summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/security/lsm.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700
commit034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c (patch)
tree2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/security/lsm.rst
downloadlinux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.tar.gz
linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.zip
Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt: - Fix error output of boot instance creation failure Currently if a boot instance creation fails, instead of printing out the name of the instance that failed, it prints "(null)". That is because it prints "cur_str" that had already been processed by strsep(). Print the saved name instead. While at it, print the error code of the failure. - Fix use-after-free for same named historgrams Histograms can be named so that they can be used in multiple events. But if the named histogram has a variable attached, the second event that uses the named histogram which duplicates it and needs to free the original after duplication leaves the old variable in place and still visible. If another histogram uses than variable, it will use the stale one which will try to reference the freed duplicate histogram and crash the kernel. Free the duplicate variables along with the duplicated histogram data. - Check return value of kthread_run() in event self test The events self tests uses a kthread for testing but does not check if it succeeded in creating a kthread. If the kthread creation were to fail, the code will still try to call kthread_stop() on the error returned. - Fix race between reading trace_pipe and updating subbuffer size If a user is reading the trace_pipe file at the same time they update the ring buffer sub-buffer size, can cause the trace_pipe read to read stale data. Add trace_access_lock() around updating the ring buffer sub-buffer size. - Fix eventfs_inode on failure path in creation of the events directory In the creation of the "events" directory, if after allocating the eventfs_inode a failure is detected, it calls cleanup_ei() which calls free_ei(). The free_ei() will test if eventfs_inode being freed has no children. It is a bug if it does. But on the failure case of the creation of the "events" directory, the children lists have not yet been initialized and the free will trigger a warning because list_empty() on an uninitialized list returns false. Move the initialization into init_ei() where it makes more sense and makes sure that a created eventfs_inode has its lists initialized upon creation. - Check return value of kthread_run() in ftrace direct sample code The sample code that shows how to use the ftrace direct calls does not test the return of kthread_run() to see if it succeeds. Return a failure if the kthread_run() doesn't succeed. - Clear user events state on fork in case of alloc failure On fork, the child gets a pointer to the parent's user events state. It makes a copy of it then updates the child's pointer to it. But if the allocation fails, the duplication function leaves the child with a pointer to its parent's descriptor. When the child cleans up its data, it will free the parent's descriptor while the parent is still using it. In the duplication function, set the child's user_event_mm to NULL before testing if the allocation succeeded, and when it exits it will not free the parent's descriptor. - Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap simple_ring_buffer_swap_reader_page() starts with retry set to 8 and post-decrements it only after a failed link replacement. On the final attempt, a successful replacement leaves retry at zero, while a failed replacement leaves it at -1. But the check for success expects the retry value to be non-zero and exits with an error on zero. This is the opposite result. Fix it. - Fail nicely when the remote swap_reader_page() returns an error Currently, if the swap_reader_page() of a remote buffer fails, it triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE() and continues normally. Instead, have it exit with an error and a pr_warn() print instead of a full WARNING. * tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace: ring-buffer: Stop remote reader update when page swap fails tracing: Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap tracing/user_events: Clear copied tracing state before fork duplication samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-multi-modify samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-modify eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei() tracing: Fix use-after-free in trace_pipe read on sub-buffer order change tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop() tracing: Fix use-after-free with same-name named triggers tracing: Fix logged instance name on creation failure
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/security/lsm.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/security/lsm.rst131
1 files changed, 131 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/security/lsm.rst b/Documentation/security/lsm.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c20c7c72e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/security/lsm.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+========================================================
+Linux Security Modules: General Security Hooks for Linux
+========================================================
+
+:Author: Stephen Smalley
+:Author: Timothy Fraser
+:Author: Chris Vance
+
+.. note::
+
+ The APIs described in this book are outdated.
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+In March 2001, the National Security Agency (NSA) gave a presentation
+about Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) at the 2.5 Linux Kernel Summit.
+SELinux is an implementation of flexible and fine-grained
+nondiscretionary access controls in the Linux kernel, originally
+implemented as its own particular kernel patch. Several other security
+projects (e.g. RSBAC, Medusa) have also developed flexible access
+control architectures for the Linux kernel, and various projects have
+developed particular access control models for Linux (e.g. LIDS, DTE,
+SubDomain). Each project has developed and maintained its own kernel
+patch to support its security needs.
+
+In response to the NSA presentation, Linus Torvalds made a set of
+remarks that described a security framework he would be willing to
+consider for inclusion in the mainstream Linux kernel. He described a
+general framework that would provide a set of security hooks to control
+operations on kernel objects and a set of opaque security fields in
+kernel data structures for maintaining security attributes. This
+framework could then be used by loadable kernel modules to implement any
+desired model of security. Linus also suggested the possibility of
+migrating the Linux capabilities code into such a module.
+
+The Linux Security Modules (LSM) project was started by WireX to develop
+such a framework. LSM was a joint development effort by several security
+projects, including Immunix, SELinux, SGI and Janus, and several
+individuals, including Greg Kroah-Hartman and James Morris, to develop a
+Linux kernel patch that implements this framework. The work was
+incorporated in the mainstream in December of 2003. This technical
+report provides an overview of the framework and the capabilities
+security module.
+
+LSM Framework
+=============
+
+The LSM framework provides a general kernel framework to support
+security modules. In particular, the LSM framework is primarily focused
+on supporting access control modules, although future development is
+likely to address other security needs such as sandboxing. By itself, the
+framework does not provide any additional security; it merely provides
+the infrastructure to support security modules. The LSM framework is
+optional, requiring `CONFIG_SECURITY` to be enabled. The capabilities
+logic is implemented as a security module.
+This capabilities module is discussed further in
+`LSM Capabilities Module`_.
+
+The LSM framework includes security fields in kernel data structures and
+calls to hook functions at critical points in the kernel code to
+manage the security fields and to perform access control.
+It also adds functions for registering security modules.
+An interface `/sys/kernel/security/lsm` reports a comma separated list
+of security modules that are active on the system.
+
+The LSM security fields are simply ``void*`` pointers.
+The data is referred to as a blob, which may be managed by
+the framework or by the individual security modules that use it.
+Security blobs that are used by more than one security module are
+typically managed by the framework.
+For process and
+program execution security information, security fields are included in
+:c:type:`struct task_struct <task_struct>` and
+:c:type:`struct cred <cred>`.
+For filesystem
+security information, a security field is included in :c:type:`struct
+super_block <super_block>`. For pipe, file, and socket security
+information, security fields are included in :c:type:`struct inode
+<inode>` and :c:type:`struct file <file>`.
+For System V IPC security information,
+security fields were added to :c:type:`struct kern_ipc_perm
+<kern_ipc_perm>` and :c:type:`struct msg_msg
+<msg_msg>`; additionally, the definitions for :c:type:`struct
+msg_msg <msg_msg>`, struct msg_queue, and struct shmid_kernel
+were moved to header files (``include/linux/msg.h`` and
+``include/linux/shm.h`` as appropriate) to allow the security modules to
+use these definitions.
+
+For packet and
+network device security information, security fields were added to
+:c:type:`struct sk_buff <sk_buff>` and
+:c:type:`struct scm_cookie <scm_cookie>`.
+Unlike the other security module data, the data used here is a
+32-bit integer. The security modules are required to map or otherwise
+associate these values with real security attributes.
+
+LSM hooks are maintained in lists. A list is maintained for each
+hook, and the hooks are called in the order specified by CONFIG_LSM.
+Detailed documentation for each hook is
+included in the `security/security.c` source file.
+
+The LSM framework provides for a close approximation of
+general security module stacking. It defines
+security_add_hooks() to which each security module passes a
+:c:type:`struct security_hooks_list <security_hooks_list>`,
+which are added to the lists.
+The LSM framework does not provide a mechanism for removing hooks that
+have been registered. The SELinux security module has implemented
+a way to remove itself, however the feature has been deprecated.
+
+The hooks can be viewed as falling into two major
+categories: hooks that are used to manage the security fields and hooks
+that are used to perform access control. Examples of the first category
+of hooks include the security_inode_alloc() and security_inode_free()
+These hooks are used to allocate
+and free security structures for inode objects.
+An example of the second category of hooks
+is the security_inode_permission() hook.
+This hook checks permission when accessing an inode.
+
+LSM Capabilities Module
+=======================
+
+The POSIX.1e capabilities logic is maintained as a security module
+stored in the file ``security/commoncap.c``. The capabilities
+module uses the order field of the :c:type:`lsm_info` description
+to identify it as the first security module to be registered.
+The capabilities security module does not use the general security
+blobs, unlike other modules. The reasons are historical and are
+based on overhead, complexity and performance concerns.