[PATCH v3] Add kernel config option for tweaking kernel behavior.
From: Tetsuo Handa
Date: Mon Apr 13 2020 - 02:36:21 EST
Existing kernel config options are defined based on "whether you want to
enable this module/feature or not". And such granularity is sometimes
too rough-grained for fuzzing tools which try to find bugs inside each
module/feature.
While syzkaller (one of fuzzing tools) is finding many bugs, sometimes
syzkaller examines stupid operations. Some examples of such operations
are: changing console loglevel which in turn makes it impossible to get
kernel messages when a crash happens, freezing filesystems which in turn
causes khungtaskd to needlessly complain, programmatically sending
Ctrl-Alt-Del which in turn causes the system to needlessly reboot.
Currently we prevent syzkaller from examining stupid operations by
blacklisting syscall arguments and/or disabling whole functionality
using existing kernel config options. But such approach is difficult to
maintain and needlessly prevents fuzzers from testing kernel code. [1]
We want fuzzers to test as much coverage as possible while we want
fuzzers not to try stupid operations. To achieve this goal, we want
cooperation from kernel side, and build-time branching (i.e. kernel
config options) will be the simplest and the most reliable.
Therefore, this patch introduces a kernel config option which allows
selecting fine-grained kernel config options for tweaking kernel's
behavior. Each fine-grained kernel config option will be added by future
patches. For ease of management, grouping kernel config options for
allowing e.g. syzkaller to select all fine-grained kernel config options
which e.g. syzkaller wants would be added by future patches.
[1] https://lkml.kernel.org/r/CACT4Y+a6KExbggs4mg8pvoD554PcDqQNW4sM15X-tc=YONCzYw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Dmitry Vyukov <dvyukov@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
lib/Kconfig.debug | 11 +++++++++++
1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)
Changes since v2 ( https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20200307135822.3894-1-penguin-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ):
Reduce the role of this kernel config option from "enable everything
which would be useful for fuzz testing" to "simply serve as a gate for
hiding individual kernel config option", for we should use individual
kernel config option for tweaking individual kernel behavior.
Changes since v1 ( https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20191216095955.9886-1-penguin-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ):
Drop users of this kernel config option.
Update patch description.
diff --git a/lib/Kconfig.debug b/lib/Kconfig.debug
index 50c1f5f08e6f..a7c3ebc21428 100644
--- a/lib/Kconfig.debug
+++ b/lib/Kconfig.debug
@@ -2223,4 +2223,15 @@ config HYPERV_TESTING
endmenu # "Kernel Testing and Coverage"
+menuconfig TWEAK_KERNEL_BEHAVIOR
+ bool "Tweak kernel behavior"
+ help
+ Saying Y here allows modifying kernel behavior via kernel
+ config options which will become visible by selecting this
+ config option.
+
+if TWEAK_KERNEL_BEHAVIOR
+
+endif # TWEAK_KERNEL_BEHAVIOR
+
endmenu # Kernel hacking
--
2.18.2