Re: [PATCH] audit: add CLONE3 auxiliary record to log process cloning

[Ricardo Robaina]

On Wed, Jul 29, 2026 at 7:03 PM Paul Moore <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jul 24, 2026 at 11:03 AM Ricardo Robaina <rrobaina@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > The clone3(2) syscall moves most parameters to struct clone_args.
> > For this reason, the generic SYSCALL audit record does not capture
> > the structured arguments.
> >
> > Add a CLONE3 auxiliary record that logs: flags, exit_signal, cgroup,
> > and pidfd fields from struct clone_args. When CLONE_PIDFD is set and
> > the syscall succeeds, the resolved pidfd is logged; otherwise
> > pidfd=(null).
> >
> >  ----
> >  type=SYSCALL : syscall=clone3 a0=0x7ffe7f1ec640 a1=0x58 a2=0x0 ...
> >  type=CLONE3 : cl3_flags=0x1000 exit_signal=17 cgroup=0 pidfd=3
> >
> > Link: https://github.com/linux-audit/audit-kernel/issues/151
> > Signed-off-by: Ricardo Robaina <rrobaina@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> >  include/linux/audit.h      | 10 ++++++++++
> >  include/uapi/linux/audit.h |  1 +
> >  kernel/auditsc.c           | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
> >  kernel/fork.c              |  4 +++-
> >  4 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/include/linux/audit.h b/include/linux/audit.h
> > index 45abb3722d30..833f349bf415 100644
> > --- a/include/linux/audit.h
> > +++ b/include/linux/audit.h
> > @@ -449,6 +449,7 @@ extern void __audit_tk_injoffset(struct timespec64 offset);
> >  extern void __audit_ntp_log(const struct audit_ntp_data *ad);
> >  extern void __audit_log_nfcfg(const char *name, u8 af, unsigned int nentries,
> >                               enum audit_nfcfgop op, gfp_t gfp);
> > +extern void __audit_log_clone3(struct kernel_clone_args *kargs, int ret);
> >
> >  static inline void audit_ipc_obj(struct kern_ipc_perm *ipcp)
> >  {
> > @@ -598,6 +599,12 @@ static inline void audit_log_nfcfg(const char *name, u8 af,
> >                 __audit_log_nfcfg(name, af, nentries, op, gfp);
> >  }
> >
> > +static inline void audit_log_clone3(struct kernel_clone_args *kargs, int ret)
> > +{
> > +       if (!audit_dummy_context())
> > +               __audit_log_clone3(kargs, ret);
> > +}
> > +
> >  extern int audit_n_rules;
> >  extern int audit_signals;
> >  #else /* CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL */
> > @@ -730,6 +737,9 @@ static inline void audit_log_nfcfg(const char *name, u8 af,
> >                                    enum audit_nfcfgop op, gfp_t gfp)
> >  { }
> >
> > +static inline void audit_log_clone3(struct kernel_clone_args *kargs, int ret)
> > +{ }
> > +
> >  #define audit_n_rules 0
> >  #define audit_signals 0
> >  #endif /* CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL */
> > diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/audit.h b/include/uapi/linux/audit.h
> > index e8f5ce677df7..37357e17adbf 100644
> > --- a/include/uapi/linux/audit.h
> > +++ b/include/uapi/linux/audit.h
> > @@ -122,6 +122,7 @@
> >  #define AUDIT_OPENAT2          1337    /* Record showing openat2 how args */
> >  #define AUDIT_DM_CTRL          1338    /* Device Mapper target control */
> >  #define AUDIT_DM_EVENT         1339    /* Device Mapper events */
> > +#define AUDIT_CLONE3           1343    /* Record showing clone3 args */
> >
> >  #define AUDIT_AVC              1400    /* SE Linux avc denial or grant */
> >  #define AUDIT_SELINUX_ERR      1401    /* Internal SE Linux Errors */
> > diff --git a/kernel/auditsc.c b/kernel/auditsc.c
> > index 6610e667c728..c0106bb71c19 100644
> > --- a/kernel/auditsc.c
> > +++ b/kernel/auditsc.c
> > @@ -2882,6 +2882,26 @@ void __audit_log_nfcfg(const char *name, u8 af, unsigned int nentries,
> >  }
> >  EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(__audit_log_nfcfg);
> >
> > +void __audit_log_clone3(struct kernel_clone_args *kargs, int ret)
> > +{
> > +       struct audit_buffer *ab;
> > +       int pidfd;
> > +
> > +       ab = audit_log_start(audit_context(), GFP_KERNEL,
> > +                            AUDIT_CLONE3);
> > +       if (!ab)
> > +               return;
> > +
> > +       audit_log_format(ab, "cl3_flags=0x%llx exit_signal=%d cgroup=%d",
> > +                        kargs->flags, kargs->exit_signal, kargs->cgroup);
> > +       if ((kargs->flags & CLONE_PIDFD) && ret >= 0 &&
> > +           !get_user(pidfd, kargs->pidfd))
> > +               audit_log_format(ab, " pidfd=%d", pidfd);
>
> Do we care about distinguishing between the combination of CLONE_PIDFD
> and CLONE_THREAD vs CLONE_PIDFD alone?  In other words, do we care if
> the "pidfd" field sometimes represents a pidfd of the child process vs
> a thread in the current process?
>

Hi Paul,

Thanks for reviewing this patch.

The flags field can be use to check if CLONE_THREAD is set, so it's
possible to determine whether the pidfd refers to a child process or a
thread by inspecting the flags. Do you think we should include a
dedicated field for that?

> > +       else
> > +               audit_log_format(ab, " pidfd=(null)");
> > +       audit_log_end(ab);
> > +}
> > +
> >  static void audit_log_task(struct audit_buffer *ab)
> >  {
> >         kuid_t auid, uid;
> > diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
> > index f0e2e131a9a5..0f52e8c0e900 100644
> > --- a/kernel/fork.c
> > +++ b/kernel/fork.c
> > @@ -3047,7 +3047,9 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE2(clone3, struct clone_args __user *, uargs, size_t, size)
> >         if (!clone3_args_valid(&kargs))
> >                 return -EINVAL;
> >
> > -       return kernel_clone(&kargs);
> > +       err = kernel_clone(&kargs);
> > +       audit_log_clone3(&kargs, err);
> > +       return err;
> >  }
> >
> >  void walk_process_tree(struct task_struct *top, proc_visitor visitor, void *data)
> > --
> > 2.53.0
>
> --
> paul-moore.com
>

-Ricardo