Re: [RFC v3 1/2] kernel/sysctl: support setting sysctl parameters from kernel command line

Kees Cook
2020-03-26T20:24:29Z

On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 07:16:05PM +0100, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> A recently proposed patch to add vm_swappiness command line parameter in
> addition to existing sysctl [1] made me wonder why we don't have a general
> support for passing sysctl parameters via command line. Googling found only
> somebody else wondering the same [2], but I haven't found any prior discussion
> with reasons why not to do this.
>
> Settings the vm_swappiness issue aside (the underlying issue might be solved in
> a different way), quick search of kernel-parameters.txt shows there are already
> some that exist as both sysctl and kernel parameter - hung_task_panic,
> nmi_watchdog, numa_zonelist_order, traceoff_on_warning. A general mechanism
> would remove the need to add more of those one-offs and might be handy in
> situations where configuration by e.g. /etc/sysctl.d/ is impractical.
>
> Hence, this patch adds a new parse_args() pass that looks for parameters
> prefixed by 'sysctl.' and tries to interpret them as writes to the
> corresponding sys/ files using an temporary in-kernel procfs mount. This
> mechanism was suggested by Eric W. Biederman [3], as it handles all dynamically
> registered sysctl tables. Errors due to e.g. invalid parameter name or value
> are reported in the kernel log.
>
> The processing is hooked right before the init process is loaded, as some
> handlers might be more complicated than simple setters and might need some
> subsystems to be initialized. At the moment the init process can be started and
> eventually execute a process writing to /proc/sys/ then it should be also fine
> to do that from the kernel.
>
> Sysctls registered later on module load time are not set by this mechanism -
> it's expected that in such scenarios, setting sysctl values from userspace is
> practical enough.
>
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/r/BL0PR02MB560167492CA4094C91589930E9FC0@BL0PR02MB5601.namprd02.prod.outlook.com/
> [2] https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/558802/how-to-set-sysctl-using-kernel-command-line-parameter
> [3] https://lore.kernel.org/r/87bloj2skm.fsf@x220.int.ebiederm.org/
>
> Signed-off-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
> ---
> Changes in v3:
> - use temporary procfs mount as Eric suggested. Seems to be the better option
> after all. Naming wise it simply converts all . to / - according to strace the
> sysctl tool seems to be doing the same.
>
> Since the major change, I'm sending another RFC. If this approach is ok, then
> it probably needs just some tweaks to the various error prints, and then
> converting the rest of existing on-off aliases (if I come up with an idea how
> to find them all). Thanks for all the feedback so far.

Yeah, I think you can drop "RFC" from this in the next version -- you're
well into getting this finalized IMO.

>
> .../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt | 9 ++
> fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c | 90 +++++++++++++++++++
> include/linux/sysctl.h | 4 +
> init/main.c | 2 +
> 4 files changed, 105 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
> index c07815d230bc..0c7e032e7c2e 100644
> --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
> @@ -4793,6 +4793,15 @@
>
> switches= [HW,M68k]
>
> + sysctl.*= [KNL]
> + Set a sysctl parameter, right before loading the init
> + process, as if the value was written to the respective
> + /proc/sys/... file. Unrecognized parameters and invalid
> + values are reported in the kernel log. Sysctls
> + registered later by a loaded module cannot be set this
> + way.

Maybe add: "Both '.' and '/' are recognized as separators."

> + Example: sysctl.vm.swappiness=40
> +
> sysfs.deprecated=0|1 [KNL]
> Enable/disable old style sysfs layout for old udev
> on older distributions. When this option is enabled
> diff --git a/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c b/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c
> index c75bb4632ed1..8ee3273e4540 100644
> --- a/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c
> +++ b/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c
> @@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
> #include <linux/mm.h>
> #include <linux/module.h>
> #include <linux/bpf-cgroup.h>
> +#include <linux/mount.h>
> #include "internal.h"
>
> static const struct dentry_operations proc_sys_dentry_operations;
> @@ -1725,3 +1726,92 @@ int __init proc_sys_init(void)
>
> return sysctl_init();
> }
> +
> +struct vfsmount *proc_mnt = NULL;

Er, I had a bunch of comments about how this should be declared static
etc, but decided on a different suggestion entirely. See below...

> +
> +/* Set sysctl value passed on kernel command line. */
> +static int process_sysctl_arg(char *param, char *val,
> + const char *unused, void *arg)
> +{
> + char *path;
> + struct file_system_type *proc_fs_type;
> + struct file *file;
> + int len;
> + int err;
> + loff_t pos = 0;
> + ssize_t wret;
> +
> + if (strncmp(param, "sysctl", sizeof("sysctl") - 1))
> + return 0;
> +
> + param += sizeof("sysctl") - 1;
> +
> + if (param[0] != '/' && param[0] != '.')
> + return 0;
> +
> + param++;
> +
> + if (!proc_mnt) {
> + proc_fs_type = get_fs_type("proc");
> + if (!proc_fs_type) {
> + pr_err("Failed to mount procfs to set sysctl from command line");
> + return 0;
> + }
> + proc_mnt = kern_mount(proc_fs_type);
> + put_filesystem(proc_fs_type);
> + if (IS_ERR(proc_mnt)) {
> + pr_err("Failed to mount procfs to set sysctl from command line");
> + proc_mnt = NULL;
> + return 0;
> + }
> + }
> +
> + len = 4 + strlen(param) + 1;
> + path = kmalloc(len, GFP_KERNEL);
> + if (!path)
> + panic("%s: Failed to allocate %d bytes t\n", __func__, len);
> +
> + strcpy(path, "sys/");
> + strcat(path, param);
> + strreplace(path, '.', '/');

You can do the replacement against the param directly, and also avoid
all the open-coded string manipulations:

strreplace(param, '.', '/');
path = kasprintf(GFP_KERNEL, "sys/%s", param);
if (!path)
panic("%s: Failed to allocate path for %s\n", __func__, param);

> +
> + file = file_open_root(proc_mnt->mnt_root, proc_mnt, path, O_WRONLY, 0);
> + if (IS_ERR(file)) {
> + err = PTR_ERR(file);
> + pr_err("Error %d opening proc file %s to set sysctl parameter '%s=%s'",
> + err, path, param, val);
> + goto out;
> + }
> + len = strlen(val);
> + wret = kernel_write(file, val, len, &pos);
> + if (wret < 0) {
> + err = wret;
> + pr_err("Error %d writing to proc file %s to set sysctl parameter '%s=%s'",
> + err, path, param, val);
> + } else if (wret != len) {
> + pr_err("Wrote only %ld bytes of %d writing to proc file %s to set sysctl parameter '%s=%s'",
> + wret, len, path, param, val);
> + }
> +
> + filp_close(file, NULL);

Please check the return value of filp_close() and treat that as an error
for this function too.

> +out:
> + kfree(path);
> + return 0;
> +}
> +
> +void do_sysctl_args(void)
> +{
> + char *command_line;
> +
> + command_line = kstrdup(saved_command_line, GFP_KERNEL);
> + if (!command_line)
> + panic("%s: Failed to allocate copy of command line\n", __func__);
> +
> + parse_args("Setting sysctl args", command_line,
> + NULL, 0, -1, -1, NULL, process_sysctl_arg);
> +
> + if (proc_mnt)
> + kern_unmount(proc_mnt);

I don't recommend sharing allocation lifetimes between two functions
(process_sysctl_arg() allocs proc_mnt, and do_sysctl_args() frees it).
And since you have a scoped lifetime, why allocate it or have it as a
global at all? It can be stack-allocated and passed to the handler:

void do_sysctl_args(void)
{
struct file_system_type *proc_fs_type;
struct vfsmount *proc_mnt;
char *command_line;

proc_fs_type = get_fs_type("proc");
if (!proc_fs_type) {
pr_err("Failed to mount procfs to set sysctl from command line");
return;
}
proc_mnt = kern_mount(proc_fs_type);
put_filesystem(proc_fs_type);
if (IS_ERR(proc_mnt)) {
pr_err("Failed to mount procfs to set sysctl from command line");
return;
}

command_line = kstrdup(saved_command_line, GFP_KERNEL);
if (!command_line)
panic("%s: Failed to allocate copy of command line\n",
__func__);

parse_args("Setting sysctl args", command_line,
NULL, 0, -1, -1, proc_mnt, process_sysctl_arg);

kfree(command_line);
kern_unmount(proc_mnt);
}

And then pull the mount from (the hilariously overloaded name) "arg":

static int process_sysctl_arg(char *param, char *val,
const char *unused, void *arg)
{
struct vfsmount *proc_mnt = (struct vfsmount *)arg;
char *path;

if (!arg)
...fread out...

etc

> diff --git a/include/linux/sysctl.h b/include/linux/sysctl.h
> index 02fa84493f23..5f3f2a00d75f 100644
> --- a/include/linux/sysctl.h
> +++ b/include/linux/sysctl.h
> @@ -206,6 +206,7 @@ struct ctl_table_header *register_sysctl_paths(const struct ctl_path *path,
> void unregister_sysctl_table(struct ctl_table_header * table);
>
> extern int sysctl_init(void);
> +void do_sysctl_args(void);
>
> extern struct ctl_table sysctl_mount_point[];
>
> @@ -236,6 +237,9 @@ static inline void setup_sysctl_set(struct ctl_table_set *p,
> {
> }
>
> +void do_sysctl_args(void)
> +{
> +}
> #endif /* CONFIG_SYSCTL */
>
> int sysctl_max_threads(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
> diff --git a/init/main.c b/init/main.c
> index ee4947af823f..a91ea166a731 100644
> --- a/init/main.c
> +++ b/init/main.c
> @@ -1367,6 +1367,8 @@ static int __ref kernel_init(void *unused)
>
> rcu_end_inkernel_boot();
>
> + do_sysctl_args();
> +
> if (ramdisk_execute_command) {
> ret = run_init_process(ramdisk_execute_command);
> if (!ret)
> --
> 2.25.1
>

Looking good! I'm excited to see the next version. :)

--
Kees Cook