Re: [RFC PATCH v4 7/8] ima: based on policy prevent loading firmware (pre-allocated buffer)

Luis R. Rodriguez
2018-06-01T19:15:48Z

On Tue, May 29, 2018 at 02:01:59PM -0400, Mimi Zohar wrote:
> Some systems are memory constrained but they need to load very large
> firmwares. The firmware subsystem allows drivers to request this
> firmware be loaded from the filesystem, but this requires that the
> entire firmware be loaded into kernel memory first before it's provided
> to the driver. This can lead to a situation where we map the firmware
> twice, once to load the firmware into kernel memory and once to copy the
> firmware into the final resting place.
>
> To resolve this problem, commit a098ecd2fa7d ("firmware: support loading
> into a pre-allocated buffer") introduced request_firmware_into_buf() API
> that allows drivers to request firmware be loaded directly into a
> pre-allocated buffer. The QCOM_MDT_LOADER calls dma_alloc_coherent() to
> allocate this buffer. According to Documentation/DMA-API.txt,
>
> Consistent memory is memory for which a write by either the
> device or the processor can immediately be read by the processor
> or device without having to worry about caching effects. (You
> may however need to make sure to flush the processor's write
> buffers before telling devices to read that memory.)
>
> Devices using pre-allocated DMA memory run the risk of the firmware
> being accessible by the device prior to the kernel's firmware signature
> verification has completed.

Indeed. And since its DMA memory we have *no idea* what can happen in
terms of consumption of this firmware from hardware, when it would start
consuming it in particular.

If the device has its own hardware firmware verification mechanism this is
completely obscure to us, but it may however suffice certain security policies.

The problem here lies in the conflicting security policies of the kernel wanting
to not give away firmware until its complete and the current inability to enable
us to have platforms suggest they trust hardware won't do something stupid.
This becomes an issue since the semantics of the firmware API preallocated
buffer do not require currently allow the kernel to inform LSMs of the fact
that a buffer is DMA memory or not, and a way for certain platforms then
to say that such use is fine for specific devices.

Given a pointer can we determine if a piece of memory is DMA or not? Seems
hacky to use such inferences if we had them anyway... but worth asking...

I would suggest we augment the prealloc buffer firmware API to pass a
flags argument which helps describe the preallocated buffer, and for now
allow us to enable callers to describe if the buffer is kernel memory or
DMA memory, and then have the LSMs decide based on this information as well.
The qualcomm driver would change to use the DMA flag, and IMA would in turn
deny such uses. Once and if platforms want to trust the DMA flag they can
later add infrastructure for specifying this somehow.

> Loading firmware already calls the security_kernel_read_file LSM hook.
> With an IMA policy requiring signed firmware, this patch prevents
> loading firmware into a pre-allocated buffer.
>
> Signed-off-by: Mimi Zohar <zohar@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
> Cc: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@suse.com>
> Cc: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
> Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
> Cc: Serge E. Hallyn <serge@hallyn.com>
> Cc: Stephen Boyd <sboyd@kernel.org>
> ---
> security/integrity/ima/ima_main.c | 26 +++++++++++++++++---------
> 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/security/integrity/ima/ima_main.c b/security/integrity/ima/ima_main.c
> index 4a87f78098c8..3dae605a1604 100644
> --- a/security/integrity/ima/ima_main.c
> +++ b/security/integrity/ima/ima_main.c
> @@ -419,6 +419,15 @@ void ima_post_path_mknod(struct dentry *dentry)
> iint->flags |= IMA_NEW_FILE;
> }
>
> +static int read_idmap[READING_MAX_ID] = {
> + [READING_FIRMWARE] = FIRMWARE_CHECK,
> + [READING_FIRMWARE_PREALLOC_BUFFER] = FIRMWARE_CHECK,
> + [READING_MODULE] = MODULE_CHECK,
> + [READING_KEXEC_IMAGE] = KEXEC_KERNEL_CHECK,
> + [READING_KEXEC_INITRAMFS] = KEXEC_INITRAMFS_CHECK,
> + [READING_POLICY] = POLICY_CHECK
> +};
> +
> /**
> * ima_read_file - pre-measure/appraise hook decision based on policy
> * @file: pointer to the file to be measured/appraised/audit
> @@ -442,18 +451,17 @@ int ima_read_file(struct file *file, enum kernel_read_file_id read_id)
> }
> return 0; /* We rely on module signature checking */
> }
> +
> + if (read_id == READING_FIRMWARE_PREALLOC_BUFFER) {
> + if ((ima_appraise & IMA_APPRAISE_FIRMWARE) &&
> + (ima_appraise & IMA_APPRAISE_ENFORCE)) {
> + pr_err("Prevent device from accessing firmware prior to verifying the firmware signature.\n");
> + return -EACCES;
> + }
> + }
> return 0;
> }
>
> -static int read_idmap[READING_MAX_ID] = {
> - [READING_FIRMWARE] = FIRMWARE_CHECK,
> - [READING_FIRMWARE_PREALLOC_BUFFER] = FIRMWARE_CHECK,
> - [READING_MODULE] = MODULE_CHECK,
> - [READING_KEXEC_IMAGE] = KEXEC_KERNEL_CHECK,
> - [READING_KEXEC_INITRAMFS] = KEXEC_INITRAMFS_CHECK,
> - [READING_POLICY] = POLICY_CHECK
> -};
> -
> /**
> * ima_post_read_file - in memory collect/appraise/audit measurement
> * @file: pointer to the file to be measured/appraised/audit
> --
> 2.7.5
>
>

--
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