[RFC] [PATCH -mm] oom_kill: remove uid==0 checks

From: serue
Date: Wed Dec 05 2007 - 17:07:40 EST


Root processes are considered more important when out of memory
and killing proceses. The check for CAP_SYS_ADMIN was augmented
with a check for uid==0 or euid==0.

There are several possible ways to look at this:

1. uid comparisons are unnecessary, trust CAP_SYS_ADMIN
alone. However CAP_SYS_RESOURCE is the one that really
means "give me extra resources" so allow for that as
well.
2. Any privileged code should be protected, but uid is not
an indication of privilege. So we should check whether
any capabilities are raised.
3. uid==0 makes processes on the host as well as in containers
more important, so we should keep the existing checks.
4. uid==0 makes processes only on the host more important,
even without any capabilities. So we should be keeping
the (uid==0||euid==0) check but only when
userns==&init_user_ns.

I'm following number 1 here.

Andrew, I've cc:d you here bc in doing this patch I noticed that your
64-bit capabilities patch switched this code from an explicit check
of cap_t(p->cap_effective) to using __capable(). That means that
now being glossed over by the oom killer means PF_SUPERPRIV will
be set. Is that intentional?

Signed-off-by: Serge Hallyn <serue@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/oom_kill.c | 2 +-
1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/oom_kill.c b/mm/oom_kill.c
index 016127e..9fd8d5d 100644
--- a/mm/oom_kill.c
+++ b/mm/oom_kill.c
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ unsigned long badness(struct task_struct *p, unsigned long uptime,
* Superuser processes are usually more important, so we make it
* less likely that we kill those.
*/
- if (__capable(p, CAP_SYS_ADMIN) || p->uid == 0 || p->euid == 0)
+ if (__capable(p, CAP_SYS_ADMIN) || __capable(p, CAP_SYS_RESOURCE))
points /= 4;

/*
--
1.5.1

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/