[PATCH man-pages v2] capabilities.7, prctl.2: Document ambient capabilities

Andy Lutomirski
2015-05-15T06:44:15Z

Signed-off-by: Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
---

There was no v1. I'm calling this v2 to keep it in sync with the kernel
patch versioning.

man2/prctl.2 | 10 ++++++++++
man7/capabilities.7 | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++------
2 files changed, 36 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/man2/prctl.2 b/man2/prctl.2
index b352f6283624..5861e3aefe9a 100644
--- a/man2/prctl.2
+++ b/man2/prctl.2
@@ -949,6 +949,16 @@ had been called.
For further information on Intel MPX, see the kernel source file
.IR Documentation/x86/intel_mpx.txt .
.\"
+.TP
+.BR PR_CAP_AMBIENT " (since Linux 4.2)"
+Reads or changes the ambient capability set. If arg2 is PR_CAP_AMBIENT_RAISE,
+then the capability specified in arg3 is added to the ambient set. This will
+fail, returning EPERM, if the capability is not already both permitted and
+inheritable or if the SECBIT_NO_CAP_AMBIENT_RAISE securebit is set. If arg2
+is PR_CAP_AMBIENT_LOWER, then the capability specified in arg3 is removed
+from the ambient set. If arg2 is PR_CAP_AMBIENT_GET, then
+.BR prctl (2)
+will return 1 if the capability in arg3 is in the ambient set and 0 if not.
.SH RETURN VALUE
On success,
.BR PR_GET_DUMPABLE ,
diff --git a/man7/capabilities.7 b/man7/capabilities.7
index d75ec65de05b..dae62f0be3b7 100644
--- a/man7/capabilities.7
+++ b/man7/capabilities.7
@@ -697,13 +697,26 @@ a program whose associated file capabilities grant that capability).
.IR Inheritable :
This is a set of capabilities preserved across an
.BR execve (2).
-It provides a mechanism for a process to assign capabilities
-to the permitted set of the new program during an
-.BR execve (2).
+Inheritable capabilities remain inheritable when executing any program,
+and inheritable capabilities are added to the permitted set when executing
+a program that has the corresponding bits set in the file inheritable set.
+When executing programs without file capabilities, ambient capabilities
.TP
.IR Effective :
This is the set of capabilities used by the kernel to
perform permission checks for the thread.
+.TP
+.IR Ambient " (since Linux 4.2) :"
+This is a set of capabilities that are preserved across an
+.BR execve (2)
+of a program that does not have file capabilities. The ambient capability
+set obeys the invariant that no capability can ever be ambient if it is
+not both permitted and inheritable. Ambient capabilities are, with some
+exceptions, preserved in the permitted set and added to the effective
+set when
+.BR execve (2)
+is called. The ambient capability set is modified using
+.BR prctl (2).
.PP
A child created via
.BR fork (2)
@@ -785,10 +798,12 @@ the process using the following algorithm:
.in +4n
.nf

+P'(ambient) = (file has capabilities or is setuid or setgid) ? 0 : P(ambient)
+
P'(permitted) = (P(inheritable) & F(inheritable)) |
- (F(permitted) & cap_bset)
+ (F(permitted) & cap_bset) | P'(ambient)

-P'(effective) = F(effective) ? P'(permitted) : 0
+P'(effective) = F(effective) ? P'(permitted) : P'(ambient)

P'(inheritable) = P(inheritable) [i.e., unchanged]

@@ -1071,6 +1086,10 @@ an effective or real UID of 0 calls
.BR execve (2).
(See the subsection
.IR "Capabilities and execution of programs by root" .)
+.TP
+.B SECBIT_NO_CAP_AMBIENT_RAISE
+Setting this flag disallows
+.BR PR_CAP_AMBIENT_RAISE .
.PP
Each of the above "base" flags has a companion "locked" flag.
Setting any of the "locked" flags is irreversible,
@@ -1079,8 +1098,9 @@ corresponding "base" flag.
The locked flags are:
.BR SECBIT_KEEP_CAPS_LOCKED ,
.BR SECBIT_NO_SETUID_FIXUP_LOCKED ,
+.BR SECBIT_NOROOT_LOCKED ,
and
-.BR SECBIT_NOROOT_LOCKED .
+.BR SECBIT_NO_CAP_AMBIENT_RAISE .
.PP
The
.I securebits
--
2.1.0