linux-kernel - Re: [parch 4/4] vfs: utimensat(): fix write access check for futimens()

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Date:	Wed, 4 Jun 2008 10:40:11 +0200
From:	"Michael Kerrisk" <mtk.manpages@...glemail.com>
To:	"Miklos Szeredi" <miklos@...redi.hu>
Cc:	akpm@...ux-foundation.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	hch@....de, viro@...iv.linux.org.uk, jamie@...reable.org,
	drepper@...hat.com, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
	subrata@...ux.vnet.ibm.com
Subject: Re: [parch 4/4] vfs: utimensat(): fix write access check for futimens()

On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 6:41 AM, Miklos Szeredi <miklos@...redi.hu> wrote:
>> The POSIX.1 draft spec for futimens()/utimensat() says:
>>
>>         Only a process with the effective user ID equal to the
>>         user ID of the file, *or with write access to the file*,
>>         or with appropriate privileges may use futimens() or
>>         utimensat() with a null pointer as the times argument
>>         or with both tv_nsec fields set to the special value
>>         UTIME_NOW.
>>
>> The important piece here is "with write access to the file", and
>> this matters for futimens(), which deals with an argument that
>> is a file descriptor referring to the file whose timestamps are
>> being updated,  The standard is saying that the "writability"
>> check is based on the file permissions, not the access mode with
>> which the file is opened.  (This behavior is consistent with the
>> semantics of FreeBSD's futimes().)  However, Linux is currently
>> doing the latter -- futimens(fd, times) is a library
>> function implemented as
>>
>>        utimensat(fd, NULL, times, 0)
>>
>> and within the utimensat() implementation we have the code:
>>
>>                 f = fget(dfd);  // dfd is 'fd'
>>                 ...
>>                 if (f) {
>>                         if (!(f->f_mode & FMODE_WRITE))
>>                                 goto mnt_drop_write_and_out;
>>
>> The check should instead be based on the file permissions.
>>
>> Thanks to Miklos for pointing out how to do this check.
>>
>> CC: Miklos Szeredi <miklos@...redi.hu>
>> CC: Al Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>
>> CC: Ulrich Drepper <drepper@...hat.com>
>> Signed-off-by: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@...il.com>
>>
>> --- linux-2.6.26-rc4/fs/utimes.c      2008-06-03 23:13:31.000000000 +0200
>> +++ linux-2.6.26-rc4-utimensat-fix-v4/fs/utimes.c     2008-06-03 23:15:12.000000000 +0200
>> @@ -137,7 +137,8 @@
>>
>>               if (!is_owner_or_cap(inode)) {
>>                       if (f) {
>> -                             if (!(f->f_mode & FMODE_WRITE))
>> +                             error = permission(inode, MAY_WRITE, NULL);
>> +                             if (error)
>>                                       goto mnt_drop_write_and_out;
>>                       } else {
>>                               error = vfs_permission(&nd, MAY_WRITE);
>
> At which point the "if (f)" and the "else" branches become equivalent
> (the nameidata isn't interesting in the other case either).  So that
> could be written as:
>
>                if (!is_owner_or_cap(inode)) {
>                        error = permission(inode, MAY_WRITE, NULL);
>                        if (error)
>                                goto mnt_drop_write_and_out;
>                }

Okay -- thanks Miklos.  I'll change that, and test.

-- 
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Found a bug? http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html
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