Re: Documenting ptrace access mode checking

[Eric W. Biederman]

Adding Oleg just because he seems to do most of the ptrace related
maintenance these days.

"Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk.manpages@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Hi Jann, Stephen, et al.
>
> Jann, since you recently committed a patch in this area, and Stephen,
> since you committed 006ebb40d3d much further back in time, I wonder if
> you might help me by reviewing the text below that I propose to add to
> the ptrace(2) man page, in order to document "ptrace access mode 
> checking" that is performed in various parts of the kernel-user-space
> interface. Of course, I welcome input from anyone else as well.
>
> Here's the new ptrace(2) text. Any comments, technical or terminological
> fixes, other improvements, etc. are welcome.
>
> [[
>    Ptrace access mode checking
>        Various parts of the kernel-user-space API (not just  ptrace(2)
>        operations), require so-called "ptrace access mode permissions"
>        which are gated  by  Linux  Security  Modules  (LSMs)  such  as
>        SELinux,  Yama,  Smack,  or  the  default  LSM.  Prior to Linux
>        2.6.27, all such checks were of a  single  type.   Since  Linux
>        2.6.27, two access mode levels are distinguished:
>
>        PTRACE_MODE_READ
>               For  "read" operations or other operations that are less
>               dangerous, such as: get_robust_list(2); kcmp(2); reading
>               /proc/[pid]/auxv,         /proc/[pid]/environ,        or
>               /proc/[pid]/stat; or readlink(2) of  a  /proc/[pid]/ns/*
>               file.
>
>        PTRACE_MODE_ATTACH
>               For  "write"  operations,  or  other operations that are
>               more    dangerous,    such    as:    ptrace    attaching
>               (PTRACE_ATTACH)    to   another   process   or   calling
>               process_vm_writev(2).   (PTRACE_MODE_ATTACH  was  effecâ
>               tively the default before Linux 2.6.27.)
>
>        Since  Linux  4.5, the above access mode checks may be combined
>        (ORed) with one of the following modifiers:
>
>        PTRACE_MODE_FSCREDS
>               Use the caller's filesystem UID  and  GID  (see  credenâ
>               tials(7)) or effective capabilities for LSM checks.
>
>        PTRACE_MODE_REALCREDS
>               Use the caller's real UID and GID or permitted capabiliâ
>               ties for LSM checks.  This was effectively  the  default
>               before Linux 4.5.
>
>        Because  combining  one of the credential modifiers with one of
>        the aforementioned access modes is  typical,  some  macros  are
>        defined in the kernel sources for the combinations:
>
>        PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCREDS
>               Defined as PTRACE_MODE_READ | PTRACE_MODE_FSCREDS.
>
>        PTRACE_MODE_READ_REALCREDS
>               Defined as PTRACE_MODE_READ | PTRACE_MODE_REALCREDS.
>
>        PTRACE_MODE_ATTACH_FSCREDS
>               Defined as PTRACE_MODE_ATTACH | PTRACE_MODE_FSCREDS.
>
>        PTRACE_MODE_ATTACH_REALCREDS
>               Defined as PTRACE_MODE_ATTACH | PTRACE_MODE_REALCREDS.
>
>        One further modifier can be ORed with the access mode:
>
>        PTRACE_MODE_NOAUDIT (since Linux 3.3)
>               Don't audit this access mode check.
>
> [I'd quite welcome some text to explain "auditing" here.]

         AKA don't let the audit subsystem know.  Which tends to
         generate audit records capable is called.
>
>        The  algorithm  employed for ptrace access mode checking deterâ
>        mines whether the calling process is  allowed  to  perform  the
>        corresponding action on the target process, as follows:
>
>        1.  If the calling thread and the target thread are in the same
>            thread group, access is always allowed.

This test only exsits because the LSMs historically and I suspect
continue to be broken and deny a process the ability to ptrace itself.
>
>        2.  If the access mode specifies PTRACE_MODE_FSCREDS, then  for
>            the  check in the next step, employ the caller's filesystem
>            user ID and group ID (see credentials(7));  otherwise  (the
>            access  mode  specifies  PTRACE_MODE_REALCREDS, so) use the
>            caller's real user ID and group ID.
>
>        3.  Deny access if neither of the following is true:
>
>            Â The real, effective, and saved-set user IDs of the target
>              match  the caller's user ID, and the real, effective, and
>              saved-set group IDs of  the  target  match  the  caller's
>              group ID.
>
>            Â The caller has the CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability.
>
>        4.  Deny  access if the target process "dumpable" attribute has
>            a value other than 1 (SUID_DUMP_USER; see the discussion of
>            PR_SET_DUMPABLE  in prctl(2)), and the caller does not have
>            the CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability in the user namespace of  the
>            target process.
>
>        5.  The  kernel LSM security_ptrace_access_check() interface is
>            invoked to see if ptrace access is permitted.  The  results
>            depend on the LSM.  The implementation of this interface in
>            the default LSM performs the following steps:
>
>            a) If the access mode  includes  PTRACE_MODE_FSCREDS,  then
>               use the caller's effective capability set in the followâ
>               ing  check;  otherwise  (the   access   mode   specifies
>               PTRACE_MODE_REALCREDS,  so)  use  the caller's permitted
>               capability set.
>
>            b) Deny access if neither of the following is true:
>
>               Â The caller's capabilities are a proper superset of the
>                 target process's permitted capabilities.
>
>               Â The  caller  has  the CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability in the
>                 target process's user namespace.
>
>               Note that the default LSM does not  distinguish  between
>               PTRACE_MODE_READ and PTRACE_MODE_ATTACH.
>
>        6.  If  access  has  not  been  denied  by any of the preceding
>            steps, then access is allowed.
> ]]
>
> There are accompanying changes to various pages that refer to 
> the new text in ptrace(2), so that, for example, kcmp(2) adds:
>
>        Permission  to  employ kcmp() is governed by ptrace access mode
>        PTRACE_MODE_ATTACH_REALCREDS checks against both pid1 and pid2;
>        see ptrace(2).
>
> and proc.5 has additions such as:
>
>        /proc/[pid]/auxv (since 2.6.0-test7)
>               ...
>               Permission to access this file is governed by  a  ptrace
>               access    mode   PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCREDS   check;   see
>               ptrace(2).
>
>        /proc/[pid]/cwd
>               ...
>               Permission to dereference  or  read  (readlink(2))  this
>               symbolic  link  is  governed  by  a  ptrace  access mode
>               PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCREDS check; see ptrace(2).

Hmm.

When I gave this level of detail about the user namespace permission
checks you gave me some flack, because it was not particularly
comprehensible to the end users.  I think you deserve the same feedback.

How do we say this in a way that does not describes a useful way to
think about it.  I read this and I know a lot of what is going on and my
mind goes numb.

How about something like this:

   If the callers uid and gid are the same as a processes uids and gids
   and the processes is configured to allow core dumps (aka it was never
   setuid or setgid) then the caller is allowed to ptrace a process.
   
   Otherwise the caller must have CAP_SYS_PTRACE.
   
   Linux security modules impose additional restrictions.
   
   For consistency access to various process attributes are guarded with
   the same security checks as the ptrace system call itself.  As they are
   all methods to get information about a process.

We certainly need something that gives a high level view so people
reading the man page can know what to expect.   If you get down into the
weeds we run the danger of people beginning to think they can depend
upon bugs in the implementation.

Eric