linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] binfmt_misc: allow selecting the interpreter based on xattr keywords

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Date:   Fri, 26 Aug 2016 22:12:07 +0100
From:   One Thousand Gnomes <gnomes@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>
To:     Florian Weimer <fweimer@...hat.com>
Cc:     James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@...senPartnership.com>,
        Josh Max <JMax@...l.greenriver.edu>, viro@...iv.linux.org.uk,
        linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        "Carlos O'Donell" <carlos@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] binfmt_misc: allow selecting the interpreter based on
 xattr keywords

> A non-security use case would be to run the binary (without 
> modification) with a different ELF interpreter (assuming this allows to 
> override binfmt_elf, but self-sandboxing would need that as well).  This 
> would make it easier to use older or newer libcs for select binaries on 
> the system.  Right now, one has to write wrappers for that, and the 
> explicit dynamic linker invocation is not completely transparent to the 
> application.

If it gets in I'll be using it to label CP/M COM files so that they can
be auto-run nicely when crossbuilding stuff in part with the original
tools but a modern build environment 8)

Sandboxing is an obvious use but there are more bizarre ones such as
marking a file system image to get auto-run under a virtual machine or
make containers fire up as if they were commands.

It's effectively also the long missing but much needed "this document
belongs to this app" meta data that MacOS and the like have had for
decades.

Alan