linux-kernel - Re: [capabilities] Allow normal inheritance for a configurable set of capabilities

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Date:	Mon, 02 Feb 2015 13:47:06 -0500
From:	Mimi Zohar <zohar@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
To:	Serge Hallyn <serge.hallyn@...ntu.com>
Cc:	Casey Schaufler <casey@...aufler-ca.com>,
	Christoph Lameter <cl@...ux.com>,
	Serge Hallyn <serge.hallyn@...onical.com>,
	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>,
	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
	Aaron Jones <aaronmdjones@...il.com>,
	"Ted Ts'o" <tytso@....edu>, linux-security-module@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, akpm@...uxfoundation.org
Subject: Re: [capabilities] Allow normal inheritance for a configurable set
 of capabilities

On Mon, 2015-02-02 at 18:08 +0000, Serge Hallyn wrote: 
> Quoting Casey Schaufler (casey@...aufler-ca.com):
> > I'm game to participate in such an effort. The POSIX scheme
> > is workable, but given that it's 20 years old and hasn't
> > developed real traction it's hard to call it successful.
> 
> Over the years we've several times discussed possible reasons for this
> and how to help.  I personally think it's two things:  1. lack of
> toolchain and fs support.  The fact that we cannot to this day enable
> ping using capabilities by default because of cpio, tar and non-xattr
> filesystems is disheartening. 

We're working on resolving the CPIO issue.  tar currently supports
xattrs.  At this point, how many non-xattr filesystems are there really?

Mimi

>  2. It's hard for users and applications
> to know what caps they need.  yes the API is a bear to use, but we can
> hide that behind fancier libraries.  But using capabilities requires too
> much in-depth knowledge of precisely what caps you might need for
> whatever operations library may now do when you asked for something. 
> --
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