The current security_inode_setxattr() and security_inode_removexattr()
hooks rely on individual LSMs to either call into the associated
capability hooks (cap_inode_setxattr() or cap_inode_removexattr()), or
return a magic value of 1 to indicate that the LSM layer itself should
perform the capability checks. Unfortunately, with the default return
value for these LSM hooks being 0, an individual LSM hook returning a
1 will cause the LSM hook processing to exit early, potentially
skipping a LSM. Thankfully, with the exception of the BPF LSM, none
of the LSMs which currently register inode xattr hooks should end up
returning a value of 1, and in the BPF LSM case, with the BPF LSM hooks
executing last there should be no real harm in stopping processing of
the LSM hooks. However, the reliance on the individual LSMs to either
call the capability hooks themselves, or signal the LSM with a return
value of 1, is fragile and relies on a specific set of LSMs being
enabled. This patch is an effort to resolve, or minimize, these
issues.
Before we discuss the solution, there are a few observations and
considerations that we need to take into account:
* BPF LSM registers an implementation for every LSM hook, and that
implementation simply returns the hook's default return value, a
0 in this case. We want to ensure that the default BPF LSM behavior
results in the capability checks being called.
* SELinux and Smack do not expect the traditional capability checks
to be applied to the xattrs that they "own".
* SELinux and Smack are currently written in such a way that the
xattr capability checks happen before any additional LSM specific
access control checks. SELinux does apply SELinux specific access
controls to all xattrs, even those not "owned" by SELinux.
* IMA and EVM also register xattr hooks but assume that the LSM layer
and specific LSMs have already authorized the basic xattr operation.
In order to ensure we perform the capability based access controls
before the individual LSM access controls, perform only one capability
access control check for each operation, and clarify the logic around
applying the capability controls, we need a mechanism to determine if
any of the enabled LSMs "own" a particular xattr and want to take
responsibility for controlling access to that xattr. The solution in
this patch is to create a new LSM hook, 'inode_xattr_skipcap', that is
not exported to the rest of the kernel via a security_XXX() function,
but is used by the LSM layer to determine if a LSM wants to control
access to a given xattr and avoid the traditional capability controls.
Registering an inode_xattr_skipcap hook is optional, if a LSM declines
to register an implementation, or uses an implementation that simply
returns the default value (0), there is no effect as the LSM continues
to enforce the capability based controls (unless another LSM takes
ownership of the xattr). If none of the LSMs signal that the
capability checks should be skipped, the capability check is performed
and if access is granted the individual LSM xattr access control hooks
are executed, keeping with the DAC-before-LSM convention.
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Acked-by: Casey Schaufler <casey@schaufler-ca.com>
Signed-off-by: Paul Moore <paul@paul-moore.com>
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