> > I got some errors during xattr removal, so not sure if my patch was > working properly or not (it happened also without it, didn't > investigate more). > > However, I saw another discussion related to transmute: > > https://lore.kernel.org/linux-security-module/20230419002338.566487-1-mengcc@xxxxxxxxxx/ > > I add the people in CC. > > The steps described were so easy to understand and executed, I tried > without and with overlayfs. > > Without: > > # echo "_ system rwxatl" > /sys/fs/smackfs/load2 > # mkdir /data > # chsmack -a "system" /data > # chsmack -t /data > # mkdir -p /data/dir1/dir2 > # chsmack /data/dir1 > /data/dir1 access="system" transmute="TRUE" > # chsmack /data/dir1/dir2 > /data/dir1/dir2 access="system" transmute="TRUE" > > It seems to work, right? > > With overlay fs it didn't work, same result as the one Mengchi > reported. Since Mengchi's solution was to set SMK_INODE_CHANGED, and I > want to get rid of it, I thought to investigate more. > > Looking at smack_dentry_create_files_as(), I see that the label of the > process is overwritten with the label of the transmuting directory. > > That causes smack_inode_init_security() to lookup the transmuting rule > on the overridden credential, and not on the original one. > > In the example above, it means that, when overlayfs is creating the new > inode, the label of the process is system, not _. So no transmute > permission, and also the xattr will not be added, as observed by > Mengchi. > > Hopefully I undertood the code, so in this particular case we would not > need to override the label of the process in smack_dentry_create_files_ > as(). > > If you see smack_inode_init_security(): > > struct smack_known *skp = smk_of_current(); > struct smack_known *isp = smk_of_inode(inode); > struct smack_known *dsp = smk_of_inode(dir); > > [...] > > if (may > 0 && ((may & MAY_TRANSMUTE) != 0) && > smk_inode_transmutable(dir)) { > isp = dsp; > [...] > > xattr->value = kstrdup(isp->smk_known, GFP_NOFS); > > This code is telling, if there is a transmute rule, and the directory > is transmuting, set the label of the new inode to the label of the > directory. That should be already the result that we wanted to obtain. > > The current code should have been doing it by overriding the label of > the process in smack_dentry_create_files_as() with the label of the > parent directory, and letting the inode being created with the > overridden label of the process. The transmute xattr is not set due to > the problem described above. > > So, as a quick test, I kept this patch with the change to xattr2->name, > and skipped the label override in smack_dentry_create_files_as(). It > worked, I get the same result as without overlayfs. Wondering if the > process label override is necessary in other cases. If I understand correctly, removing the if block below is what you suggested. diff --git a/security/smack/smack_lsm.c b/security/smack/smack_lsm.c index cfcbb748da25..a867288e9de9 100644 --- a/security/smack/smack_lsm.c +++ b/security/smack/smack_lsm.c @@ -4769,8 +4769,8 @@ static int smack_dentry_create_files_as(struct dentry *dentry, int mode, * providing access is transmuting use the containing * directory label instead of the process label. */ - if (may > 0 && (may & MAY_TRANSMUTE)) - ntsp->smk_task = isp->smk_inode; +// if (may > 0 && (may & MAY_TRANSMUTE)) +// ntsp->smk_task = isp->smk_inode; } return 0; } This way will have issue in the following situation on the vanila kernel. data in the lowerdir has "_" label before overlay and dir1 is already created in the lowerdir. # chsmack /data /data access="_" # chsmack /data/dir1 /data/dir1 access="system" transmute="TRUE" Apply overlay on data directory and set the smack rule in the same way. data has the same smack label. # chsmack /data /data access="system" transmute="TRUE" After that, remove dir1 and mkdir dir1 again. dir1 did not get the correct label. # rm -r /data/dir1 # mkdir -p /data/dir1 # chsmack /data/dir1 /data/dir1 access="_" Since I am not very familiar your change. Could you help check with your patch will this issue also happen? Best, Mengchi > > Roberto