linux-kernel - Re: Is it possible to give the user the option to cancel forkbombs?

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Date:	Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:34:47 +0100
From:	Radoslaw Szkodzinski (AstralStorm) <lkml@...ralstorm.puszkin.org>
To:	Dane Mutters <dmutters@...il.com>
Cc:	Diego Calleja <diegocg@...il.com>,
	Martin Olsson <mnemo@...imum.se>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	Alan Cox <alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Is it possible to give the user the option to cancel forkbombs?

On Sat, 17 Nov 2007 09:55:01 -0800
Dane Mutters <dmutters@...il.com> wrote:

> I don't know if this is at all feasible, but is it possible to have a
> mechanism that would detect a fork bomb in progress and either stop the
> fork, or allow the user to cancel the operation?  For example, are there
> any legitimate processes (i.e. ones that really need to fork like crazy)
> that would need to generate 200+ processes in less than 1 second?
> 
> (Note: I'm not a programmer; I'm just throwing out the idea.)
> 

If the parent PID of the new task is exported through TASKSTATS, you can
do it already in userspace. If not, that data should be exported.

Then you could write a root daemon using netlink, set it to RT priority
and create an inheritable counter in it to thwart binary forking.
The counter would be cleared every x seconds.
No need to do it in the kernel.

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