linux-hardening - Re: [PATCH v2] capabilities: new kernel.ns_modules

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Date:   Thu, 6 Oct 2022 11:16:11 +0200
From:   Vegard Nossum <vegard.nossum@...cle.com>
To:     "Serge E. Hallyn" <serge@...lyn.com>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Thadeu Lima de Souza Cascardo <cascardo@...onical.com>,
        Eric Biederman <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
        Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>,
        linux-hardening@...r.kernel.org, John Haxby <john.haxby@...cle.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] capabilities: new kernel.ns_modules_allowed sysctl


On 8/15/22 17:50, Serge E. Hallyn wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 15, 2022 at 10:27:53AM +0200, Vegard Nossum wrote:
>> Creating a new user namespace grants you the ability to reach a lot of code
>> (including loading certain kernel modules) that would otherwise be out of
>> reach of an attacker. We can reduce the attack surface and block exploits
>> by ensuring that user namespaces cannot trigger module (auto-)loading.

[...]

>> +	/*
>> +	 * Disallow if we're in a user namespace and we don't have
>> +	 * CAP_SYS_MODULE in the init namespace.
>> +	 */
>> +	if (current_user_ns() != &init_user_ns &&
>> +	    !capable(CAP_SYS_MODULE) &&
> 
> It's monday, so maybe I'm thinking wrongly - but I don't believe that you can
> possible pass capable(CAP_SYS_MODULE) if current_user_ns() != &init_user_ns.
> So I think you can drop the second check.

Hm, I think I see what you're saying -- cap_capable() will not even
search for caps outside the current_cred() namespace and return -EPERM?

     /*
      * If we're already at a lower level than we're looking for,
      * we're done searching.
      */
     if (ns->level <= cred->user_ns->level)
         return -EPERM;

I'll submit a v3 -- this sysctl is still useful even with the security
hook for userns creation that just got merged.

Thanks,


Vegard