Re: [PATCH v32 24/28] Audit: Add framework for auxiliary records

From: Casey Schaufler
Date: Thu Mar 03 2022 - 21:13:55 EST


On 3/3/2022 3:36 PM, Paul Moore wrote:
On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 7:20 PM Casey Schaufler <casey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Add a list for auxiliary record data to the audit_buffer structure.
Add the audit_stamp information to the audit_buffer as there's no
guarantee that there will be an audit_context containing the stamp
associated with the event. At audit_log_end() time create auxiliary
records (none are currently defined) as have been added to the list.

Signed-off-by: Casey Schaufler <casey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/audit.c | 84 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------
1 file changed, 74 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/audit.c b/kernel/audit.c
index f012c3786264..559fb14e0380 100644
--- a/kernel/audit.c
+++ b/kernel/audit.c
@@ -191,15 +191,25 @@ static struct audit_ctl_mutex {
* should be at least that large. */
#define AUDIT_BUFSIZ 1024

+/* The audit_context_entry contains data required to create an
+ * auxiliary record.
+ */
+struct audit_context_entry {
+ struct list_head list;
+ int type; /* Audit record type */
+};
Looking at how this ends up being used later in the patchset I think
we would be better off if we stored a fully formed audit_buffer in the
struct above instead of data fields which we would use to generate an
audit_buffer in audit_log_end(). This helps tie the buffer generation
logic in with the existing code with which it is most closely related,
it allows us to report errors back to the caller as audit_log_end()
doesn't historically return an error code, and it helps us get ahead
of any future data lifetime issues we might run into by storing the
data in this audit struct.

OK, I'll buy that.

This would also simplify things with respect to the audit_buffer
struct. Instead of having a dedicated struct for the aux data, you
could simply leverage the existing sk_buff list mechanisms:

I can't say that "simply" is the adverb I'd choose, but sure,
I can do this.

struct audit_buffer {
struct sk_buff *skb; /* part of @skb_list, kept for audit_log funcs */
struct sk_buff_head skb_list;
struct audit_context *ctx;
struct audit_stamp stamp;
gfp_t gfp_mask;
}

The only sneaky bit in the struct above is that we likely want to
preserve audit_buffer::skb as a dedicated skb pointer so we don't have
to modify all of the audit_log_*() functions; you could of course, but
I'm guessing there is little appetite for that in the context of this
patchset.

I will give it a go without making the massive interface change.

Adding a new aux record would involve calling some private audit
function (no one outside of the audit subsystem should need access)
that would allocate a new skb similar to what we do in
audit_buffer_alloc() and add it to the end of the sk_buff_head list
via skb_queue_tail() and resetting audit_buffer::skb to point to the
newly allocated skb.

Good naming may be tricky as we need to indicate that a new buffer is
being allocated for an attached aux record and that the buffer to which
it's being attached is going to temporarily be in a curious state.
audit_buffer_add_aux() seems wordy, but it's what I'll start with lacking
a better suggestion.

This would allow all of the existing
audit_log*() functions to work correctly, and when you are done you
can restore the "main" skb with skb_peek().

audit_buffer_close_aux()

If for some reason you
need to fail the new aux record mid-creation you just dequeue the list
tail, free the skb, and skb_peek() the "main" skb back into place.

Why do I always get nervous when I hear "just" and "skb" in the
same sentence?

/* The audit_buffer is used when formatting an audit record. The caller
* locks briefly to get the record off the freelist or to allocate the
* buffer, and locks briefly to send the buffer to the netlink layer or
* to place it on a transmit queue. Multiple audit_buffers can be in
* use simultaneously. */
struct audit_buffer {
- struct sk_buff *skb; /* formatted skb ready to send */
- struct audit_context *ctx; /* NULL or associated context */
- gfp_t gfp_mask;
+ struct sk_buff *skb; /* formatted skb ready to send */
+ struct audit_context *ctx; /* NULL or associated context */
+ struct list_head aux_records; /* aux record data */
+ struct audit_stamp stamp; /* event stamp */
+ gfp_t gfp_mask;
};
...

@@ -2408,6 +2418,60 @@ void audit_log_end(struct audit_buffer *ab)
wake_up_interruptible(&kauditd_wait);
} else
audit_log_lost("rate limit exceeded");
+}
+
+/**
+ * audit_log_end - end one audit record
+ * @ab: the audit_buffer
+ *
+ * Let __audit_log_end() handle the message while the buffer housekeeping
+ * is done here.
+ * If there are other records that have been deferred for the event
+ * create them here.
+ */
+void audit_log_end(struct audit_buffer *ab)
+{
+ struct audit_context_entry *entry;
+ struct audit_context mcontext;
+ struct audit_context *mctx;
+ struct audit_buffer *mab;
+ struct list_head *l;
+ struct list_head *n;
+
+ if (!ab)
+ return;
+
+ __audit_log_end(ab);
+
+ if (list_empty(&ab->aux_records)) {
+ audit_buffer_free(ab);
+ return;
+ }
+
+ if (ab->ctx == NULL) {
+ mcontext.stamp = ab->stamp;
+ mctx = &mcontext;
+ } else
+ mctx = ab->ctx;
+
+ list_for_each_safe(l, n, &ab->aux_records) {
+ entry = list_entry(l, struct audit_context_entry, list);
+ mab = audit_log_start(mctx, ab->gfp_mask, entry->type);
+ if (!mab) {
+ audit_panic("alloc error in audit_log_end");
+ continue;
+ }
+ switch (entry->type) {
+ /* Don't know of any quite yet. */
+ default:
+ audit_panic("Unknown type in audit_log_end");
+ break;
+ }
+ __audit_log_end(mab);
+ audit_buffer_free(mab);
+ list_del(&entry->list);
+ kfree(entry);
+ }

audit_buffer_free(ab);
}
This would also allow you to simplify audit_log_end() greatly, I'm
sure I'm missing a detail or two, but I suspect it would end up
looking something like this:

Agreed. That is a much better fit for the existing code flow.


void __audit_log_end(skb)
{
/* ... current audit_log_end() but with only the sk_buff ... */
}

void audit_log_end(ab)
{
if (!ab)
return;
while ((skb = skb_dequeue(ab->skb_list)))
__audit_log_end(skb);
audit_buffer_free(ab);
}


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