[PATCH 0/7][v4] Container-init signal semantics

Sukadev Bhattiprolu
2008-12-24T11:45:56Z

Container-init must behave like global-init to processes within the
container and hence it must be immune to unhandled fatal signals from
within the container (i.e SIG_DFL signals that terminate the process).

But the same container-init must behave like a normal process to
processes in ancestor namespaces and so if it receives the same fatal
signal from a process in ancestor namespace, the signal must be
processed.

Implementing these semantics requires that send_signal() determine pid
namespace of the sender but since signals can originate from workqueues/
interrupt-handlers, determining pid namespace of sender may not always
be possible or safe.

This patchset implements the design/simplified semantics suggested by
Oleg Nesterov. The simplified semantics for container-init are:

- container-init must never be terminated by a signal from a
descendant process.

- container-init must never be immune to SIGKILL from an ancestor
namespace (so a process in parent namespace must always be able
to terminate a descendant container).

- container-init may be immune to unhandled fatal signals (like
SIGUSR1) even if they are from ancestor namespace (SIGKILL is
the only reliable signal from ancestor namespace).

Patches in this set:

[PATCH 1/7] Remove 'handler' parameter to tracehook functions
[PATCH 2/7] Protect init from unwanted signals more
[PATCH 3/7] Define siginfo_from_ancestor_ns()
[PATCH 4/7] Protect cinit from unblocked SIG_DFL signals
[PATCH 5/7] Protect cinit from blocked fatal signals
[PATCH 6/7] SI_USER: Masquerade si_pid when crossing pid ns boundary
[PATCH 7/7] SI_TKILL: Masquerade si_pid when crossing pid ns boundary

Changelog[v4]:
- Remove SIGNAL_UNKILLABLE_FROM_NS flag and simplify logic as
suggested by Oleg Nesterov.
- Check ns == NULL in siginfo_from_ancestor_ns() (Patch 3/7).
Although http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/12/16/502 makes it less likely
that ns == NULL, looks like an explicit check won't hurt ?
- Dropped patch that set SIGNAL_UNKILLABLE_FROM_NS and set
SIGNAL_UNKILLABLE in patch 5/7 to be bisect-safe.
- Add a warning in rt_sigqueueinfo() if SI_ASYNCIO is used
(patch 3/7)
- Added two patches (6/7 and 7/7) to masquerade si_pid for
SI_USER and SI_TKILL

Changelog[v3]:
Changes based on discussions of previous version:
http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/11/25/458

Major changes:

- Define SIGNAL_UNKILLABLE_FROM_NS and use in container-inits to
skip fatal signals from same namespace but process SIGKILL/SIGSTOP
from ancestor namespace.
- Use SI_FROMUSER() and si_code != SI_ASYNCIO to determine if
it is safe to dereference pid-namespace of caller. Highly
experimental :-)
- Masquerading si_pid when crossing namespace boundary: relevant
patches merged in -mm and dropped from this set.

Minor changes:

- Remove 'handler' parameter to tracehook functions
- Update sig_ignored() to drop SIG_DFL signals to global init early
(tried to address Roland's and Oleg's comments)
- Use 'same_ns' flag to drop SIGKILL/SIGSTOP to cinit from same
namespace

TODO:
- Use sig_task_unkillable() in fs/proc/array.c:task_sig()
to correctly report ignored signals for container/global
init.

Limitations/side-effects of current design

- Container-init is immune to suicide - kill(getpid(), SIGKILL) is
ignored. Use exit() :-)