linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] ima: add a knob ima= to make IMA be able to be disabled

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Message-ID: <CAF+s44Q6ZJ8rdi1VG40JVJmxX-1hmss5eNaKvGhJSOS6xYLx-g@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 29 May 2025 12:13:56 +0800
From: Pingfan Liu <piliu@...hat.com>
To: Mimi Zohar <zohar@...ux.ibm.com>
Cc: Baoquan He <bhe@...hat.com>, prudo@...hat.com, linux-integrity@...r.kernel.org, 
	kexec@...ts.infradead.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, 
	pmenzel@...gen.mpg.de, coxu@...hat.com, ruyang@...hat.com, 
	chenste@...ux.microsoft.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH] ima: add a knob ima= to make IMA be able to be disabled

On Tue, May 27, 2025 at 10:18 PM Mimi Zohar <zohar@...ux.ibm.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 2025-05-27 at 11:25 +0800, Pingfan Liu wrote
>
> When responding to kernel mailing lists, please use plain text not Mime encoded.
>
> > On Thu, May 22, 2025 at 10:52 PM Baoquan He <bhe@...hat.com> wrote:
> > > On 05/22/25 at 07:08am, Mimi Zohar wrote:
> > > > On Thu, 2025-05-22 at 11:24 +0800, Baoquan He wrote:
> > > > > On 05/21/25 at 08:54am, Mimi Zohar wrote:
> > > > > > On Fri, 2025-05-16 at 08:22 +0800, Baoquan He wrote:
> > > > > > > CC kexec list.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > On 05/16/25 at 07:39am, Baoquan He wrote:
> > > > > > > > Kdump kernel doesn't need IMA functionality, and enabling IMA will
> > > > > > > > cost
> > > > > > > > extra memory. It would be very helpful to allow IMA to be disabled
> > > > > > > > for
> > > > > > > > kdump kernel.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks a lot for careufl reviewing and great suggestions.
> > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > The real question is not whether kdump needs "IMA", but whether not
> > > > > > enabling
> > > > > > IMA in the kdump kernel could be abused.  The comments below don't
> > > > > > address
> > > > > > that question but limit/emphasize, as much as possible, turning IMA
> > > > > > off is
> > > > > > limited to the kdump kernel.
> > > > >
> > > > > Are you suggesting removing below paragraph from patch log because they
> > > > > are redundant? I can remove it in v2 if yes.
> > > >
> > > > "The comments below" was referring to my comments on the patch, not the
> > > > next
> > > > paragraph.  "don't address that question" refers to whether the kdump
> > > > kernel
> > > > could be abused.
> > > >
> > > > We're trying to close integrity gaps, not add new ones.  Verifying the
> > > > UKI's
> > > > signature addresses the integrity of the initramfs.  What about the
> > > > integrity of
> > > > the kdump initramfs (or for that matter the kexec initramfs)?  If the
> > > > kdump
> > > > initramfs was signed, IMA would be able to verify it before the kexec.
> >
> > IMHO, from the higher level, if there is a requirement on the integrity of the
> > initramfs, it should take a similar approach as UKI. And the system admin can
> > choose whether to disable the unsafe format loader or not.
>
> Yes, that is a possibility, probably a good aim, but in the case of kexec/kdump
> that isn't really necessary.  As filesystem(s) support xattrs, IMA policies
> could be written in terms of "func=KEXEC_INITRAMFS_CHECK" to include the
> initramfs.
>

Just aware that we have such a cool feature. Thanks!

I checked the code. IIUC, the relevant code has already been in the
kernel. And the thing left to do is to install an IMA policy, right?

But there are still two things to be considered.
-1.The UEFI partition is FAT format, which can not support xattr
-2. Just like in the UKI case, the kernel fd content is not necessary
for the kernel image itself. The initramfs fd can be used to pass some
extra data if we use a temp file as a package. So checking the
signatures at the initramfs level will block this usage


> >
> > This other thing is how to make a handy signature on initramfs? It is neither
> > PE nor ELF.
>
> IMA supports signatures stored in the security.ima xattr or as an appended
> signatures.
>

Good to know it.

Best Regards,

Pingfan