Re: [PATCH] shmem: add support for user extended attributes

[Hugh Dickins]

On Thu, 20 Jul 2023, Oleksandr Tymoshenko wrote:

> User extended attributes are not enabled in tmpfs because
> the size of the value is not limited and the memory allocated
> for it is not counted against any limit. Malicious
> non-privileged user can exhaust kernel memory by creating
> user.* extended attribute with very large value.
> 
> There are still situations when enabling suport for extended
> user attributes on tmpfs is required and the attack vector
> is not applicable, for instance batch jobs with trusted binaries.
> 
> This patch introduces two mount options to enable/disable
> support for user.* extended attributes on tmpfs:
> 
> user_xattr    enable support for user extended aatributes
> nouser_xattr  disable support for user extended attributes
> 
> The default behavior of the filesystem is not changed.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Oleksandr Tymoshenko <ovt@xxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks, but no.

This is not something we want mount options for:
we just want to limit the memory usage of tmpfs user xattrs.

I've had the patch to do that limiting (taking it out of the inode
space already limited by nr_inodes) in my test tree for 2.5 years now:
waiting to reach the top of the heap to pull together and submit.

Your sending this patch does help to raise the priority for my
sending that patch: thank you; but I cannot promise when that will be.

(And the way mm/shmem.c is conflicted between vfs and mm trees
is rather discouraging development there at the moment: I'm hoping
it can be mostly wrested back into the mm tree in the next cycle.)

Hugh

> ---
>  Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst | 12 ++++++++
>  include/linux/shmem_fs.h            |  1 +
>  mm/shmem.c                          | 45 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  3 files changed, 58 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst
> index f18f46be5c0c..5700ba72d095 100644
> --- a/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.rst
> @@ -215,6 +215,16 @@ will give you tmpfs instance on /mytmpfs which can allocate 10GB
>  RAM/SWAP in 10240 inodes and it is only accessible by root.
>  
>  
> +tmpfs, when compiled with CONFIG_TMPFS_XATTR, does not support
> +Extended User Attributes for security reasons. The support can be
> +enabled/disabled by two mount options:
> +
> +============  ===========================================
> +user_xattr    Enable support for Extended User Attributes
> +nouser_xattr  Disable upport for Extended User Attributes
> +============  ===========================================
> +
> +
>  :Author:
>     Christoph Rohland <cr@xxxxxxx>, 1.12.01
>  :Updated:
> @@ -223,3 +233,5 @@ RAM/SWAP in 10240 inodes and it is only accessible by root.
>     KOSAKI Motohiro, 16 Mar 2010
>  :Updated:
>     Chris Down, 13 July 2020
> +:Updated:
> +   Oleksandr Tymoshenko, 19 July 2023
> diff --git a/include/linux/shmem_fs.h b/include/linux/shmem_fs.h
> index 9029abd29b1c..f06d18b9041c 100644
> --- a/include/linux/shmem_fs.h
> +++ b/include/linux/shmem_fs.h
> @@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ struct shmem_sb_info {
>  	spinlock_t shrinklist_lock;   /* Protects shrinklist */
>  	struct list_head shrinklist;  /* List of shinkable inodes */
>  	unsigned long shrinklist_len; /* Length of shrinklist */
> +	bool user_xattr;	      /* user.* xattrs are allowed */
>  };
>  
>  static inline struct shmem_inode_info *SHMEM_I(struct inode *inode)
> diff --git a/mm/shmem.c b/mm/shmem.c
> index 2f2e0e618072..4f7d46d65494 100644
> --- a/mm/shmem.c
> +++ b/mm/shmem.c
> @@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ static struct vfsmount *shm_mnt;
>  
>  #define BLOCKS_PER_PAGE  (PAGE_SIZE/512)
>  #define VM_ACCT(size)    (PAGE_ALIGN(size) >> PAGE_SHIFT)
> +#define TMPFS_USER_XATTR_INDEX 1
>  
>  /* Pretend that each entry is of this size in directory's i_size */
>  #define BOGO_DIRENT_SIZE 20
> @@ -116,11 +117,13 @@ struct shmem_options {
>  	int huge;
>  	int seen;
>  	bool noswap;
> +	bool user_xattr;
>  #define SHMEM_SEEN_BLOCKS 1
>  #define SHMEM_SEEN_INODES 2
>  #define SHMEM_SEEN_HUGE 4
>  #define SHMEM_SEEN_INUMS 8
>  #define SHMEM_SEEN_NOSWAP 16
> +#define SHMEM_SEEN_USER_XATTR 32
>  };
>  
>  #ifdef CONFIG_TMPFS
> @@ -3447,6 +3450,16 @@ static int shmem_xattr_handler_get(const struct xattr_handler *handler,
>  				   const char *name, void *buffer, size_t size)
>  {
>  	struct shmem_inode_info *info = SHMEM_I(inode);
> +	struct shmem_sb_info *sbinfo = SHMEM_SB(inode->i_sb);
> +
> +	switch (handler->flags) {
> +	case TMPFS_USER_XATTR_INDEX:
> +		if (!sbinfo->user_xattr)
> +			return -EOPNOTSUPP;
> +		break;
> +	default:
> +		break;
> +	}
>  
>  	name = xattr_full_name(handler, name);
>  	return simple_xattr_get(&info->xattrs, name, buffer, size);
> @@ -3459,8 +3472,18 @@ static int shmem_xattr_handler_set(const struct xattr_handler *handler,
>  				   size_t size, int flags)
>  {
>  	struct shmem_inode_info *info = SHMEM_I(inode);
> +	struct shmem_sb_info *sbinfo = SHMEM_SB(inode->i_sb);
>  	int err;
>  
> +	switch (handler->flags) {
> +	case TMPFS_USER_XATTR_INDEX:
> +		if (!sbinfo->user_xattr)
> +			return -EOPNOTSUPP;
> +		break;
> +	default:
> +		break;
> +	}
> +
>  	name = xattr_full_name(handler, name);
>  	err = simple_xattr_set(&info->xattrs, name, value, size, flags, NULL);
>  	if (!err) {
> @@ -3482,9 +3505,17 @@ static const struct xattr_handler shmem_trusted_xattr_handler = {
>  	.set = shmem_xattr_handler_set,
>  };
>  
> +static const struct xattr_handler shmem_user_xattr_handler = {
> +	.prefix = XATTR_USER_PREFIX,
> +	.flags = TMPFS_USER_XATTR_INDEX,
> +	.get = shmem_xattr_handler_get,
> +	.set = shmem_xattr_handler_set,
> +};
> +
>  static const struct xattr_handler *shmem_xattr_handlers[] = {
>  	&shmem_security_xattr_handler,
>  	&shmem_trusted_xattr_handler,
> +	&shmem_user_xattr_handler,
>  	NULL
>  };
>  
> @@ -3604,6 +3635,8 @@ enum shmem_param {
>  	Opt_inode32,
>  	Opt_inode64,
>  	Opt_noswap,
> +	Opt_user_xattr,
> +	Opt_nouser_xattr,
>  };
>  
>  static const struct constant_table shmem_param_enums_huge[] = {
> @@ -3626,6 +3659,8 @@ const struct fs_parameter_spec shmem_fs_parameters[] = {
>  	fsparam_flag  ("inode32",	Opt_inode32),
>  	fsparam_flag  ("inode64",	Opt_inode64),
>  	fsparam_flag  ("noswap",	Opt_noswap),
> +	fsparam_flag  ("user_xattr",	Opt_user_xattr),
> +	fsparam_flag  ("nouser_xattr",	Opt_nouser_xattr),
>  	{}
>  };
>  
> @@ -3717,6 +3752,14 @@ static int shmem_parse_one(struct fs_context *fc, struct fs_parameter *param)
>  		ctx->noswap = true;
>  		ctx->seen |= SHMEM_SEEN_NOSWAP;
>  		break;
> +	case Opt_user_xattr:
> +		ctx->user_xattr = true;
> +		ctx->seen |= SHMEM_SEEN_USER_XATTR;
> +		break;
> +	case Opt_nouser_xattr:
> +		ctx->user_xattr = false;
> +		ctx->seen |= SHMEM_SEEN_USER_XATTR;
> +		break;
>  	}
>  	return 0;
>  
> @@ -3834,6 +3877,8 @@ static int shmem_reconfigure(struct fs_context *fc)
>  		sbinfo->max_inodes  = ctx->inodes;
>  		sbinfo->free_inodes = ctx->inodes - inodes;
>  	}
> +	if (ctx->seen & SHMEM_SEEN_USER_XATTR)
> +		sbinfo->user_xattr = ctx->user_xattr;
>  
>  	/*
>  	 * Preserve previous mempolicy unless mpol remount option was specified.
> -- 
> 2.41.0.255.g8b1d071c50-goog
> 
>