaultfd_init(void) { + int ret; + + ret = misc_register(&userfaultfd_misc); + if (ret) + return ret; + userfaultfd_ctx_cachep = kmem_cache_create("userfaultfd_ctx_cache", sizeof(struct userfaultfd_ctx), 0, diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/userfaultfd.h b/include/uapi/linux/userfaultfd.h index 7d32b1e797fb..005e5e306266 100644 --- a/include/uapi/linux/userfaultfd.h +++ b/include/uapi/linux/userfaultfd.h @@ -12,6 +12,10 @@

#include <linux/types.h>

+/* ioctls for /dev/userfaultfd */ +#define USERFAULTFD_IOC 0xAA +#define USERFAULTFD_IOC_NEW _IO(USERFAULTFD_IOC, 0x00) + /* * If the UFFDIO_API is upgraded someday, the UFFDIO_UNREGISTER and * UFFDIO_WAKE ioctls should be defined as _IOW and not as _IOR. In

Explain the different ways to create a new userfaultfd, and how access control works for each way.

Acked-by: Peter Xu peterx@redhat.com Signed-off-by: Axel Rasmussen axelrasmussen@google.com --- Documentation/admin-guide/mm/userfaultfd.rst | 41 ++++++++++++++++++-- Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst | 3 ++ 2 files changed, 41 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/userfaultfd.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/userfaultfd.rst index 6528036093e1..83f31919ebb3 100644 --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/userfaultfd.rst +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/userfaultfd.rst @@ -17,7 +17,10 @@ of the ``PROT_NONE+SIGSEGV`` trick. Design ======

-Userfaults are delivered and resolved through the ``userfaultfd`` syscall. +Userspace creates a new userfaultfd, initializes it, and registers one or more +regions of virtual memory with it. Then, any page faults which occur within the +region(s) result in a message being delivered to the userfaultfd, notifying +userspace of the fault.

The ``userfaultfd`` (aside from registering and unregistering virtual memory ranges) provides two primary functionalities: @@ -34,12 +37,11 @@ The real advantage of userfaults if compared to regular virtual memory management of mremap/mprotect is that the userfaults in all their operations never involve heavyweight structures like vmas (in fact the ``userfaultfd`` runtime load never takes the mmap_lock for writing). - Vmas are not suitable for page- (or hugepage) granular fault tracking when dealing with virtual address spaces that could span Terabytes. Too many vmas would be needed for that.

-The ``userfaultfd`` once opened by invoking the syscall, can also be +The ``userfaultfd``, once created, can also be passed using unix domain sockets to a manager process, so the same manager process could handle the userfaults of a multitude of different processes without them being aware about what is going on @@ -50,6 +52,39 @@ is a corner case that would currently return ``-EBUSY``). API ===

+Creating a userfaultfd +---------------------- + +There are two ways to create a new userfaultfd, each of which provide ways to +restrict access to this functionality (since historically userfaultfds which +handle kernel page faults have been a useful tool for exploiting the kernel). + +The first way, supported since userfaultfd was introduced, is the +userfaultfd(2) syscall. Access to this is controlled in several ways: + +- Any user can always create a userfaultfd which traps userspace page faults + only. Such a userfaultfd can be created using the userfaultfd(2) syscall + with the flag UFFD_USER_MODE_ONLY. + +- In order to also trap kernel page faults for the address space, either the + process needs the CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability, or the system must have + vm.unprivileged_userfaultfd set to 1. By default, vm.unprivileged_userfaultfd + is set to 0. + +The second way, added to the kernel more recently, is by opening +/dev/userfaultfd and issuing a USERFAULTFD_IOC_NEW ioctl to it. This method +yields equivalent userfaultfds to the userfaultfd(2) syscall. + +Unlike userfaultfd(2), access to /dev/userfaultfd is controlled via normal +filesystem permissions (user/group/mode), which gives fine grained access to +userfaultfd specifically, without also granting other unrelated privileges at +the same time (as e.g. granting CAP_SYS_PTRACE would do). Users who have access +to /dev/userfaultfd can always create userfaultfds that trap kernel page faults; +vm.unprivileged_userfaultfd is not considered. + +Initializing a userfaultfd +-------------------------- + When first opened the ``userfaultfd`` must be enabled invoking the ``UFFDIO_API`` ioctl specifying a ``uffdio_api.api`` value set to ``UFFD_API`` (or a later API version) which will specify the ``read/POLLIN`` protocol diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst index 9b833e439f09..988f6a4c8084 100644 --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst @@ -926,6 +926,9 @@ calls without any restrictions.

The default value is 0.

+Another way to control permissions for userfaultfd is to use +/dev/userfaultfd instead of userfaultfd(2). See +Documentation/admin-guide/mm/userfaultfd.rst.

user_reserve_kbytes ===================