linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] sysctl: permission check based on capability not euid

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Message-ID: <20080528201400.GG30402@sequoia.sous-sol.org>
Date:	Wed, 28 May 2008 13:14:00 -0700
From:	Chris Wright <chrisw@...s-sol.org>
To:	Stephen Hemminger <stephen.hemminger@...tta.com>
Cc:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Chris Wright <chrisw@...ux-foundation.org>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] sysctl: permission check based on capability not euid

* Stephen Hemminger (stephen.hemminger@...tta.com) wrote:
> This patch modifies the permission checks for sysctl's from being based on uid=0 (root)
> to use the capability system. This matches the behavior of other OS's using sysctl's
> and capabilities. Linux has tried to get away from using uid=0 for security overrides
> and use capabilities instead. 
> 
> I was working on Quagga enhancement that involved enabling a sysctl, and it didn't
> work because is a safe daemon and drops privileges and resets its real/effective uid
> after initialization; it then re-enables only the capabilities when it needs to
> do some privileged operation. This wouldn't work because sysctl's were still using
> the root based permission check. The existing code in quagga to enable ip forwarding
> doesn't work for the same reason.

I don't think CAP_SYS_ADMIN makes sense for net.*, for example.
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