On 04/15/2018 09:22 PM, Serge E. Hallyn wrote: > Quoting Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) (mtk.manpages@xxxxxxxxx): >> On 01/16/2018 06:38 PM, Serge E. Hallyn wrote: >>> Quoting Jann Horn (jannh@xxxxxxxxxx): >>>> On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 7:52 PM, Serge E. Hallyn <serge@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> >> [...] >> >>>>> +A VFS_CAP_REVISION_3 file capability will take effect only when run in a user namespace >>>>> +whose UID 0 maps to the saved "nsroot", or a descendant of such a namespace. >>>>> +.PP >>>>> +Users with the required privilege may use >>>>> +.BR setxattr(2) >>>>> +to request either a VFS_CAP_REVISION_2 or VFS_CAP_REVISION_3 write. >>>>> +The kernel will automatically convert a VFS_CAP_REVISION_2 to a >>>>> +VFS_CAP_REVISION_3 extended attribute with the "nsroot" >>>>> +set to the root user in the writer's user namespace, or, if a VFS_CAP_REVISION_3 >>>>> +extended attribute is specified, then the kernel will map the >>>>> +specified root user ID (which must be a valid user ID mapped in the caller's >>>>> +user namespace) into the initial user namespace. >>>> >>>> Really, "into the initial user namespace"? That may be true for the >>>> kernel-internal representation, but the on-disk representation is the >>>> mapping into the user namespace that contains the mount namespace into >>>> which the file system was mounted, right? >>> >>> Ah, yes, it is. >>> >>>> This would become observable >>>> when a file system is mounted in a different namespace than before, or >>>> when working with FUSE in a namespace. >>> >>> Yes it would. >>> >>> Michael, you said you were reworking it, do you mind working this into >>> it as well? >> >> So, I must confess that I don't really understand this piece of the >> conversation--neither Jann's comments nor Serge's response (Serge, are >> you saying Jann is right or wrong in his comments?). Perhaps this can > > He's right. The point is that if a filesystem is mounted by a user in > a non-init user namespace, then the kernel will map the specified root user ID > into sb->sb_user_ns, not &init_user_ns. > >> be clarified as a response to the man page text in the other mail I >> just sent? > > Yes, I'll try to do that. So, I think that I am possibly missing some background knowledge here. Here, I sounds to me like you are talking about mounting a block filesystem in a non-initial user namespace. (Have I misunderstood?) But, as I understood it, it is not possible to mount a physical block-based filesystem from a a non-init user namespace. Is that not correct? The only types of filesystems that I'm aware of that can be mounted are those listed in user_namespaces(7): Holding CAP_SYS_ADMIN within the user namespace associated with a process's mount namespace allows that process to create bind mounts and mount the following types of filesystems: * /proc (since Linux 3.8) * /sys (since Linux 3.8) * devpts (since Linux 3.9) * tmpfs(5) (since Linux 3.9) * ramfs (since Linux 3.9) * mqueue (since Linux 3.9) * bpf (since Linux 4.4) Holding CAP_SYS_ADMIN within the user namespace associated with a process's cgroup namespace allows (since Linux 4.6) that process to the mount the cgroup version 2 filesystem and cgroup version 1 named hierarchies (i.e., cgroup filesystems mounted with the "none,name=" option). Do I misunderstand something? Thanks, Michael -- Michael Kerrisk Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/ Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/ -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-api" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html