From: Alexey Budankov <alexey.budankov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Open access to monitoring of kernel code, CPUs, tracepoints and namespaces data for a CAP_PERFMON privileged process. Providing the access under CAP_PERFMON capability singly, without the rest of CAP_SYS_ADMIN credentials, excludes chances to misuse the credentials and makes operation more secure. CAP_PERFMON implements the principle of least privilege for performance monitoring and observability operations (POSIX IEEE 1003.1e 2.2.2.39 principle of least privilege: A security design principle that states that a process or program be granted only those privileges (e.g., capabilities) necessary to accomplish its legitimate function, and only for the time that such privileges are actually required) For backward compatibility reasons the access to perf_events subsystem remains open for CAP_SYS_ADMIN privileged processes but CAP_SYS_ADMIN usage for secure perf_events monitoring is discouraged with respect to CAP_PERFMON capability. Signed-off-by: Alexey Budankov <alexey.budankov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Reviewed-by: James Morris <jamorris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Tested-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Andi Kleen <ak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Igor Lubashev <ilubashe@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: linux-man@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Serge Hallyn <serge@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Song Liu <songliubraving@xxxxxx> Cc: Stephane Eranian <eranian@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: intel-gfx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: linux-doc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: linux-security-module@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: selinux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Link: http://lore.kernel.org/lkml/471acaef-bb8a-5ce2-923f-90606b78eef9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Signed-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@xxxxxxxxxx> --- include/linux/perf_event.h | 6 +++--- kernel/events/core.c | 2 +- 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/include/linux/perf_event.h b/include/linux/perf_event.h index 9c3e7619c929..87e21681759c 100644 --- a/include/linux/perf_event.h +++ b/include/linux/perf_event.h @@ -1305,7 +1305,7 @@ static inline int perf_is_paranoid(void) static inline int perf_allow_kernel(struct perf_event_attr *attr) { - if (sysctl_perf_event_paranoid > 1 && !capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN)) + if (sysctl_perf_event_paranoid > 1 && !perfmon_capable()) return -EACCES; return security_perf_event_open(attr, PERF_SECURITY_KERNEL); @@ -1313,7 +1313,7 @@ static inline int perf_allow_kernel(struct perf_event_attr *attr) static inline int perf_allow_cpu(struct perf_event_attr *attr) { - if (sysctl_perf_event_paranoid > 0 && !capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN)) + if (sysctl_perf_event_paranoid > 0 && !perfmon_capable()) return -EACCES; return security_perf_event_open(attr, PERF_SECURITY_CPU); @@ -1321,7 +1321,7 @@ static inline int perf_allow_cpu(struct perf_event_attr *attr) static inline int perf_allow_tracepoint(struct perf_event_attr *attr) { - if (sysctl_perf_event_paranoid > -1 && !capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN)) + if (sysctl_perf_event_paranoid > -1 && !perfmon_capable()) return -EPERM; return security_perf_event_open(attr, PERF_SECURITY_TRACEPOINT); diff --git a/kernel/events/core.c b/kernel/events/core.c index 1569979c8912..f9d564127e2e 100644 --- a/kernel/events/core.c +++ b/kernel/events/core.c @@ -11486,7 +11486,7 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE5(perf_event_open, } if (attr.namespaces) { - if (!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN)) + if (!perfmon_capable()) return -EACCES; } -- 2.21.1