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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2012-03-21 16:25:04 -0400
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2012-03-21 16:25:04 -0400
commit3556485f1595e3964ba539e39ea682acbb835cee (patch)
tree7f5ee254f425b1427ac0059b5f347a307f8538a1 /Documentation
parentb8716614a7cc2fc15ea2a518edd04755fb08d922 (diff)
parent09f61cdbb32a9d812c618d3922db533542736bb0 (diff)
Merge branch 'next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jmorris/linux-security
Pull security subsystem updates for 3.4 from James Morris: "The main addition here is the new Yama security module from Kees Cook, which was discussed at the Linux Security Summit last year. Its purpose is to collect miscellaneous DAC security enhancements in one place. This also marks a departure in policy for LSM modules, which were previously limited to being standalone access control systems. Chromium OS is using Yama, and I believe there are plans for Ubuntu, at least. This patchset also includes maintenance updates for AppArmor, TOMOYO and others." Fix trivial conflict in <net/sock.h> due to the jumo_label->static_key rename. * 'next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jmorris/linux-security: (38 commits) AppArmor: Fix location of const qualifier on generated string tables TOMOYO: Return error if fails to delete a domain AppArmor: add const qualifiers to string arrays AppArmor: Add ability to load extended policy TOMOYO: Return appropriate value to poll(). AppArmor: Move path failure information into aa_get_name and rename AppArmor: Update dfa matching routines. AppArmor: Minor cleanup of d_namespace_path to consolidate error handling AppArmor: Retrieve the dentry_path for error reporting when path lookup fails AppArmor: Add const qualifiers to generated string tables AppArmor: Fix oops in policy unpack auditing AppArmor: Fix error returned when a path lookup is disconnected KEYS: testing wrong bit for KEY_FLAG_REVOKED TOMOYO: Fix mount flags checking order. security: fix ima kconfig warning AppArmor: Fix the error case for chroot relative path name lookup AppArmor: fix mapping of META_READ to audit and quiet flags AppArmor: Fix underflow in xindex calculation AppArmor: Fix dropping of allowed operations that are force audited AppArmor: Add mising end of structure test to caps unpacking ...
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/networking/dns_resolver.txt4
-rw-r--r--Documentation/security/00-INDEX2
-rw-r--r--Documentation/security/Yama.txt65
-rw-r--r--Documentation/security/keys.txt4
4 files changed, 75 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/dns_resolver.txt b/Documentation/networking/dns_resolver.txt
index 7f531ad83285..d86adcdae420 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/dns_resolver.txt
+++ b/Documentation/networking/dns_resolver.txt
@@ -102,6 +102,10 @@ implemented in the module can be called after doing:
102 If _expiry is non-NULL, the expiry time (TTL) of the result will be 102 If _expiry is non-NULL, the expiry time (TTL) of the result will be
103 returned also. 103 returned also.
104 104
105The kernel maintains an internal keyring in which it caches looked up keys.
106This can be cleared by any process that has the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability by
107the use of KEYCTL_KEYRING_CLEAR on the keyring ID.
108
105 109
106=============================== 110===============================
107READING DNS KEYS FROM USERSPACE 111READING DNS KEYS FROM USERSPACE
diff --git a/Documentation/security/00-INDEX b/Documentation/security/00-INDEX
index 99b85d39751c..eeed1de546d4 100644
--- a/Documentation/security/00-INDEX
+++ b/Documentation/security/00-INDEX
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ SELinux.txt
6 - how to get started with the SELinux security enhancement. 6 - how to get started with the SELinux security enhancement.
7Smack.txt 7Smack.txt
8 - documentation on the Smack Linux Security Module. 8 - documentation on the Smack Linux Security Module.
9Yama.txt
10 - documentation on the Yama Linux Security Module.
9apparmor.txt 11apparmor.txt
10 - documentation on the AppArmor security extension. 12 - documentation on the AppArmor security extension.
11credentials.txt 13credentials.txt
diff --git a/Documentation/security/Yama.txt b/Documentation/security/Yama.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a9511f179069
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/security/Yama.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
1Yama is a Linux Security Module that collects a number of system-wide DAC
2security protections that are not handled by the core kernel itself. To
3select it at boot time, specify "security=yama" (though this will disable
4any other LSM).
5
6Yama is controlled through sysctl in /proc/sys/kernel/yama:
7
8- ptrace_scope
9
10==============================================================
11
12ptrace_scope:
13
14As Linux grows in popularity, it will become a larger target for
15malware. One particularly troubling weakness of the Linux process
16interfaces is that a single user is able to examine the memory and
17running state of any of their processes. For example, if one application
18(e.g. Pidgin) was compromised, it would be possible for an attacker to
19attach to other running processes (e.g. Firefox, SSH sessions, GPG agent,
20etc) to extract additional credentials and continue to expand the scope
21of their attack without resorting to user-assisted phishing.
22
23This is not a theoretical problem. SSH session hijacking
24(http://www.storm.net.nz/projects/7) and arbitrary code injection
25(http://c-skills.blogspot.com/2007/05/injectso.html) attacks already
26exist and remain possible if ptrace is allowed to operate as before.
27Since ptrace is not commonly used by non-developers and non-admins, system
28builders should be allowed the option to disable this debugging system.
29
30For a solution, some applications use prctl(PR_SET_DUMPABLE, ...) to
31specifically disallow such ptrace attachment (e.g. ssh-agent), but many
32do not. A more general solution is to only allow ptrace directly from a
33parent to a child process (i.e. direct "gdb EXE" and "strace EXE" still
34work), or with CAP_SYS_PTRACE (i.e. "gdb --pid=PID", and "strace -p PID"
35still work as root).
36
37For software that has defined application-specific relationships
38between a debugging process and its inferior (crash handlers, etc),
39prctl(PR_SET_PTRACER, pid, ...) can be used. An inferior can declare which
40other process (and its descendents) are allowed to call PTRACE_ATTACH
41against it. Only one such declared debugging process can exists for
42each inferior at a time. For example, this is used by KDE, Chromium, and
43Firefox's crash handlers, and by Wine for allowing only Wine processes
44to ptrace each other. If a process wishes to entirely disable these ptrace
45restrictions, it can call prctl(PR_SET_PTRACER, PR_SET_PTRACER_ANY, ...)
46so that any otherwise allowed process (even those in external pid namespaces)
47may attach.
48
49The sysctl settings are:
50
510 - classic ptrace permissions: a process can PTRACE_ATTACH to any other
52 process running under the same uid, as long as it is dumpable (i.e.
53 did not transition uids, start privileged, or have called
54 prctl(PR_SET_DUMPABLE...) already).
55
561 - restricted ptrace: a process must have a predefined relationship
57 with the inferior it wants to call PTRACE_ATTACH on. By default,
58 this relationship is that of only its descendants when the above
59 classic criteria is also met. To change the relationship, an
60 inferior can call prctl(PR_SET_PTRACER, debugger, ...) to declare
61 an allowed debugger PID to call PTRACE_ATTACH on the inferior.
62
63The original children-only logic was based on the restrictions in grsecurity.
64
65==============================================================
diff --git a/Documentation/security/keys.txt b/Documentation/security/keys.txt
index fcbe7a703405..787717091421 100644
--- a/Documentation/security/keys.txt
+++ b/Documentation/security/keys.txt
@@ -554,6 +554,10 @@ The keyctl syscall functions are:
554 process must have write permission on the keyring, and it must be a 554 process must have write permission on the keyring, and it must be a
555 keyring (or else error ENOTDIR will result). 555 keyring (or else error ENOTDIR will result).
556 556
557 This function can also be used to clear special kernel keyrings if they
558 are appropriately marked if the user has CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability. The
559 DNS resolver cache keyring is an example of this.
560
557 561
558 (*) Link a key into a keyring: 562 (*) Link a key into a keyring:
559 563