[PATCH] perf: enable unprivileged syscall tracing with perf trace

[PATCH] perf: enable unprivileged syscall tracing with perf trace

[Anubhav Shelat]

Allow unprivileged users to trace their own processes' syscalls using
perf trace, similar to strace without the intrusive overhead of ptrace().

Currently, perf trace requires CAP_PERFMON or paranoid level ≤ 1 even
though the kernel has existing infrastructure (TRACE_EVENT_FL_CAP_ANY)
specifically designed to mark syscall tracepoints as safe for
unprivileged access. To fix this:

1. Loosen the condition in perf_event_open() which requires priviliges
for all events with exclude_kernel=0. This allows perf_event_open() to
bypass the paranoid check for task-attached tracepoint events.

2. Make the format and id tracefs files world-readable only for tracepoints
   with TRACE_EVENT_FL_CAP_ANY, allowing unprivileged users to see
syscall tracepoint ids without exposing sensitive information.

Example usage after this change:
  $ perf trace ls          # works as unprivileged user
  $ perf trace             # system-wide, still requires privileges
  $ perf trace -p 1234     # requires ptrace permission on pid 1234

Assisted-by: Claude:claude-sonnet-4.5
Signed-off-by: Anubhav Shelat <ashelat@redhat.com>
---
 kernel/events/core.c        | 2 +-
 kernel/trace/trace_events.c | 8 ++++++--
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/events/core.c b/kernel/events/core.c
index 89b40e439717..71d99ea4bea4 100644
--- a/kernel/events/core.c
+++ b/kernel/events/core.c
@@ -13833,7 +13833,7 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE5(perf_event_open,
 	if (err)
 		return err;
 
-	if (!attr.exclude_kernel) {
+	if (!attr.exclude_kernel && !(attr.type == PERF_TYPE_TRACEPOINT && pid != -1)) {
 		err = perf_allow_kernel();
 		if (err)
 			return err;
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
index 249d1cba72c0..6250b2529376 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
@@ -3051,7 +3051,9 @@ static int event_callback(const char *name, umode_t *mode, void **data,
 	struct trace_event_call *call = file->event_call;
 
 	if (strcmp(name, "format") == 0) {
-		*mode = TRACE_MODE_READ;
+		*mode = (call->flags & TRACE_EVENT_FL_CAP_ANY) ?
+			(TRACE_MODE_READ | 0004) :
+			TRACE_MODE_READ;
 		*fops = &ftrace_event_format_fops;
 		return 1;
 	}
@@ -3087,7 +3089,9 @@ static int event_callback(const char *name, umode_t *mode, void **data,
 #ifdef CONFIG_PERF_EVENTS
 	if (call->event.type && call->class->reg &&
 	    strcmp(name, "id") == 0) {
-		*mode = TRACE_MODE_READ;
+		*mode = (call->flags & TRACE_EVENT_FL_CAP_ANY) ?
+		(TRACE_MODE_READ | 0004) :
+		TRACE_MODE_READ;
 		*data = (void *)(long)call->event.type;
 		*fops = &ftrace_event_id_fops;
 		return 1;
-- 
2.53.0