The quilt patch titled Subject: memfd: replace ratcheting feature from vm.memfd_noexec with hierarchy has been removed from the -mm tree. Its filename was memfd-replace-ratcheting-feature-from-vmmemfd_noexec-with-hierarchy.patch
This patch was dropped because it was merged into the mm-stable branch of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm
------------------------------------------------------ From: Aleksa Sarai cyphar@cyphar.com Subject: memfd: replace ratcheting feature from vm.memfd_noexec with hierarchy Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2023 18:41:00 +1000
This sysctl has the very unusual behaviour of not allowing any user (even CAP_SYS_ADMIN) to reduce the restriction setting, meaning that if you were to set this sysctl to a more restrictive option in the host pidns you would need to reboot your machine in order to reset it.
The justification given in [1] is that this is a security feature and thus it should not be possible to disable. Aside from the fact that we have plenty of security-related sysctls that can be disabled after being enabled (fs.protected_symlinks for instance), the protection provided by the sysctl is to stop users from being able to create a binary and then execute it. A user with CAP_SYS_ADMIN can trivially do this without memfd_create(2):
% cat mount-memfd.c #include <fcntl.h> #include <string.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <linux/mount.h>
#define SHELLCODE "#!/bin/echo this file was executed from this totally private tmpfs:"
int main(void) { int fsfd = fsopen("tmpfs", FSOPEN_CLOEXEC); assert(fsfd >= 0); assert(!fsconfig(fsfd, FSCONFIG_CMD_CREATE, NULL, NULL, 2));
int dfd = fsmount(fsfd, FSMOUNT_CLOEXEC, 0); assert(dfd >= 0);
int execfd = openat(dfd, "exe", O_CREAT | O_RDWR | O_CLOEXEC, 0782); assert(execfd >= 0); assert(write(execfd, SHELLCODE, strlen(SHELLCODE)) == strlen(SHELLCODE)); assert(!close(execfd));
char *execpath = NULL; char *argv[] = { "bad-exe", NULL }, *envp[] = { NULL }; execfd = openat(dfd, "exe", O_PATH | O_CLOEXEC); assert(execfd >= 0); assert(asprintf(&execpath, "/proc/self/fd/%d", execfd) > 0); assert(!execve(execpath, argv, envp)); } % ./mount-memfd this file was executed from this totally private tmpfs: /proc/self/fd/5 %
Given that it is possible for CAP_SYS_ADMIN users to create executable binaries without memfd_create(2) and without touching the host filesystem (not to mention the many other things a CAP_SYS_ADMIN process would be able to do that would be equivalent or worse), it seems strange to cause a fair amount of headache to admins when there doesn't appear to be an actual security benefit to blocking this. There appear to be concerns about confused-deputy-esque attacks[2] but a confused deputy that can write to arbitrary sysctls is a bigger security issue than executable memfds.
/* New API */
The primary requirement from the original author appears to be more based on the need to be able to restrict an entire system in a hierarchical manner[3], such that child namespaces cannot re-enable executable memfds.
So, implement that behaviour explicitly -- the vm.memfd_noexec scope is evaluated up the pidns tree to &init_pid_ns and you have the most restrictive value applied to you. The new lower limit you can set vm.memfd_noexec is whatever limit applies to your parent.
Note that a pidns will inherit a copy of the parent pidns's effective vm.memfd_noexec setting at unshare() time. This matches the existing behaviour, and it also ensures that a pidns will never have its vm.memfd_noexec setting *lowered* behind its back (but it will be raised if the parent raises theirs).
/* Backwards Compatibility */
As the previous version of the sysctl didn't allow you to lower the setting at all, there are no backwards compatibility issues with this aspect of the change.
However it should be noted that now that the setting is completely hierarchical. Previously, a cloned pidns would just copy the current pidns setting, meaning that if the parent's vm.memfd_noexec was changed it wouldn't propoagate to existing pid namespaces. Now, the restriction applies recursively. This is a uAPI change, however:
* The sysctl is very new, having been merged in 6.3. * Several aspects of the sysctl were broken up until this patchset and the other patchset by Jeff Xu last month.
And thus it seems incredibly unlikely that any real users would run into this issue. In the worst case, if this causes userspace isues we could make it so that modifying the setting follows the hierarchical rules but the restriction checking uses the cached copy.
[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/CABi2SkWnAgHK1i6iqSqPMYuNEhtHBkO8jUuCvmG3RmUB5TKHJw@... [2]: https://lore.kernel.org/CALmYWFs_dNCzw_pW1yRAo4bGCPEtykroEQaowNULp7svwMLjOg@... [3]: https://lore.kernel.org/CALmYWFuahdUF7cT4cm7_TGLqPanuHXJ-hVSfZt7vpTnc18DPrw@...
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230814-memfd-vm-noexec-uapi-fixes-v2-4-7ff9e3e10... Fixes: 105ff5339f49 ("mm/memfd: add MFD_NOEXEC_SEAL and MFD_EXEC") Signed-off-by: Aleksa Sarai cyphar@cyphar.com Cc: Dominique Martinet asmadeus@codewreck.org Cc: Christian Brauner brauner@kernel.org Cc: Daniel Verkamp dverkamp@chromium.org Cc: Jeff Xu jeffxu@google.com Cc: Kees Cook keescook@chromium.org Cc: Shuah Khan shuah@kernel.org Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton akpm@linux-foundation.org ---
include/linux/pid_namespace.h | 23 ++++++++++++++++++++++- kernel/pid.c | 3 +++ kernel/pid_namespace.c | 6 +++--- kernel/pid_sysctl.h | 30 +++++++++++++----------------- mm/memfd.c | 3 ++- 5 files changed, 43 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)
--- a/include/linux/pid_namespace.h~memfd-replace-ratcheting-feature-from-vmmemfd_noexec-with-hierarchy +++ a/include/linux/pid_namespace.h @@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ struct pid_namespace { int reboot; /* group exit code if this pidns was rebooted */ struct ns_common ns; #if defined(CONFIG_SYSCTL) && defined(CONFIG_MEMFD_CREATE) - /* sysctl for vm.memfd_noexec */ int memfd_noexec_scope; #endif } __randomize_layout; @@ -56,6 +55,23 @@ static inline struct pid_namespace *get_ return ns; }
+#if defined(CONFIG_SYSCTL) && defined(CONFIG_MEMFD_CREATE) +static inline int pidns_memfd_noexec_scope(struct pid_namespace *ns) +{ + int scope = MEMFD_NOEXEC_SCOPE_EXEC; + + for (; ns; ns = ns->parent) + scope = max(scope, READ_ONCE(ns->memfd_noexec_scope)); + + return scope; +} +#else +static inline int pidns_memfd_noexec_scope(struct pid_namespace *ns) +{ + return 0; +} +#endif + extern struct pid_namespace *copy_pid_ns(unsigned long flags, struct user_namespace *user_ns, struct pid_namespace *ns); extern void zap_pid_ns_processes(struct pid_namespace *pid_ns); @@ -70,6 +86,11 @@ static inline struct pid_namespace *get_ return ns; }
+static inline int pidns_memfd_noexec_scope(struct pid_namespace *ns) +{ + return 0; +} + static inline struct pid_namespace *copy_pid_ns(unsigned long flags, struct user_namespace *user_ns, struct pid_namespace *ns) { --- a/kernel/pid.c~memfd-replace-ratcheting-feature-from-vmmemfd_noexec-with-hierarchy +++ a/kernel/pid.c @@ -83,6 +83,9 @@ struct pid_namespace init_pid_ns = { #ifdef CONFIG_PID_NS .ns.ops = &pidns_operations, #endif +#if defined(CONFIG_SYSCTL) && defined(CONFIG_MEMFD_CREATE) + .memfd_noexec_scope = MEMFD_NOEXEC_SCOPE_EXEC, +#endif }; EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(init_pid_ns);
--- a/kernel/pid_namespace.c~memfd-replace-ratcheting-feature-from-vmmemfd_noexec-with-hierarchy +++ a/kernel/pid_namespace.c @@ -110,9 +110,9 @@ static struct pid_namespace *create_pid_ ns->user_ns = get_user_ns(user_ns); ns->ucounts = ucounts; ns->pid_allocated = PIDNS_ADDING; - - initialize_memfd_noexec_scope(ns); - +#if defined(CONFIG_SYSCTL) && defined(CONFIG_MEMFD_CREATE) + ns->memfd_noexec_scope = pidns_memfd_noexec_scope(parent_pid_ns); +#endif return ns;
out_free_idr: --- a/kernel/pid_sysctl.h~memfd-replace-ratcheting-feature-from-vmmemfd_noexec-with-hierarchy +++ a/kernel/pid_sysctl.h @@ -5,33 +5,30 @@ #include <linux/pid_namespace.h>
#if defined(CONFIG_SYSCTL) && defined(CONFIG_MEMFD_CREATE) -static inline void initialize_memfd_noexec_scope(struct pid_namespace *ns) -{ - ns->memfd_noexec_scope = - task_active_pid_ns(current)->memfd_noexec_scope; -} - static int pid_mfd_noexec_dointvec_minmax(struct ctl_table *table, int write, void *buf, size_t *lenp, loff_t *ppos) { struct pid_namespace *ns = task_active_pid_ns(current); struct ctl_table table_copy; + int err, scope, parent_scope;
if (write && !ns_capable(ns->user_ns, CAP_SYS_ADMIN)) return -EPERM;
table_copy = *table; - if (ns != &init_pid_ns) - table_copy.data = &ns->memfd_noexec_scope; - - /* - * set minimum to current value, the effect is only bigger - * value is accepted. - */ - if (*(int *)table_copy.data > *(int *)table_copy.extra1) - table_copy.extra1 = table_copy.data;
- return proc_dointvec_minmax(&table_copy, write, buf, lenp, ppos); + /* You cannot set a lower enforcement value than your parent. */ + parent_scope = pidns_memfd_noexec_scope(ns->parent); + /* Equivalent to pidns_memfd_noexec_scope(ns). */ + scope = max(READ_ONCE(ns->memfd_noexec_scope), parent_scope); + + table_copy.data = &scope; + table_copy.extra1 = &parent_scope; + + err = proc_dointvec_minmax(&table_copy, write, buf, lenp, ppos); + if (!err && write) + WRITE_ONCE(ns->memfd_noexec_scope, scope); + return err; }
static struct ctl_table pid_ns_ctl_table_vm[] = { @@ -51,7 +48,6 @@ static inline void register_pid_ns_sysct register_sysctl("vm", pid_ns_ctl_table_vm); } #else -static inline void initialize_memfd_noexec_scope(struct pid_namespace *ns) {} static inline void register_pid_ns_sysctl_table_vm(void) {} #endif
--- a/mm/memfd.c~memfd-replace-ratcheting-feature-from-vmmemfd_noexec-with-hierarchy +++ a/mm/memfd.c @@ -271,7 +271,8 @@ long memfd_fcntl(struct file *file, unsi static int check_sysctl_memfd_noexec(unsigned int *flags) { #ifdef CONFIG_SYSCTL - int sysctl = task_active_pid_ns(current)->memfd_noexec_scope; + struct pid_namespace *ns = task_active_pid_ns(current); + int sysctl = pidns_memfd_noexec_scope(ns);
if (!(*flags & (MFD_EXEC | MFD_NOEXEC_SEAL))) { if (sysctl >= MEMFD_NOEXEC_SCOPE_NOEXEC_SEAL) _
Patches currently in -mm which might be from cyphar@cyphar.com are