If you have a process that has set itself to be non-dumpable, and it then undergoes exec(2), any CLOEXEC file descriptors it has open are "exposed" during a race window between the dumpable flags of the process being reset for exec(2) and CLOEXEC being applied to the file descriptors. This can be exploited by a process by attempting to access /proc/<pid>/fd/... during this window, without requiring CAP_SYS_PTRACE. The race in question is after set_dumpable has been (for get_link, though the trace is basically the same for readlink): [vfs] -> proc_pid_link_inode_operations.get_link -> proc_pid_get_link -> proc_fd_access_allowed -> ptrace_may_access(task, PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCREDS); Which will return 0, during the race window and CLOEXEC file descriptors will still be open during this window because do_close_on_exec has not been called yet. As a result, the ordering of these calls should be reversed to avoid this race window. This is of particular concern to container runtimes, where joining a PID namespace with file descriptors referring to the host filesystem can result in security issues (since PRCTL_SET_DUMPABLE doesn't protect against access of CLOEXEC file descriptors -- file descriptors which may reference filesystem objects the container shouldn't have access to). Cc: dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> # v3.2+ Reported-by: Michael Crosby <crosbymichael@xxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Aleksa Sarai <asarai@xxxxxxx> --- fs/exec.c | 10 ++++++++-- 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/fs/exec.c b/fs/exec.c index 4e497b9ee71e..b0a98ef03253 100644 --- a/fs/exec.c +++ b/fs/exec.c @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ * current->executable is only used by the procfs. This allows a dispatch * table to check for several different types of binary formats. We keep * trying until we recognize the file or we run out of supported binary - * formats. + * formats. */ #include <linux/slab.h> @@ -1266,6 +1266,13 @@ int flush_old_exec(struct linux_binprm * bprm) flush_thread(); current->personality &= ~bprm->per_clear; + /* + * We have to apply CLOEXEC before we change whether the process is + * dumpable (in setup_new_exec) to avoid a race with a process in userspace + * trying to access the should-be-closed file descriptors of a process + * undergoing exec(2). + */ + do_close_on_exec(current->files); return 0; out: @@ -1315,7 +1322,6 @@ void setup_new_exec(struct linux_binprm * bprm) group */ current->self_exec_id++; flush_signal_handlers(current, 0); - do_close_on_exec(current->files); } EXPORT_SYMBOL(setup_new_exec); -- 2.11.0 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe stable" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html