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Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2022 18:10:26 -0400
From: Rich Felker <dalias@...c.org>
To: libc-coord@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: Per-thread file system attributes
On Tue, Oct 25, 2022 at 12:07:02AM +0200, Florian Weimer wrote:
> * Rich Felker:
>
> > On Mon, Oct 24, 2022 at 06:41:51PM +0200, Florian Weimer wrote:
> >> Some userspace file servers (e.g. Samba) want to change the current
> >> directory (or chroot or umask) on individual threads, rather than
> >> affecting the entire process. In some cases, this can avoid a userspace
> >> emulation of kernel pathname resolution.
> >
> > Isn't this what the *at() functions were for? Why do we need a second
> > solution to the same problem?
>
> Samba uses it to emulate the missing fgetxattrat interface. I've now
> asked why they don't use a /proc-based approach:
>
> vfswrap_getxattrat_do_async and unshare(CLONE_FS)
> <https://lists.samba.org/archive/samba-technical/2022-October/137716.html>
>
> I need to check the other userspace file servers if they use
> unshare(CLONE_FS).
>
> Direct system calls for setresuid etc. are more common, I think. They
> avoid the setXid broadcast on Linux (to switch over the entire process
> to different credentials) and thus can be used to implement per-thread
> credentials.
The "filesystem uid/gid" extension Linux has (setfsuid/setfsgid) is
already per-thread by convention due glibc choosing (and musl & uclibc
doing likewise) not to make it process-global with a broadcast. It's a
lot more suitable than overloading the POSIX real/effective/saved
uid/gid for this purpose, as the latter are intended as security
boundaries and the "fs" ones are just intended for implementing file
servers.
Rich
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