Re: [PATCH] audit: fix incorrect inheritable capability in CAPSET records

[Paul Moore]

On May 12, 2026 Sergio Correia <scorreia@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> __audit_log_capset() records the effective capability set into the
> inheritable field due to a copy-paste error. Every CAPSET audit
> record therefore reports cap_pi (process inheritable) with the value
> of cap_effective instead of cap_inheritable.
> 
> This silently corrupts audit data used for compliance and forensic
> analysis: an attacker who modifies inheritable capabilities to
> prepare for a privilege-escalating exec would have the change masked
> in the audit trail.
> 
> The bug has been present since the original introduction of CAPSET
> audit records in 2008.
> 
> Fixes: e68b75a027bb ("When the capset syscall is used it is not possible for audit to record the actual capbilities being added/removed.  This patch adds a new record type which emits the target pid and the eff, inh, and perm cap sets.")
> Reviewed-by: Ricardo Robaina <rrobaina@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-6
> Signed-off-by: Sergio Correia <scorreia@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  kernel/auditsc.c | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

Good work, thanks!  I'm merging this into audit/stable-7.1 and will
send this up to Linus later this week.

--
paul-moore.com