linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] capabilities: add capability cgroup controller

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Date:	Thu, 7 Jul 2016 11:16:46 +0200
From:	Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>
To:	Topi Miettinen <toiwoton@...il.com>
Cc:	"Serge E. Hallyn" <serge@...lyn.com>,
	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
	Tejun Heo <tj@...nel.org>, lkml <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	luto@...nel.org, Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>,
	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
	Li Zefan <lizefan@...wei.com>,
	Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>,
	Serge Hallyn <serge.hallyn@...onical.com>,
	James Morris <james.l.morris@...cle.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	David Howells <dhowells@...hat.com>,
	David Woodhouse <David.Woodhouse@...el.com>,
	Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@...aro.org>,
	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	"open list:DOCUMENTATION" <linux-doc@...r.kernel.org>,
	"open list:CONTROL GROUP (CGROUP)" <cgroups@...r.kernel.org>,
	"open list:CAPABILITIES" <linux-security-module@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] capabilities: add capability cgroup controller

On Sun 2016-07-03 15:08:07, Topi Miettinen wrote:
> The attached patch would make any uses of capabilities generate audit
> messages. It works for simple tests as you can see from the commit
> message, but unfortunately the call to audit_cgroup_list() deadlocks the
> system when booting a full blown OS. There's no deadlock when the call
> is removed.
> 
> I guess that in some cases, cgroup_mutex and/or css_set_lock could be
> already held earlier before entering audit_cgroup_list(). Holding the
> locks is however required by task_cgroup_from_root(). Is there any way
> to avoid this? For example, only print some kind of cgroup ID numbers
> (are there unique and stable IDs, available without locks?) for those
> cgroups where the task is registered in the audit message?

I am not sure if anyone know what really happens here. I suggest to
enable lockdep. It might detect possible deadlock even before it
really happens, see Documentation/locking/lockdep-design.txt

It can be enabled by

   CONFIG_PROVE_LOCKING=y

It depends on

    CONFIG_DEBUG_KERNEL=y

and maybe some more options, see lib/Kconfig.debug


Best Regards,
Petr