From: Karl Mehltretter <kmehltretter@gmail.com>
To: selinux@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Karl Mehltretter <kmehltretter@gmail.com>,
Paul Moore <paul@paul-moore.com>,
Stephen Smalley <stephen.smalley.work@gmail.com>,
Ondrej Mosnacek <omosnace@redhat.com>,
Miklos Szeredi <miklos@szeredi.hu>,
Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>,
Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>,
Baokun Li <libaokun@linux.alibaba.com>,
linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-unionfs@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, stable@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH v3 1/2] selinux: preserve user SID across nested backing files
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2026 23:32:55 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260829213256.51527-2-kmehltretter@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260829213256.51527-1-kmehltretter@gmail.com>
SELinux saves the user file SID in a backing-file security blob so it
remains available after mmap() replaces vma->vm_file with a backing file.
For nested backing files (overlayfs over overlayfs, or FUSE passthrough
backed by overlayfs), user_file may itself be a backing file. Its
fsec->sid is the SID of the mounter that opened it, rather than the user
that opened the top-level file. mprotect() then checks fd { use } against
the mounter SID. This can incorrectly deny access without a domain
transition, or check the wrong target SID after one.
Copy the saved user SID when user_file is a backing file. Keep using the
regular file SID for the first backing layer.
With two nested overlayfs mounts and SELinux enforcing,
mprotect(PROT_READ) returns EACCES with an fd { use } denial against the
mounter SID. With this change, mprotect() succeeds.
Tested on arm64 QEMU with a small BusyBox initramfs and a purpose-built
SELinux policy. The original test was also repeated with Fedora Cloud
Base 44 userspace and gave the same result.
Fixes: 82544d36b172 ("selinux: fix overlayfs mmap() and mprotect() access checks")
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Karl Mehltretter <kmehltretter@gmail.com>
---
security/selinux/hooks.c | 9 ++++++++-
security/selinux/include/objsec.h | 2 +-
2 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/security/selinux/hooks.c b/security/selinux/hooks.c
index 035aaf113d1da..232b7e7bfcafd 100644
--- a/security/selinux/hooks.c
+++ b/security/selinux/hooks.c
@@ -3843,13 +3843,20 @@ static int selinux_file_alloc_security(struct file *file)
return 0;
}
+static inline u32 selinux_file_user_sid(const struct file *file)
+{
+ if (unlikely(file->f_mode & FMODE_BACKING))
+ return selinux_backing_file(file)->uf_sid;
+ return selinux_file(file)->sid;
+}
+
static int selinux_backing_file_alloc(struct file *backing_file,
const struct file *user_file)
{
struct backing_file_security_struct *bfsec;
bfsec = selinux_backing_file(backing_file);
- bfsec->uf_sid = selinux_file(user_file)->sid;
+ bfsec->uf_sid = selinux_file_user_sid(user_file);
return 0;
}
diff --git a/security/selinux/include/objsec.h b/security/selinux/include/objsec.h
index 3c0a16ec978b0..853f7266ed189 100644
--- a/security/selinux/include/objsec.h
+++ b/security/selinux/include/objsec.h
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ struct file_security_struct {
};
struct backing_file_security_struct {
- u32 uf_sid; /* associated user file fsec->sid */
+ u32 uf_sid; /* top-level user file fsec->sid */
};
struct superblock_security_struct {
--
2.53.0
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-08-29 21:33 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-29 21:32 [PATCH v3 0/2] selinux: fix nested backing-file mprotect checks Karl Mehltretter
2026-08-29 21:32 ` Karl Mehltretter [this message]
2026-08-31 13:47 ` [PATCH v3 1/2] selinux: preserve user SID across nested backing files Stephen Smalley
2026-08-29 21:32 ` [PATCH v3 2/2] selinux: recheck intermediate backing files on mprotect Karl Mehltretter
2026-08-31 13:47 ` Stephen Smalley
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=20260829213256.51527-2-kmehltretter@gmail.com \
--to=kmehltretter@gmail.com \
--cc=amir73il@gmail.com \
--cc=brauner@kernel.org \
--cc=libaokun@linux.alibaba.com \
--cc=linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-unionfs@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=miklos@szeredi.hu \
--cc=omosnace@redhat.com \
--cc=paul@paul-moore.com \
--cc=selinux@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=stable@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=stephen.smalley.work@gmail.com \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox