linux-kernel - Re: [patch] fix NPTL thread iterator construct in cap_set

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Message-ID: <48A8B44E.4090908@kernel.org>
Date:	Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:29:18 -0700
From:	"Andrew G. Morgan" <morgan@...nel.org>
To:	Ken Chen <kenchen@...gle.com>
CC:	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [patch] fix NPTL thread iterator construct in cap_set_pg()

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Ken,

In 2.2.0, pre-LSM and NPTL, this code looked like this:

     read_lock(&tasklist_lock);
     for_each_task(target) {
             if (target->pgrp != pgrp)
                     continue;
             target->cap_effective   = *effective;
             target->cap_inheritable = *inheritable;
             target->cap_permitted   = *permitted;
     }
     read_unlock(&tasklist_lock);

that is, if a process is in the process group, it got its capabilities
changed.

So far as I can tell, I've not touched this code since it looked like
the above, so I can't really comment on the motivation for the thread
iterator changes. I'm also going to have to read up on NPTL to say
anything credible on this front.

In general, its very hard to get a system state in which this code is
run, so it wouldn't surprise me if these thread iterator changes have
never been tested.

Finally, I've very much in favor of deleting any code that modifies the
capabilities of another process/thread; see the #if[n]def
CONFIG_SECURITY_FILE_CAPABILITIES sections of this file, so any fix for
this (which, if needed, should be adopted) may also be short-lived...

Cheers

Andrew

Ken Chen wrote:
> The usage of while_each_pid_task() construct in cap_set_pg() looks incorrect.
> The macro is meant to form 'do ... while' loop instead of a simple while loop.
> I think currently it will skip thread leader of a NPTL process.
> 
> Fix by convert to 'do ... while' style.
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