Re: [RFC PATCH 0/6] RLIMIT_NPROC in ucounts fixups

[Eric W. Biederman]

Michal Koutný <mkoutny@xxxxxxxx> writes:

> This series is a result of looking deeper into breakage of
> tools/testing/selftests/rlimits/rlimits-per-userns.c after 
> https://lore.kernel.org/r/20220204181144.24462-1-mkoutny@xxxxxxxx/
> is applied.
>
> The description of the original problem that lead to RLIMIT_NPROC et al.
> ucounts rewrite could be ambiguously interpretted as supporting either
> the case of:
> - never-fork service or
> - fork (RLIMIT_NPROC-1) times service.
>
> The scenario is weird anyway given existence of pids controller.
>
> The realization of that scenario relies not only on tracking number of
> processes per user_ns but also newly allows the root to override limit through
> set*uid. The commit message didn't mention that, so it's unclear if it
> was the intention too.
>
> I also noticed that the RLIMIT_NPROC enforcing in fork seems subject to TOCTOU
> race (check(nr_tasks),...,nr_tasks++) so the limit is rather advisory (but
> that's not a new thing related to ucounts rewrite).
>
> This series is RFC to discuss relevance of the subtle changes RLIMIT_NPROC to
> ucounts rewrite introduced.

A quick reply (because I don't have a lot of time at the moment).

I agree with the issues your first patch before this series addresses
and the issues the first 3 patches address.

I have not looked at the tests.

I actually disagree with most of your fixes.  Both because of
intrusiveness and because of awkwardness.  My basic problem with
your fixes is I don't think they leave the code in a more maintainable
state.

Hopefully later today I can propose some alternative fixes and we can
continue the discussion.


One thing I think you misunderstood is the capability checks in set_user
have always been there.  There is a very good argument they are badly
placed so are not exactly checking the correct credentials.  Especially
now.

Your patch 4/6 I don't think makes sense.  It has always been the
case that root without capabilities is subject to the rlimit.  If  you
are in a user namespace you are root without capabilities.


Eric