<feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'>
<title>linux-stable.git/kernel/user.c, branch v7.3-rc2</title>
<subtitle>Linux kernel stable tree</subtitle>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/'/>
<entry>
<title>binfmt_misc: use RCU for the handler lookup</title>
<updated>2026-08-03T08:08:36+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christian Brauner</name>
<email>brauner@kernel.org</email>
</author>
<published>2026-07-10T09:33:06+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=fd77da3efbedd7b442fbab86a6dbea5e2a1b32f8'/>
<id>fd77da3efbedd7b442fbab86a6dbea5e2a1b32f8</id>
<content type='text'>
Once binfmt_misc is loaded load_misc_binary() runs for every execve()
on the system since binfmt_misc registers at the head of the formats
list. Every exec therefore performs read_lock() and read_unlock() on
the entries_lock of the relevant binfmt_misc instance, i.e., two
atomic read-modify-writes on a shared cacheline. User namespaces
without their own binfmt_misc mount fall back to an ancestor's
instance so on container-heavy systems every exec on the machine
typically ends up hammering the cacheline of init_binfmt_misc. On
PREEMPT_RT the rwlock additionally turns the handler lookup into a
sleeping lock on the exec fast path.

The lock protects very little. Entries are immutable after publication
except for the Enabled bit which is already toggled locklessly via
set_bit()/clear_bit() and entry lifetime is already handled by the
users refcount via get_binfmt_handler()/put_binfmt_handler(). The read
lock's only remaining job is to make "the entry is still linked" and
"take a reference" atomic with respect to the unlink sites.

Switch the lookup to an RCU walk:

* Lookup walks the entry list under rcu_read_lock() and acquires a
  reference via refcount_inc_not_zero(). The refcount can only drop to
  zero after an entry has been unlinked so a failed increment means
  the walk raced with an unlink. Restarting the search is bounded
  because an unlinked entry cannot be found again.

* The unlink sites use hlist_del_init_rcu() which keeps the forward
  pointer intact for concurrent walkers and preserves hlist_unhashed()
  as the protection against double removal.

* The final put frees the entry via kfree_rcu() as a concurrent walker
  may still dereference its flags, magic, mask, and inline strings.
  They all live in the entry allocation itself and thus stay valid
  until a grace period has elapsed. Closing the interpreter file stays
  synchronous. It is only used with a reference already held and all
  final puts run in process context.

* Writers remain serialized by the inode lock of the root dentry with
  one exception. bm_evict_inode() called from generic_shutdown_super()
  during umount unlinks entries without holding it. Keep a spinlock
  around the unlink sites instead of relying on superblock lifetime
  rules to make that exclusion implicit.

Handler removal semantics are unchanged. An exec that acquired a
reference just before its handler was unregistered already completes
with the removed handler today. The read lock never protected against
that, it only made the window smaller.

With this an exec that matches no binfmt_misc entry, the common case,
no longer writes to any shared cacheline at all.

Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260710-work-binfmt_misc-locking-v3-5-a162f7cb58d6@kernel.org
Reviewed-by: Jori Koolstra &lt;jkoolstra@xs4all.nl&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Once binfmt_misc is loaded load_misc_binary() runs for every execve()
on the system since binfmt_misc registers at the head of the formats
list. Every exec therefore performs read_lock() and read_unlock() on
the entries_lock of the relevant binfmt_misc instance, i.e., two
atomic read-modify-writes on a shared cacheline. User namespaces
without their own binfmt_misc mount fall back to an ancestor's
instance so on container-heavy systems every exec on the machine
typically ends up hammering the cacheline of init_binfmt_misc. On
PREEMPT_RT the rwlock additionally turns the handler lookup into a
sleeping lock on the exec fast path.

The lock protects very little. Entries are immutable after publication
except for the Enabled bit which is already toggled locklessly via
set_bit()/clear_bit() and entry lifetime is already handled by the
users refcount via get_binfmt_handler()/put_binfmt_handler(). The read
lock's only remaining job is to make "the entry is still linked" and
"take a reference" atomic with respect to the unlink sites.

Switch the lookup to an RCU walk:

* Lookup walks the entry list under rcu_read_lock() and acquires a
  reference via refcount_inc_not_zero(). The refcount can only drop to
  zero after an entry has been unlinked so a failed increment means
  the walk raced with an unlink. Restarting the search is bounded
  because an unlinked entry cannot be found again.

* The unlink sites use hlist_del_init_rcu() which keeps the forward
  pointer intact for concurrent walkers and preserves hlist_unhashed()
  as the protection against double removal.

* The final put frees the entry via kfree_rcu() as a concurrent walker
  may still dereference its flags, magic, mask, and inline strings.
  They all live in the entry allocation itself and thus stay valid
  until a grace period has elapsed. Closing the interpreter file stays
  synchronous. It is only used with a reference already held and all
  final puts run in process context.

* Writers remain serialized by the inode lock of the root dentry with
  one exception. bm_evict_inode() called from generic_shutdown_super()
  during umount unlinks entries without holding it. Keep a spinlock
  around the unlink sites instead of relying on superblock lifetime
  rules to make that exclusion implicit.

Handler removal semantics are unchanged. An exec that acquired a
reference just before its handler was unregistered already completes
with the removed handler today. The read lock never protected against
that, it only made the window smaller.

With this an exec that matches no binfmt_misc entry, the common case,
no longer writes to any shared cacheline at all.

Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260710-work-binfmt_misc-locking-v3-5-a162f7cb58d6@kernel.org
Reviewed-by: Jori Koolstra &lt;jkoolstra@xs4all.nl&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>binfmt_misc: convert entry list to an hlist</title>
<updated>2026-08-03T08:08:32+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christian Brauner</name>
<email>brauner@kernel.org</email>
</author>
<published>2026-07-10T09:33:05+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=7a8b81e8b9c73cfb7343fe90e575ec0c31a0c47a'/>
<id>7a8b81e8b9c73cfb7343fe90e575ec0c31a0c47a</id>
<content type='text'>
The upcoming conversion of the handler lookup to RCU walks cannot use
list_del_init(): reinitializing the forward pointer of a removed entry
would make a concurrent lockless walker standing on that entry loop
back onto it indefinitely. The removal paths do rely on
reinitialization though because bm_{entry,status}_write() and
bm_evict_inode() need to detect whether an entry has already been
unlinked.

hlists support exactly this pattern: hlist_del_init_rcu() keeps the
forward pointer of the removed entry intact for concurrent walkers and
only zeroes -&gt;pprev with hlist_unhashed() serving as the linked test.

Convert the entry list to an hlist now while keeping the rwlock so the
subsequent RCU conversion is a pure locking change. hlist_add_head()
inserts at the head just as list_add() did so lookup precedence
between registered handlers is unchanged.

Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260710-work-binfmt_misc-locking-v3-4-a162f7cb58d6@kernel.org
Reviewed-by: Jori Koolstra &lt;jkoolstra@xs4all.nl&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
The upcoming conversion of the handler lookup to RCU walks cannot use
list_del_init(): reinitializing the forward pointer of a removed entry
would make a concurrent lockless walker standing on that entry loop
back onto it indefinitely. The removal paths do rely on
reinitialization though because bm_{entry,status}_write() and
bm_evict_inode() need to detect whether an entry has already been
unlinked.

hlists support exactly this pattern: hlist_del_init_rcu() keeps the
forward pointer of the removed entry intact for concurrent walkers and
only zeroes -&gt;pprev with hlist_unhashed() serving as the linked test.

Convert the entry list to an hlist now while keeping the rwlock so the
subsequent RCU conversion is a pure locking change. hlist_add_head()
inserts at the head just as list_add() did so lookup precedence
between registered handlers is unchanged.

Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260710-work-binfmt_misc-locking-v3-4-a162f7cb58d6@kernel.org
Reviewed-by: Jori Koolstra &lt;jkoolstra@xs4all.nl&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>ns: drop custom reference count initialization for initial namespaces</title>
<updated>2025-11-11T09:01:32+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christian Brauner</name>
<email>brauner@kernel.org</email>
</author>
<published>2025-11-10T15:08:28+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=c2bbd2db521b018c59fb0ff8e1cdfa8ee907ba88'/>
<id>c2bbd2db521b018c59fb0ff8e1cdfa8ee907ba88</id>
<content type='text'>
Initial namespaces don't modify their reference count anymore.
They remain fixed at one so drop the custom refcount initializations.

Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251110-work-namespace-nstree-fixes-v1-16-e8a9264e0fb9@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Initial namespaces don't modify their reference count anymore.
They remain fixed at one so drop the custom refcount initializations.

Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251110-work-namespace-nstree-fixes-v1-16-e8a9264e0fb9@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>ns: use NS_COMMON_INIT() for all namespaces</title>
<updated>2025-11-03T16:41:16+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christian Brauner</name>
<email>brauner@kernel.org</email>
</author>
<published>2025-11-03T15:16:01+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=0b1765830cf9c652f010e9f5df7d9fa435a2f930'/>
<id>0b1765830cf9c652f010e9f5df7d9fa435a2f930</id>
<content type='text'>
Now that we have a common initializer use it for all static namespaces.

Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Now that we have a common initializer use it for all static namespaces.

Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>ns: move ns type into struct ns_common</title>
<updated>2025-09-25T07:23:54+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christian Brauner</name>
<email>brauner@kernel.org</email>
</author>
<published>2025-09-24T11:33:59+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=4055526d35746ce8b04bfa5e14e14f28bb163186'/>
<id>4055526d35746ce8b04bfa5e14e14f28bb163186</id>
<content type='text'>
It's misplaced in struct proc_ns_operations and ns-&gt;ops might be NULL if
the namespace is compiled out but we still want to know the type of the
namespace for the initial namespace struct.

Reviewed-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
It's misplaced in struct proc_ns_operations and ns-&gt;ops might be NULL if
the namespace is compiled out but we still want to know the type of the
namespace for the initial namespace struct.

Reviewed-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>ns: use inode initializer for initial namespaces</title>
<updated>2025-09-19T14:22:38+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christian Brauner</name>
<email>brauner@kernel.org</email>
</author>
<published>2025-09-19T09:29:49+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=7cf730321132e726ff949c6f3c0d5c598788f7a2'/>
<id>7cf730321132e726ff949c6f3c0d5c598788f7a2</id>
<content type='text'>
Just use the common helper we have.

Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Just use the common helper we have.

Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>ns: rename to __ns_ref</title>
<updated>2025-09-19T14:22:38+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christian Brauner</name>
<email>brauner@kernel.org</email>
</author>
<published>2025-09-18T10:11:59+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=024596a4e2802e457a9f92af79f246fa9631f8de'/>
<id>024596a4e2802e457a9f92af79f246fa9631f8de</id>
<content type='text'>
Make it easier to grep and rename to ns_count.

Reviewed-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Make it easier to grep and rename to ns_count.

Reviewed-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>uidgid: make sure we fit into one cacheline</title>
<updated>2024-09-12T10:16:09+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christian Brauner</name>
<email>brauner@kernel.org</email>
</author>
<published>2024-09-10T08:16:39+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=2077006d4725c82c6e9612cec3a6c140921b067f'/>
<id>2077006d4725c82c6e9612cec3a6c140921b067f</id>
<content type='text'>
When I expanded uidgid mappings I intended for a struct uid_gid_map to
fit into a single cacheline on x86 as they tend to be pretty
performance sensitive (idmapped mounts etc). But a 4 byte hole was added
that brought it over 64 bytes. Fix that by adding the static extent
array and the extent counter into a substruct. C's type punning for
unions guarantees that we can access -&gt;nr_extents even if the last
written to member wasn't within the same object. This is also what we
rely on in struct_group() and friends. This of course relies on
non-strict aliasing which we don't do.

99) If the member used to read the contents of a union object is not the
    same as the member last used to store a value in the object, the
    appropriate part of the object representation of the value is
    reinterpreted as an object representation in the new type as
    described in 6.2.6 (a process sometimes called "type punning").

Link: https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2310.pdf
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240910-work-uid_gid_map-v1-1-e6bc761363ed@kernel.org
Reviewed-by: Jeff Layton &lt;jlayton@kernel.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
When I expanded uidgid mappings I intended for a struct uid_gid_map to
fit into a single cacheline on x86 as they tend to be pretty
performance sensitive (idmapped mounts etc). But a 4 byte hole was added
that brought it over 64 bytes. Fix that by adding the static extent
array and the extent counter into a substruct. C's type punning for
unions guarantees that we can access -&gt;nr_extents even if the last
written to member wasn't within the same object. This is also what we
rely on in struct_group() and friends. This of course relies on
non-strict aliasing which we don't do.

99) If the member used to read the contents of a union object is not the
    same as the member last used to store a value in the object, the
    appropriate part of the object representation of the value is
    reinterpreted as an object representation in the new type as
    described in 6.2.6 (a process sometimes called "type punning").

Link: https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2310.pdf
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240910-work-uid_gid_map-v1-1-e6bc761363ed@kernel.org
Reviewed-by: Jeff Layton &lt;jlayton@kernel.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>printk: Change type of CONFIG_BASE_SMALL to bool</title>
<updated>2024-05-06T15:39:09+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Yoann Congal</name>
<email>yoann.congal@smile.fr</email>
</author>
<published>2024-05-05T08:03:42+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=b3e90f375b3c7ab85aef631ebb0ad8ce66cbf3fd'/>
<id>b3e90f375b3c7ab85aef631ebb0ad8ce66cbf3fd</id>
<content type='text'>
CONFIG_BASE_SMALL is currently a type int but is only used as a boolean.

So, change its type to bool and adapt all usages:
CONFIG_BASE_SMALL == 0 becomes !IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_BASE_SMALL) and
CONFIG_BASE_SMALL != 0 becomes  IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_BASE_SMALL).

Reviewed-by: Petr Mladek &lt;pmladek@suse.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;
Reviewed-by: Masahiro Yamada &lt;masahiroy@kernel.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Yoann Congal &lt;yoann.congal@smile.fr&gt;
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240505080343.1471198-3-yoann.congal@smile.fr
Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek &lt;pmladek@suse.com&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
CONFIG_BASE_SMALL is currently a type int but is only used as a boolean.

So, change its type to bool and adapt all usages:
CONFIG_BASE_SMALL == 0 becomes !IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_BASE_SMALL) and
CONFIG_BASE_SMALL != 0 becomes  IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_BASE_SMALL).

Reviewed-by: Petr Mladek &lt;pmladek@suse.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;
Reviewed-by: Masahiro Yamada &lt;masahiroy@kernel.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Yoann Congal &lt;yoann.congal@smile.fr&gt;
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240505080343.1471198-3-yoann.congal@smile.fr
Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek &lt;pmladek@suse.com&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>binfmt_misc: enable sandboxed mounts</title>
<updated>2023-10-11T15:46:01+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christian Brauner</name>
<email>christian.brauner@ubuntu.com</email>
</author>
<published>2021-10-28T10:31:14+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=21ca59b365c091d583f36ac753eaa8baf947be6f'/>
<id>21ca59b365c091d583f36ac753eaa8baf947be6f</id>
<content type='text'>
Enable unprivileged sandboxes to create their own binfmt_misc mounts.
This is based on Laurent's work in [1] but has been significantly
reworked to fix various issues we identified in earlier versions.

While binfmt_misc can currently only be mounted in the initial user
namespace, binary types registered in this binfmt_misc instance are
available to all sandboxes (Either by having them installed in the
sandbox or by registering the binary type with the F flag causing the
interpreter to be opened right away). So binfmt_misc binary types are
already delegated to sandboxes implicitly.

However, while a sandbox has access to all registered binary types in
binfmt_misc a sandbox cannot currently register its own binary types
in binfmt_misc. This has prevented various use-cases some of which were
already outlined in [1] but we have a range of issues associated with
this (cf. [3]-[5] below which are just a small sample).

Extend binfmt_misc to be mountable in non-initial user namespaces.
Similar to other filesystem such as nfsd, mqueue, and sunrpc we use
keyed superblock management. The key determines whether we need to
create a new superblock or can reuse an already existing one. We use the
user namespace of the mount as key. This means a new binfmt_misc
superblock is created once per user namespace creation. Subsequent
mounts of binfmt_misc in the same user namespace will mount the same
binfmt_misc instance. We explicitly do not create a new binfmt_misc
superblock on every binfmt_misc mount as the semantics for
load_misc_binary() line up with the keying model. This also allows us to
retrieve the relevant binfmt_misc instance based on the caller's user
namespace which can be done in a simple (bounded to 32 levels) loop.

Similar to the current binfmt_misc semantics allowing access to the
binary types in the initial binfmt_misc instance we do allow sandboxes
access to their parent's binfmt_misc mounts if they do not have created
a separate binfmt_misc instance.

Overall, this will unblock the use-cases mentioned below and in general
will also allow to support and harden execution of another
architecture's binaries in tight sandboxes. For instance, using the
unshare binary it possible to start a chroot of another architecture and
configure the binfmt_misc interpreter without being root to run the
binaries in this chroot and without requiring the host to modify its
binary type handlers.

Henning had already posted a few experiments in the cover letter at [1].
But here's an additional example where an unprivileged container
registers qemu-user-static binary handlers for various binary types in
its separate binfmt_misc mount and is then seamlessly able to start
containers with a different architecture without affecting the host:

root    [lxc monitor] /var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/containers f1
1000000  \_ /sbin/init
1000000      \_ /lib/systemd/systemd-journald
1000000      \_ /lib/systemd/systemd-udevd
1000100      \_ /lib/systemd/systemd-networkd
1000101      \_ /lib/systemd/systemd-resolved
1000000      \_ /usr/sbin/cron -f
1000103      \_ /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activation --syslog-only
1000000      \_ /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/networkd-dispatcher --run-startup-triggers
1000104      \_ /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -n -iNONE
1000000      \_ /lib/systemd/systemd-logind
1000000      \_ /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud console 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1000107      \_ dnsmasq --conf-file=/dev/null -u lxc-dnsmasq --strict-order --bind-interfaces --pid-file=/run/lxc/dnsmasq.pid --liste
1000000      \_ [lxc monitor] /var/lib/lxc f1-s390x
1100000          \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/init
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /lib/systemd/systemd-journald
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /usr/sbin/cron -f
1100103              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-ac
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/networkd-dispatcher --run-startup-triggers
1100104              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -n -iNONE
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /lib/systemd/systemd-logind
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud console 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud pts/0 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud pts/1 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud pts/2 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud pts/3 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /lib/systemd/systemd-udevd

[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20191216091220.465626-1-laurent@vivier.eu
[2]: https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/binfmt-misc-permission-denied
[3]: https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/lxd-binfmt-support-for-qemu-static-interpreters
[4]: https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/3-1-0-binfmt-support-service-in-unprivileged-guest-requires-write-access-on-hosts-proc-sys-fs-binfmt-misc
[5]: https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/qemu-user-static-not-working-4-11

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20191216091220.465626-2-laurent@vivier.eu (origin)
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20211028103114.2849140-2-brauner@kernel.org (v1)
Cc: Sargun Dhillon &lt;sargun@sargun.me&gt;
Cc: Serge Hallyn &lt;serge@hallyn.com&gt;
Cc: Jann Horn &lt;jannh@google.com&gt;
Cc: Henning Schild &lt;henning.schild@siemens.com&gt;
Cc: Andrei Vagin &lt;avagin@gmail.com&gt;
Cc: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
Cc: Laurent Vivier &lt;laurent@vivier.eu&gt;
Cc: linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Laurent Vivier &lt;laurent@vivier.eu&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;christian.brauner@ubuntu.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook &lt;keescook@chromium.org&gt;
---
/* v2 */
- Serge Hallyn &lt;serge@hallyn.com&gt;:
  - Use GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT for userspace triggered allocations when a
    new binary type handler is registered.
- Christian Brauner &lt;christian.brauner@ubuntu.com&gt;:
  - Switch authorship to me. I refused to do that earlier even though
    Laurent said I should do so because I think it's genuinely bad form.
    But by now I have changed so many things that it'd be unfair to
    blame Laurent for any potential bugs in here.
  - Add more comments that explain what's going on.
  - Rename functions while changing them to better reflect what they are
    doing to make the code easier to understand.
  - In the first version when a specific binary type handler was removed
    either through a write to the entry's file or all binary type
    handlers were removed by a write to the binfmt_misc mount's status
    file all cleanup work happened during inode eviction.
    That includes removal of the relevant entries from entry list. While
    that works fine I disliked that model after thinking about it for a
    bit. Because it means that there was a window were someone has
    already removed a or all binary handlers but they could still be
    safely reached from load_misc_binary() when it has managed to take
    the read_lock() on the entries list while inode eviction was already
    happening. Again, that perfectly benign but it's cleaner to remove
    the binary handler from the list immediately meaning that ones the
    write to then entry's file or the binfmt_misc status file returns
    the binary type cannot be executed anymore. That gives stronger
    guarantees to the user.
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Enable unprivileged sandboxes to create their own binfmt_misc mounts.
This is based on Laurent's work in [1] but has been significantly
reworked to fix various issues we identified in earlier versions.

While binfmt_misc can currently only be mounted in the initial user
namespace, binary types registered in this binfmt_misc instance are
available to all sandboxes (Either by having them installed in the
sandbox or by registering the binary type with the F flag causing the
interpreter to be opened right away). So binfmt_misc binary types are
already delegated to sandboxes implicitly.

However, while a sandbox has access to all registered binary types in
binfmt_misc a sandbox cannot currently register its own binary types
in binfmt_misc. This has prevented various use-cases some of which were
already outlined in [1] but we have a range of issues associated with
this (cf. [3]-[5] below which are just a small sample).

Extend binfmt_misc to be mountable in non-initial user namespaces.
Similar to other filesystem such as nfsd, mqueue, and sunrpc we use
keyed superblock management. The key determines whether we need to
create a new superblock or can reuse an already existing one. We use the
user namespace of the mount as key. This means a new binfmt_misc
superblock is created once per user namespace creation. Subsequent
mounts of binfmt_misc in the same user namespace will mount the same
binfmt_misc instance. We explicitly do not create a new binfmt_misc
superblock on every binfmt_misc mount as the semantics for
load_misc_binary() line up with the keying model. This also allows us to
retrieve the relevant binfmt_misc instance based on the caller's user
namespace which can be done in a simple (bounded to 32 levels) loop.

Similar to the current binfmt_misc semantics allowing access to the
binary types in the initial binfmt_misc instance we do allow sandboxes
access to their parent's binfmt_misc mounts if they do not have created
a separate binfmt_misc instance.

Overall, this will unblock the use-cases mentioned below and in general
will also allow to support and harden execution of another
architecture's binaries in tight sandboxes. For instance, using the
unshare binary it possible to start a chroot of another architecture and
configure the binfmt_misc interpreter without being root to run the
binaries in this chroot and without requiring the host to modify its
binary type handlers.

Henning had already posted a few experiments in the cover letter at [1].
But here's an additional example where an unprivileged container
registers qemu-user-static binary handlers for various binary types in
its separate binfmt_misc mount and is then seamlessly able to start
containers with a different architecture without affecting the host:

root    [lxc monitor] /var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/containers f1
1000000  \_ /sbin/init
1000000      \_ /lib/systemd/systemd-journald
1000000      \_ /lib/systemd/systemd-udevd
1000100      \_ /lib/systemd/systemd-networkd
1000101      \_ /lib/systemd/systemd-resolved
1000000      \_ /usr/sbin/cron -f
1000103      \_ /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activation --syslog-only
1000000      \_ /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/networkd-dispatcher --run-startup-triggers
1000104      \_ /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -n -iNONE
1000000      \_ /lib/systemd/systemd-logind
1000000      \_ /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud console 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1000107      \_ dnsmasq --conf-file=/dev/null -u lxc-dnsmasq --strict-order --bind-interfaces --pid-file=/run/lxc/dnsmasq.pid --liste
1000000      \_ [lxc monitor] /var/lib/lxc f1-s390x
1100000          \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/init
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /lib/systemd/systemd-journald
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /usr/sbin/cron -f
1100103              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-ac
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/networkd-dispatcher --run-startup-triggers
1100104              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -n -iNONE
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /lib/systemd/systemd-logind
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud console 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud pts/0 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud pts/1 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud pts/2 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /sbin/agetty -o -p -- \u --noclear --keep-baud pts/3 115200,38400,9600 vt220
1100000              \_ /usr/bin/qemu-s390x-static /lib/systemd/systemd-udevd

[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20191216091220.465626-1-laurent@vivier.eu
[2]: https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/binfmt-misc-permission-denied
[3]: https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/lxd-binfmt-support-for-qemu-static-interpreters
[4]: https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/3-1-0-binfmt-support-service-in-unprivileged-guest-requires-write-access-on-hosts-proc-sys-fs-binfmt-misc
[5]: https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/qemu-user-static-not-working-4-11

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20191216091220.465626-2-laurent@vivier.eu (origin)
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20211028103114.2849140-2-brauner@kernel.org (v1)
Cc: Sargun Dhillon &lt;sargun@sargun.me&gt;
Cc: Serge Hallyn &lt;serge@hallyn.com&gt;
Cc: Jann Horn &lt;jannh@google.com&gt;
Cc: Henning Schild &lt;henning.schild@siemens.com&gt;
Cc: Andrei Vagin &lt;avagin@gmail.com&gt;
Cc: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
Cc: Laurent Vivier &lt;laurent@vivier.eu&gt;
Cc: linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Laurent Vivier &lt;laurent@vivier.eu&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;christian.brauner@ubuntu.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook &lt;keescook@chromium.org&gt;
---
/* v2 */
- Serge Hallyn &lt;serge@hallyn.com&gt;:
  - Use GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT for userspace triggered allocations when a
    new binary type handler is registered.
- Christian Brauner &lt;christian.brauner@ubuntu.com&gt;:
  - Switch authorship to me. I refused to do that earlier even though
    Laurent said I should do so because I think it's genuinely bad form.
    But by now I have changed so many things that it'd be unfair to
    blame Laurent for any potential bugs in here.
  - Add more comments that explain what's going on.
  - Rename functions while changing them to better reflect what they are
    doing to make the code easier to understand.
  - In the first version when a specific binary type handler was removed
    either through a write to the entry's file or all binary type
    handlers were removed by a write to the binfmt_misc mount's status
    file all cleanup work happened during inode eviction.
    That includes removal of the relevant entries from entry list. While
    that works fine I disliked that model after thinking about it for a
    bit. Because it means that there was a window were someone has
    already removed a or all binary handlers but they could still be
    safely reached from load_misc_binary() when it has managed to take
    the read_lock() on the entries list while inode eviction was already
    happening. Again, that perfectly benign but it's cleaner to remove
    the binary handler from the list immediately meaning that ones the
    write to then entry's file or the binfmt_misc status file returns
    the binary type cannot be executed anymore. That gives stronger
    guarantees to the user.
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
</feed>
