[PATCH 1/3] Add kernel config option for tweaking kernel behavior.

[Tetsuo Handa]

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>
---
 lib/Kconfig.debug |  2 ++
 lib/Kconfig.tewak | 13 +++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 15 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 lib/Kconfig.tewak

diff --git a/lib/Kconfig.debug b/lib/Kconfig.debug
index 21d9c5f6e7ec..e6162595ef9d 100644
--- a/lib/Kconfig.debug
+++ b/lib/Kconfig.debug
@@ -2225,4 +2225,6 @@ config HYPERV_TESTING
 
 endmenu # "Kernel Testing and Coverage"
 
+source "lib/Kconfig.tewak"
+
 endmenu # Kernel hacking
diff --git a/lib/Kconfig.tewak b/lib/Kconfig.tewak
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a5ce0db67f28
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/Kconfig.tewak
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+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. Since these kernel config options are intended
+	  for helping e.g. fuzz testing, behavior tweaked by this kernel
+	  option might be unstable. Userspace applications should not
+	  count on this option being selected.
+
+if TWEAK_KERNEL_BEHAVIOR
+
+endif # TWEAK_KERNEL_BEHAVIOR
-- 
2.18.2