modules: sysctl to block module loading

Implement a sysctl file that disables module-loading system-wide since
there is no longer a viable way to remove CAP_SYS_MODULE after the system
bounding capability set was removed in 2.6.25.

Value can only be set to "1", and is tested only if standard capability
checks allow CAP_SYS_MODULE.  Given existing /dev/mem protections, this
should allow administrators a one-way method to block module loading
after initial boot-time module loading has finished.

Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees.cook@canonical.com>
Acked-by: Serge Hallyn <serue@us.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: James Morris <jmorris@namei.org>

1 files changed, 11 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt b/Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt
index a4ccdd1981cf..02b134956273 100644
--- a/Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt
+++ b/Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ show up in /proc/sys/kernel:
 - kstack_depth_to_print       [ X86 only ]
 - l2cr                        [ PPC only ]
 - modprobe                    ==> Documentation/debugging-modules.txt
+- modules_disabled
 - msgmax
 - msgmnb
 - msgmni
@@ -179,6 +180,16 @@ kernel stack.
 
 ==============================================================
 
+modules_disabled:
+
+A toggle value indicating if modules are allowed to be loaded
+in an otherwise modular kernel.  This toggle defaults to off
+(0), but can be set true (1).  Once true, modules can be
+neither loaded nor unloaded, and the toggle cannot be set back
+to false.
+
+==============================================================
+
 osrelease, ostype & version:
 
 # cat osrelease