From 034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Linus Torvalds Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2026 09:22:00 -0700 Subject: Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace 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 --- Documentation/userspace-api/check_exec.rst | 144 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 144 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/userspace-api/check_exec.rst (limited to 'Documentation/userspace-api/check_exec.rst') diff --git a/Documentation/userspace-api/check_exec.rst b/Documentation/userspace-api/check_exec.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..05dfe3b56 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/userspace-api/check_exec.rst @@ -0,0 +1,144 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 +.. Copyright © 2024 Microsoft Corporation + +=================== +Executability check +=================== + +The ``AT_EXECVE_CHECK`` :manpage:`execveat(2)` flag, and the +``SECBIT_EXEC_RESTRICT_FILE`` and ``SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE`` securebits +are intended for script interpreters and dynamic linkers to enforce a +consistent execution security policy handled by the kernel. See the +`samples/check-exec/inc.c`_ example. + +Whether an interpreter should check these securebits or not depends on the +security risk of running malicious scripts with respect to the execution +environment, and whether the kernel can check if a script is trustworthy or +not. For instance, Python scripts running on a server can use arbitrary +syscalls and access arbitrary files. Such interpreters should then be +enlighten to use these securebits and let users define their security policy. +However, a JavaScript engine running in a web browser should already be +sandboxed and then should not be able to harm the user's environment. + +Script interpreters or dynamic linkers built for tailored execution environments +(e.g. hardened Linux distributions or hermetic container images) could use +``AT_EXECVE_CHECK`` without checking the related securebits if backward +compatibility is handled by something else (e.g. atomic update ensuring that +all legitimate libraries are allowed to be executed). It is then recommended +for script interpreters and dynamic linkers to check the securebits at run time +by default, but also to provide the ability for custom builds to behave like if +``SECBIT_EXEC_RESTRICT_FILE`` or ``SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE`` were always +set to 1 (i.e. always enforce restrictions). + +AT_EXECVE_CHECK +=============== + +Passing the ``AT_EXECVE_CHECK`` flag to :manpage:`execveat(2)` only performs a +check on a regular file and returns 0 if execution of this file would be +allowed, ignoring the file format and then the related interpreter dependencies +(e.g. ELF libraries, script's shebang). + +Programs should always perform this check to apply kernel-level checks against +files that are not directly executed by the kernel but passed to a user space +interpreter instead. All files that contain executable code, from the point of +view of the interpreter, should be checked. However the result of this check +should only be enforced according to ``SECBIT_EXEC_RESTRICT_FILE`` or +``SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE.``. + +The main purpose of this flag is to improve the security and consistency of an +execution environment to ensure that direct file execution (e.g. +``./script.sh``) and indirect file execution (e.g. ``sh script.sh``) lead to +the same result. For instance, this can be used to check if a file is +trustworthy according to the caller's environment. + +In a secure environment, libraries and any executable dependencies should also +be checked. For instance, dynamic linking should make sure that all libraries +are allowed for execution to avoid trivial bypass (e.g. using ``LD_PRELOAD``). +For such secure execution environment to make sense, only trusted code should +be executable, which also requires integrity guarantees. + +To avoid race conditions leading to time-of-check to time-of-use issues, +``AT_EXECVE_CHECK`` should be used with ``AT_EMPTY_PATH`` to check against a +file descriptor instead of a path. + +SECBIT_EXEC_RESTRICT_FILE and SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE +========================================================== + +When ``SECBIT_EXEC_RESTRICT_FILE`` is set, a process should only interpret or +execute a file if a call to :manpage:`execveat(2)` with the related file +descriptor and the ``AT_EXECVE_CHECK`` flag succeed. + +This secure bit may be set by user session managers, service managers, +container runtimes, sandboxer tools... Except for test environments, the +related ``SECBIT_EXEC_RESTRICT_FILE_LOCKED`` bit should also be set. + +Programs should only enforce consistent restrictions according to the +securebits but without relying on any other user-controlled configuration. +Indeed, the use case for these securebits is to only trust executable code +vetted by the system configuration (through the kernel), so we should be +careful to not let untrusted users control this configuration. + +However, script interpreters may still use user configuration such as +environment variables as long as it is not a way to disable the securebits +checks. For instance, the ``PATH`` and ``LD_PRELOAD`` variables can be set by +a script's caller. Changing these variables may lead to unintended code +executions, but only from vetted executable programs, which is OK. For this to +make sense, the system should provide a consistent security policy to avoid +arbitrary code execution e.g., by enforcing a write xor execute policy. + +When ``SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE`` is set, a process should never interpret +interactive user commands (e.g. scripts). However, if such commands are passed +through a file descriptor (e.g. stdin), its content should be interpreted if a +call to :manpage:`execveat(2)` with the related file descriptor and the +``AT_EXECVE_CHECK`` flag succeed. + +For instance, script interpreters called with a script snippet as argument +should always deny such execution if ``SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE`` is set. + +This secure bit may be set by user session managers, service managers, +container runtimes, sandboxer tools... Except for test environments, the +related ``SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE_LOCKED`` bit should also be set. + +Here is the expected behavior for a script interpreter according to combination +of any exec securebits: + +1. ``SECBIT_EXEC_RESTRICT_FILE=0`` and ``SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE=0`` + + Always interpret scripts, and allow arbitrary user commands (default). + + No threat, everyone and everything is trusted, but we can get ahead of + potential issues thanks to the call to :manpage:`execveat(2)` with + ``AT_EXECVE_CHECK`` which should always be performed but ignored by the + script interpreter. Indeed, this check is still important to enable systems + administrators to verify requests (e.g. with audit) and prepare for + migration to a secure mode. + +2. ``SECBIT_EXEC_RESTRICT_FILE=1`` and ``SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE=0`` + + Deny script interpretation if they are not executable, but allow + arbitrary user commands. + + The threat is (potential) malicious scripts run by trusted (and not fooled) + users. That can protect against unintended script executions (e.g. ``sh + /tmp/*.sh``). This makes sense for (semi-restricted) user sessions. + +3. ``SECBIT_EXEC_RESTRICT_FILE=0`` and ``SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE=1`` + + Always interpret scripts, but deny arbitrary user commands. + + This use case may be useful for secure services (i.e. without interactive + user session) where scripts' integrity is verified (e.g. with IMA/EVM or + dm-verity/IPE) but where access rights might not be ready yet. Indeed, + arbitrary interactive commands would be much more difficult to check. + +4. ``SECBIT_EXEC_RESTRICT_FILE=1`` and ``SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE=1`` + + Deny script interpretation if they are not executable, and also deny + any arbitrary user commands. + + The threat is malicious scripts run by untrusted users (but trusted code). + This makes sense for system services that may only execute trusted scripts. + +.. Links +.. _samples/check-exec/inc.c: + https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/samples/check-exec/inc.c -- cgit v1.3.1