Re: [PATCH] bpf: whitelist syscalls for error injection

[Andy Lutomirski]

On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 11:16 PM, Howard McLauchlan <hmclauchlan@xxxxxx> wrote:
> Error injection is a useful mechanism to fail arbitrary kernel
> functions. However, it is often hard to guarantee an error propagates
> appropriately to user space programs. By injecting into syscalls, we can
> return arbitrary values to user space directly; this increases
> flexibility and robustness in testing, allowing us to test user space
> error paths effectively.

Temporary NAK IMO.  Specifically:

> diff --git a/include/linux/syscalls.h b/include/linux/syscalls.h
> index a78186d826d7..e8c6d63ace78 100644
> --- a/include/linux/syscalls.h
> +++ b/include/linux/syscalls.h
> @@ -191,6 +191,8 @@ static inline int is_syscall_trace_event(struct trace_event_call *tp_event)
>
>  #define SYSCALL_DEFINE0(sname)                                 \
>         SYSCALL_METADATA(_##sname, 0);                          \
> +       asmlinkage long sys_##sname(void);                      \
> +       ALLOW_ERROR_INJECTION(sys_##sname, ERRNO);              \

sys_xyz() is not just the syscall itself; it's also a helper that's
used for entirely silly reasons by various bits of kernel code for
quite a few syscalls.  Fortunately, Dominik has patches to fix that,
and Linus is even considering pulling them for 4.16.  This patch will
most likely conflict with the final result of Dominik's series.

Can you and Dominik coordinate a bit to get this patch or its
equivalent landed on top of Dominik's work?  It might make sense for
Dominik to just add this patch to his series so it can land with the
rest of it.  Dominik, Ingo, what do you think?

--Andy