linux-kernel - Re: linux-next: add utrace tree

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Message-ID: <20100123120301.GD7828@redhat.com>
Date:	Sat, 23 Jan 2010 07:03:01 -0500
From:	"Frank Ch. Eigler" <fche@...hat.com>
To:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
Cc:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	Fr??d??ric Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com>,
	Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@...hat.com>,
	Li Zefan <lizf@...fujitsu.com>,
	Tom Zanussi <tzanussi@...il.com>, systemtap@...rces.redhat.com,
	dle-develop@...ts.sourceforge.net,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Stephen Rothwell <sfr@...b.auug.org.au>,
	Ananth N Mavinakayanahalli <ananth@...ibm.com>,
	Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, linux-next@...r.kernel.org,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>, utrace-devel@...hat.com,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Subject: Re: linux-next: add utrace tree

Hi -

On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 07:04:01AM +0100, Ingo Molnar wrote:

> [...]  Also, if any systemtap person is interested in helping us
> create a more generic filter engine out of the current ftrace filter
> engine (which is really a precursor of a safe, sandboxed in-kernel
> script engine), that would be excellent as well. [...]

Thank you for the invitation.

> More could be done - a simple C-like set of function perhaps - some minimal 
> per probe local variable state, etc. (perhaps even looping as well, with a 
> limit on number of predicament executions per filter invocation.)

Yes, at some point when such bytecode intepreter gets rich enough, one
may not need the translated-to-C means of running scripts.


> ( _Such_ a facility, could then perhaps be used to allow applications access 
>   to safe syscall sandboxing techniques: i.e. a programmable seccomp concept 
>   in essence, controlled via ASCII space filter expressions [...]
>   IMHO that would be a superior concept for security modules too [...]
>
> [...]  specific functionality with an immediately visible upside,
> with no need for opaque hooks.

This OTOH seem like rather a stretch.  If one claims that "opaque
hooks" are bad, so instead have hooks that jump not to auditable C
code but an bytecode interpreter?  And have the bytecodes be uploaded
from userspace?  How is this supposed to produce "transparency" from
the kernel/hook point of view?

- FChE
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