linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH bpf-next 3/8] bpf: Disallow NULL PTR_TO

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Date:   Thu, 19 Jan 2023 23:31:51 -0600
From:   David Vernet <void@...ifault.com>
To:     Kumar Kartikeya Dwivedi <memxor@...il.com>
Cc:     bpf@...r.kernel.org, ast@...nel.org, daniel@...earbox.net,
        andrii@...nel.org, martin.lau@...ux.dev, song@...nel.org,
        yhs@...a.com, john.fastabend@...il.com, kpsingh@...nel.org,
        sdf@...gle.com, haoluo@...gle.com, jolsa@...nel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, kernel-team@...a.com, tj@...nel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH bpf-next 3/8] bpf: Disallow NULL PTR_TO_MEM for trusted
 kfuncs

On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 10:51:01AM +0530, Kumar Kartikeya Dwivedi wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 05:28:28AM IST, David Vernet wrote:
> > KF_TRUSTED_ARGS kfuncs currently have a subtle and insidious bug in
> > validating pointers to scalars. Say that you have a kfunc like the
> > following, which takes an array as the first argument:
> >
> > bool bpf_cpumask_empty(const struct cpumask *cpumask)
> > {
> > 	return cpumask_empty(cpumask);
> > }
> >
> > ...
> > BTF_ID_FLAGS(func, bpf_cpumask_empty, KF_TRUSTED_ARGS)
> > ...
> >
> 
> This is known and expected.

Expected? So kfuncs are expected to always check whether any pointer to
a scalar is non-NULL? Seems like a poor UX. I like your suggestion below
to address it so it's opt-in.

> > If a BPF program were to invoke the kfunc with a NULL argument, it would
> > crash the kernel. The reason is that struct cpumask is defined as a
> > bitmap, which is itself defined as an array, and is accessed as a memory
> > address memory by bitmap operations. So when the verifier analyzes the
> > register, it interprets it as a pointer to a scalar struct, which is an
> > array of size 8. check_mem_reg() then sees that the register is NULL,
> > and returns 0, and the kfunc crashes when it passes it down to the
> > cpumask wrappers.
> >
> > To fix this, this patch adds a check for KF_ARG_PTR_TO_MEM which
> > verifies that the register doesn't contain a NULL pointer if the kfunc
> > is KF_TRUSTED_ARGS.
> >
> > This may or may not be desired behavior. Some kfuncs may want to
> > allow callers to pass NULL-able pointers. An alternative would be adding
> > a KF_NOT_NULL flag and leaving KF_TRUSTED_ARGS alone, though given that
> > a kfunc is saying it wants to "trust" an argument, it seems reasonable
> > to prevent NULL.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: David Vernet <void@...ifault.com>
> > ---
> >  kernel/bpf/verifier.c | 5 +++++
> >  1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/kernel/bpf/verifier.c b/kernel/bpf/verifier.c
> > index 9fa101420046..28ccb92ebe65 100644
> > --- a/kernel/bpf/verifier.c
> > +++ b/kernel/bpf/verifier.c
> > @@ -9092,6 +9092,11 @@ static int check_kfunc_args(struct bpf_verifier_env *env, struct bpf_kfunc_call_
> >  					i, btf_type_str(ref_t), ref_tname, PTR_ERR(resolve_ret));
> >  				return -EINVAL;
> >  			}
> > +			if (is_kfunc_trusted_args(meta) && register_is_null(reg)) {
> > +				verbose(env, "NULL pointer passed to trusted arg%d\n", i);
> > +				return -EACCES;
> > +			}
> > +
> 
> Current patch looks like a stop gap solution. Just checking for register_is_null
> is not enough, what about PTR_MAYBE_NULL? That can also be passed. Some
> arguments can be both PTR_TO_BTF_ID and PTR_TO_MEM, so it will be bypassed in
> the other case because this check is limited to KF_ARG_PTR_TO_MEM. It would

This wouldn't happen if you had a PTR_TO_BTF_ID, would it? In that case
you could just rely on PTR_TRUSTED. IMO that really should be the
default for any pointer argument. If you have KF_ARGS_TRUSTED, the kfunc
should just be able to assume that the pointers have been verified.

Regardless, you're right that this isn't a complete solution because of
PTR_MAYBE_NULL. I'm fine with adding an __or_null suffix that allows
NULL, and we disallow NULL or PTR_MAYBE_NULL from any KF_TRUSTED_ARGS
argument otherwise. Or we just also disallow PTR_MAYBE_NULL and try to
hold off on adding yet another suffix until we have proper per-arg kfunc
definitions.

> probably be better to disallow NULL by default and explicitly tag the argument
> with __or_null to indicate that NULL is accepted. Seems like a much better
> default to me.