All of lore.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
* [PATCH 0/6] enable writing to /proc/pid/mem
@ 2011-03-09  0:42 ` Stephen Wilson
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 32+ messages in thread
From: Stephen Wilson @ 2011-03-09  0:42 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: linux-mm
  Cc: Andrew Morton, Alexander Viro, Rik van Riel, KOSAKI Motohiro,
	Roland McGrath, Matt Mackall, David Rientjes, Nick Piggin,
	Andrea Arcangeli, Mel Gorman, Ingo Molnar, Michel Lespinasse,
	Hugh Dickins, linux-kernel

For a long time /proc/pid/mem has provided a read-only interface, at least
since 2.4.0.  However, a write capability has existed "forever" in tree via the
function mem_write(), disabled with an #ifdef along with the comment "this is a
security hazard".  Currently, the main problem with mem_write() is that between
the time permissions are checked and the actual write the target task could
exec a setuid-root binary.

This patch series enables safe writes to /proc/pid/mem.  The principle strategy
is to get a reference to the target task's mm before the permission check, and
to hold that reference until after the write completes.

This patch is useful as it gives debuggers a simple and efficient mechanism to
manipulate a processes address space.  Memory can be read and written using
single calls to pread(2) and pwrite(2) instead of iteratively calling
into ptrace(2).  In addition, /proc/pid/mem has always had write permissions
enabled, so clearly it *wants* to be written to. 

This series builds off previous work up for review here:

   http://lkml.org/lkml/2011/3/8/409

The general approach used was suggested to me by Alexander Viro, but any
mistakes present in these patches are entirely my own.


--
steve


Stephen Wilson (6):
      mm: use mm_struct to resolve gate vma's in __get_user_pages
      mm: factor out main logic of access_process_vm
      mm: implement access_remote_vm
      proc: disable mem_write after exec
      proc: make check_mem_permission() return an mm_struct on success
      proc: enable writing to /proc/pid/mem


 fs/proc/base.c     |   61 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------
 include/linux/mm.h |    2 +
 mm/memory.c        |   69 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
 3 files changed, 89 insertions(+), 43 deletions(-)




^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 32+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2011-03-09 12:39 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 32+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2011-03-09  0:42 [PATCH 0/6] enable writing to /proc/pid/mem Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  0:42 ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  0:42 ` [PATCH 1/6] mm: use mm_struct to resolve gate vma's in __get_user_pages Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  0:42   ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  5:19   ` KOSAKI Motohiro
2011-03-09  5:19     ` KOSAKI Motohiro
2011-03-09  6:06     ` Al Viro
2011-03-09  6:06       ` Al Viro
2011-03-09 12:38       ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09 12:38         ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  0:42 ` [PATCH 2/6] mm: factor out main logic of access_process_vm Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  0:42   ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  0:42 ` [PATCH 3/6] mm: implement access_remote_vm Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  0:42   ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  0:42 ` [PATCH 4/6] proc: disable mem_write after exec Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  0:42   ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  5:22   ` KOSAKI Motohiro
2011-03-09  5:22     ` KOSAKI Motohiro
2011-03-09  0:42 ` [PATCH 5/6] proc: make check_mem_permission() return an mm_struct on success Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  0:42   ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  6:20   ` KOSAKI Motohiro
2011-03-09  6:20     ` KOSAKI Motohiro
2011-03-09  0:42 ` [PATCH 6/6] proc: enable writing to /proc/pid/mem Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  0:42   ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  1:30 ` [PATCH 0/6] " Al Viro
2011-03-09  1:30   ` Al Viro
2011-03-09  2:15   ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  2:15     ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  2:33     ` Al Viro
2011-03-09  2:33       ` Al Viro
2011-03-09  2:47       ` Stephen Wilson
2011-03-09  2:47         ` Stephen Wilson

This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.