[RFC PATCH] selinux: prevent truncation of status map

From: Christian Göttsche

Date: Fri Jan 30 2026 - 12:20:10 EST


From: Christian Göttsche <cgzones@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Currently the SELinux status map can be truncated, given the necessary
permissions, leading to foreign user space processes getting a bus error
(SIGBUS) while concurrently making use of the status map.
For example systemd can be killed that way, see [1].

Override the setattr inode handler and check for O_TRUNC in the open
handler to prevent truncations.

Link [1]: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/37349
Closes: https://github.com/SELinuxProject/selinux/issues/475
Signed-off-by: Christian Göttsche <cgzones@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
security/selinux/selinuxfs.c | 43 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 41 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/security/selinux/selinuxfs.c b/security/selinux/selinuxfs.c
index 896acad1f5f7..df079a35a02d 100644
--- a/security/selinux/selinuxfs.c
+++ b/security/selinux/selinuxfs.c
@@ -214,10 +214,30 @@ static const struct file_operations sel_handle_unknown_ops = {
.llseek = generic_file_llseek,
};

+static int sel_setattr_handle_status(struct mnt_idmap *idmap,
+ struct dentry *dentry,
+ struct iattr *iattr)
+{
+ /* Prevent truncation to avoid raising SIGBUS */
+ if (iattr->ia_valid & ATTR_SIZE)
+ return -EINVAL;
+
+ return simple_setattr(idmap, dentry, iattr);
+}
+
+static const struct inode_operations sel_handle_status_iops = {
+ .setattr = sel_setattr_handle_status,
+};
+
static int sel_open_handle_status(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp)
{
- struct page *status = selinux_kernel_status_page();
+ struct page *status;

+ /* Prevent truncation to avoid raising SIGBUS */
+ if (filp->f_flags & O_TRUNC)
+ return -EINVAL;
+
+ status = selinux_kernel_status_page();
if (!status)
return -ENOMEM;

@@ -1980,7 +2000,6 @@ static int sel_fill_super(struct super_block *sb, struct fs_context *fc)
[SEL_CHECKREQPROT] = {"checkreqprot", &sel_checkreqprot_ops, S_IRUGO|S_IWUSR},
[SEL_REJECT_UNKNOWN] = {"reject_unknown", &sel_handle_unknown_ops, S_IRUGO},
[SEL_DENY_UNKNOWN] = {"deny_unknown", &sel_handle_unknown_ops, S_IRUGO},
- [SEL_STATUS] = {"status", &sel_handle_status_ops, S_IRUGO},
[SEL_POLICY] = {"policy", &sel_policy_ops, S_IRUGO},
[SEL_VALIDATE_TRANS] = {"validatetrans", &sel_transition_ops,
S_IWUGO},
@@ -1995,6 +2014,26 @@ static int sel_fill_super(struct super_block *sb, struct fs_context *fc)
if (ret)
goto err;

+ /* Create "status" separately to assign a custom inode_operations */
+ {
+ ret = -ENOMEM;
+
+ dentry = d_alloc_name(sb->s_root, "status");
+ if (!dentry)
+ goto err;
+ inode = new_inode(sb);
+ if (!inode) {
+ dput(dentry);
+ goto err;
+ }
+ inode->i_mode = S_IFREG | 0444;
+ simple_inode_init_ts(inode);
+ inode->i_fop = &sel_handle_status_ops;
+ inode->i_op = &sel_handle_status_iops;
+ inode->i_ino = SEL_STATUS;
+ d_add(dentry, inode);
+ }
+
fsi = sb->s_fs_info;
fsi->bool_dir = sel_make_dir(sb->s_root, BOOL_DIR_NAME, &fsi->last_ino);
if (IS_ERR(fsi->bool_dir)) {
--
2.51.0