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Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:24:07 +0200 (CEST)
From: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
To: Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>
cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>, Serge Hallyn <serge.hallyn@...onical.com>, 
    LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, Darren Hart <dvhart@...ux.intel.com>, 
    Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>, 
    Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>, Jiri Kosina <jkosina@...e.cz>, 
    "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>, 
    David Howells <dhowells@...hat.com>, kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com, 
    spender@...ecurity.net
Subject: Re: [PATCH] futex: do not leak robust list to unprivileged process

On Wed, 28 Mar 2012, Kees Cook wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 4:46 PM, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de> wrote:
> > On Tue, 20 Mar 2012, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> >> * Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org> wrote:
> >> > On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 10:02 AM, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de> wrote:
> >> > > I really wonder why we have this syscall at all.
> >> >
> >> > The documentation I found yesterday while looking at this was:
> >> > http://linux.die.net/man/2/get_robust_list
> >> >
> >> > Which says "The system call is only available for debugging
> >> > purposes and is not needed for normal operations. Both system
> >> > calls are not available to application programs as functions;
> >> > they can be called using the syscall(3) function."
> >> >
> >> > Dropping the syscall entirely would certainly make it secure.
> >> > ;)
> >>
> >> The thinking was API completeness. In general it's possible for
> >> a sufficiently privileged task to figure out all the state of a
> >> task. We can query timers, fds - the robust list is such a
> >> resource as well. The information leakage was obviously not
> >> intended.
> >
> > So I think it's safe to take Kees' patch as is. On top of that we
> > should add a WARN_ONCE when the syscall is invoked and schedule the
> > sucker for removal.
> 
> Can someone claim the first patch? It looks like not everyone agrees
> about removal, but I'd like to see at least the first one get in. :)

It's on my list for tomorrow.

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