Re: [PATCH RFC v2 net-next 08/16] bpf: add hashtable type of BPF maps

[Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>]

On Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 1:33 PM, Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> wrote:
>>
>>>> +       htab->slab_name = kasprintf(GFP_USER, "bpf_htab_%p", htab);
>>>
>>> This leaks a kernel heap memory pointer to userspace. If a unique name
>>> needed, I think map_id should be used instead.
>>
>> it leaks, how? slabinfo is only available to root.
>> The same code exists in conntrack:
>> net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_core.c:1767
>
> Right, in extreme cases, there are system configurations where leaking
> addresses even to root can be considered a bug. There are a lot of
> these situations in the kernel still, that's true. However, if we can
> at all avoid it, I'd really like to avoid adding new ones. Nearly all
> the cases of using a memory pointer is for uniqueness concerns, but I
> think can already get that from the map_id.

ok. fair enough. I think slab name doesn't have to be unique anymore.
It's used to be a requirement in older kernels. If it is ok to reuse now,
I'll just use the same for all hash-type maps.
Advice from slab expert would be great...