Re: [PATCH v2 6/7] ptrace: introduce PTRACE_SET_SYSCALL_INFO request

Charlie Jenkins
2025-01-16T21:08:02Z

On Thu, Jan 16, 2025 at 10:33:28AM +0200, Dmitry V. Levin wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 15, 2025 at 05:55:31PM -0800, Charlie Jenkins wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 13, 2025 at 07:12:08PM +0200, Dmitry V. Levin wrote:
> [...]
> > > + /* Changing the type of the system call stop is not supported. */
> > > + if (ptrace_get_syscall_info_op(child) != info.op)
> >
> > Since this isn't supported anyway, would it make sense to set the
> > info.op to ptrace_get_syscall_info_op(child) like is done for
> > get_syscall_info? The usecase I see for this is simplifying when the
> > user doesn't call PTRACE_GET_SYSCALL_INFO before calling
> > PTRACE_SET_SYSCALL_INFO.
>
> struct ptrace_syscall_info.op is a field that specifies how to interpret
> the union fields of the structure, so if "op" is ignored, then the
> kernel would infer the meaning of the structure specified by the userspace
> tracer from the kernel state of the tracee. This looks a bit too
> error-prone to allow. For example, nothing good is expected to happen
> if syscall entry information is applied in a syscall exit stop.

Yes that's a good point.

>
> The tracer is not obliged to call PTRACE_GET_SYSCALL_INFO to set
> struct ptrace_syscall_info.op. If the tracer keeps track of ptrace stops
> by other means, it can assign the right value by itself.
>
> And, btw, the comment should say "is not currently supported",
> I'll update it in the next iteration.
>
> An idea mentioned in prior discussions was that it would make sense to
> specify syscall return value along with skipping the syscall in seccomp stop,
> and this would require a different value for "op" field, but
> I decided not to introduce this extra complexity yet.

Makes sense, thank you!

- Charlie

>
>
> --
> ldv