[PATCH] proc: Update inode upon changing task security attribute

From: Munehisa Kamata
Date: Wed Nov 29 2023 - 19:37:25 EST


I'm not clear whether VFS is a better (or worse) place[1] to fix the
problem described below and would like to hear opinion.

If the /proc/[pid] directory is bind-mounted on a system with Smack
enabled, and if the task updates its current security attribute, the task
may lose access to files in its own /proc/[pid] through the mountpoint.

$ sudo capsh --drop=cap_mac_override --
# mkdir -p dir
# mount --bind /proc/$$ dir
# echo AAA > /proc/$$/task/current # assuming built-in echo
# cat /proc/$$/task/current # revalidate
AAA
# echo BBB > dir/attr/current
# cat dir/attr/current
cat: dir/attr/current: Permission denied
# ls dir/
ls: cannot access dir/: Permission denied
# cat /proc/$$/attr/current # revalidate
BBB
# cat dir/attr/current
BBB
# echo CCC > /proc/$$/attr/current
# cat dir/attr/current
cat: dir/attr/current: Permission denied

This happens because path lookup doesn't revalidate the dentry of the
/proc/[pid] when traversing the filesystem boundary, so the inode security
blob of the /proc/[pid] doesn't get updated with the new task security
attribute. Then, this may lead security modules to deny an access to the
directory. Looking at the code[2] and the /proc/pid/attr/current entry in
proc man page, seems like the same could happen with SELinux. Though, I
didn't find relevant reports.

The steps above are quite artificial. I actually encountered such an
unexpected denial of access with an in-house application sandbox
framework; each app has its own dedicated filesystem tree where the
process's /proc/[pid] is bind-mounted to and the app enters into via
chroot.

With this patch, writing to /proc/[pid]/attr/current (and its per-security
module variant) updates the inode security blob of /proc/[pid] or
/proc/[pid]/task/[tid] (when pid != tid) with the new attribute.

[1] https://lkml.kernel.org/linux-fsdevel/4A2D15AF.8090000@xxxxxxx/
[2] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/security/selinux/hooks.c#n4220

Fixes: 1da177e4c3f4 ("Linux-2.6.12-rc2")
Signed-off-by: Munehisa Kamata <kamatam@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/proc/base.c | 23 ++++++++++++++++++++---
1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/proc/base.c b/fs/proc/base.c
index dd31e3b6bf77..bdb7bea53475 100644
--- a/fs/proc/base.c
+++ b/fs/proc/base.c
@@ -2741,6 +2741,7 @@ static ssize_t proc_pid_attr_write(struct file * file, const char __user * buf,
{
struct inode * inode = file_inode(file);
struct task_struct *task;
+ const char *name = file->f_path.dentry->d_name.name;
void *page;
int rv;

@@ -2784,10 +2785,26 @@ static ssize_t proc_pid_attr_write(struct file * file, const char __user * buf,
if (rv < 0)
goto out_free;

- rv = security_setprocattr(PROC_I(inode)->op.lsm,
- file->f_path.dentry->d_name.name, page,
- count);
+ rv = security_setprocattr(PROC_I(inode)->op.lsm, name, page, count);
mutex_unlock(&current->signal->cred_guard_mutex);
+
+ /*
+ * Update the inode security blob in advance if the task's security
+ * attribute was updated
+ */
+ if (rv > 0 && !strcmp(name, "current")) {
+ struct pid *pid;
+ struct proc_inode *cur, *ei;
+
+ rcu_read_lock();
+ pid = get_task_pid(current, PIDTYPE_PID);
+ hlist_for_each_entry(cur, &pid->inodes, sibling_inodes)
+ ei = cur;
+ put_pid(pid);
+ pid_update_inode(current, &ei->vfs_inode);
+ rcu_read_unlock();
+ }
+
out_free:
kfree(page);
out:
--
2.40.1