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Date:   Tue, 22 Oct 2019 08:13:02 -0400
From:   Neil Horman <nhorman@tuxdriver.com>
To:     Paul Moore <paul@paul-moore.com>
Cc:     Richard Guy Briggs <rgb@redhat.com>,
        containers@lists.linux-foundation.org, linux-api@vger.kernel.org,
        Linux-Audit Mailing List <linux-audit@redhat.com>,
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        sgrubb@redhat.com, omosnace@redhat.com, dhowells@redhat.com,
        simo@redhat.com, Eric Paris <eparis@parisplace.org>,
        Serge Hallyn <serge@hallyn.com>, ebiederm@xmission.com,
        Dan Walsh <dwalsh@redhat.com>, mpatel@redhat.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH ghak90 V7 20/21] audit: add capcontid to set contid
 outside init_user_ns
Message-ID: <20191022121302.GA9397@hmswarspite.think-freely.org>
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On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 08:31:37PM -0400, Paul Moore wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 7:58 PM Richard Guy Briggs <rgb@redhat.com> wrote:
> > On 2019-10-21 17:43, Paul Moore wrote:
> > > On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 5:38 PM Richard Guy Briggs <rgb@redhat.com> wrote:
> > > > On 2019-10-21 15:53, Paul Moore wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 9:39 PM Richard Guy Briggs <rgb@redhat.com> wrote:
> > > > > > On 2019-09-18 21:22, Richard Guy Briggs wrote:
> > > > > > > Provide a mechanism similar to CAP_AUDIT_CONTROL to explicitly give a
> > > > > > > process in a non-init user namespace the capability to set audit
> > > > > > > container identifiers.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Use audit netlink message types AUDIT_GET_CAPCONTID 1027 and
> > > > > > > AUDIT_SET_CAPCONTID 1028.  The message format includes the data
> > > > > > > structure:
> > > > > > > struct audit_capcontid_status {
> > > > > > >         pid_t   pid;
> > > > > > >         u32     enable;
> > > > > > > };
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Paul, can I get a review of the general idea here to see if you're ok
> > > > > > with this way of effectively extending CAP_AUDIT_CONTROL for the sake of
> > > > > > setting contid from beyond the init user namespace where capable() can't
> > > > > > reach and ns_capable() is meaningless for these purposes?
> > > > >
> > > > > I think my previous comment about having both the procfs and netlink
> > > > > interfaces apply here.  I don't see why we need two different APIs at
> > > > > the start; explain to me why procfs isn't sufficient.  If the argument
> > > > > is simply the desire to avoid mounting procfs in the container, how
> > > > > many container orchestrators can function today without a valid /proc?
> > > >
> > > > Ok, sorry, I meant to address that question from a previous patch
> > > > comment at the same time.
> > > >
> > > > It was raised by Eric Biederman that the proc filesystem interface for
> > > > audit had its limitations and he had suggested an audit netlink
> > > > interface made more sense.
> > >
> > > I'm sure you've got it handy, so I'm going to be lazy and ask: archive
> > > pointer to Eric's comments?  Just a heads-up, I'm really *not* a fan
> > > of using the netlink interface for this, so unless Eric presents a
> > > super compelling reason for why we shouldn't use procfs I'm inclined
> > > to stick with /proc.
> >
> > It was actually a video call with Eric and Steve where that was
> > recommended, so I can't provide you with any first-hand communication
> > about it.  I'll get more details...
> 
> Yeah, that sort of information really needs to be on the list.
> 
> > So, with that out of the way, could you please comment on the general
> > idea of what was intended to be the central idea of this mechanism to be
> > able to nest containers beyond the initial user namespace (knowing that
> > a /proc interface is available and the audit netlink interface isn't
> > necessary for it to work and the latter can be easily removed)?
> 
> I'm not entirely clear what you are asking about, are you asking why I
> care about nesting container orchestrators?  Simply put, it is not
> uncommon for the LXC/LXD folks to see nested container orchestrators,
> so I felt it was important to support that use case.  When we
> originally started this effort we probably should have done a better
> job reaching out to the LXC/LXD folks, we may have caught this
> earlier.  Regardless, we caught it, and it looks like we are on our
> way to supporting it (that's good).
> 
> Are you asking why I prefer the procfs approach to setting/getting the
> audit container ID?  For one, it makes it easier for a LSM to enforce
> the audit container ID operations independent of the other audit
> control APIs.  It also provides a simpler interface for container
> orchestrators.  Both seem like desirable traits as far as I'm
> concerned.
> 
I agree that one api is probably the best approach here, but I actually
think that the netlink interface is the more flexible approach.  Its a
little more work for userspace (you have to marshal your data into a
netlink message before sending it, and wait for an async response), but
thats a well known pattern, and it provides significantly more
flexibility for the kernel.  LSM already has a hook to audit netlink
messages in sock_sendmsg, so thats not a problem, and if you use
netlink, you get the advantage of being able to broadcast messages
within your network namespaces, facilitating any needed orchestrator
co-ordination.  To do the same thing with a filesystem api, you need to
use the fanotify api, which IIRC doesn't work on proc.

Neil

> > > > The intent was to switch to the audit netlink interface for contid,
> > > > capcontid and to add the audit netlink interface for loginuid and
> > > > sessionid while deprecating the proc interface for loginuid and
> > > > sessionid.  This was alluded to in the cover letter, but not very clear,
> > > > I'm afraid.  I have patches to remove the contid and loginuid/sessionid
> > > > interfaces in another tree which is why I had forgotten to outline that
> > > > plan more explicitly in the cover letter.
> 
> -- 
> paul moore
> www.paul-moore.com
>