[PATCH v4 0/2] Documentation/admin-guide: introduce perf-security.rst file and extend perf_event_paranoid documentation

Alexey Budankov
2018-11-27T08:11:54Z

To facilitate informed decision making by system administrators [1]
to permit and manage access to Perf Events (perf_events) / Perf tool
(Perf) [2],[3] performance monitoring for multiple users perf-security.rst
document suggested by Thomas Gleixner is introduced [4] that:

a) states perf_events/Perf access security concerns for multi user environment
b) refers to base Linux access control and management principles
c) extends documentation of possible perf_event_paranoid knob settings

The file serves as single knowledge source for perf_events/Perf security and
access control related matter according to decisions, discussion and
PoC prototype previously made here [5],[6].

The file can later be extended with information describing:

a) perf_events/Perf usage models and its security implications
b) perf_events/Perf user interface, its changes and related security implications
c) security related implications of monitoring by a specific perf_events PMU [2]

---
Alexey Budankov (2):
Documentation/admin-guide: introduce perf-security.rst file
Documentation/admin-guide: update admin-guide index.rst

Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst | 1 +
Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst | 97 +++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 98 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst

---
Changes in v4:
- added docs for perf_event related capabilities
Changes in v3:
- toning down of the markup for "scope, access and resource"
- adding definite article for "Linux implementation"
Changes in v2:
- reverted patches order in the set to avoid CI issue
- replaced old PCL referencing by PE (Perf Events)
- skipped >=3 setting documentation at the moment

---
[1] https://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=153815883923913&w=2
[2] http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/perf_event_open.2.html
[3] https://perf.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page
[4] https://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=153837512226838&w=2
[5] https://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=153736008310781&w=2
[6] https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/5/21/156