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Subject[PATCH v5] fs: allow protected cross-uid sticky symlinks
A long-standing class of security issues is the symlink-based
time-of-check-time-of-use race, most commonly seen in world-writable
directories like /tmp. The common method of exploitation of this flaw
is to cross privilege boundaries when opening a file through a given
symlink (i.e. a root process opens a symlink belonging to another user).
For a likely incomplete list of hundreds of examples across the years,
please see: http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=/tmp

The solution is to permit symlinks to only be opened when outside a sticky
world-writable directory, or when the uid of the symlink and opener match,
or when the directory owner matches the symlink's owner.

Some pointers to the history of earlier discussion that I could find:

1996 Aug, Zygo Blaxell
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=87602167419830&w=2
1996 Oct, Andrew Tridgell
http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9610.2/0086.html
1997 Dec, Albert D Cahalan
http://lkml.org/lkml/1997/12/16/4
2005 Feb, Lorenzo Hernández García-Hierro
http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0502.0/1896.html

Past objections and rebuttals could be summarized as:

- Violates POSIX.
- POSIX didn't consider this situation and it's not useful to follow
a broken specification at the cost of security.
- Might break unknown applications that use this feature.
- Applications that break because of the change are easy to spot and
fix. Applications that are vulnerable to symlink ToCToU by not having
the change aren't.
- Applications should just use mkstemp() or O_CREATE|O_EXCL.
- True, but applications are not perfect, and new software is written
all the time that makes these mistakes; blocking this flaw at the
kernel is a single solution to the entire class of vulnerability.

This patch is based on the patch in Openwall and grsecurity, but with the
scope changed to be only "opening" a symlink. I have added a sysctl to
enable the protected behavior, documentation, and a ratelimited warning.

v2:
- dropped redundant S_ISLNK check.
- moved sysctl extern into security.h.
- asked to include CC to linux-fsdevel.

v3:
- move into VFS core.
- add CONFIG entry for build-time default.
- rename sysctl, invert logic.
- use get_task_comm for task name.
- lock dentry when checking parent.

v4:
- limit check to leaf symlink opening.

v5:
- Kconfig whitespace regressed (thanks to Randy Dunlap for pointing it out)

Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees.cook@canonical.com>
---
Documentation/sysctl/fs.txt | 15 ++++++++++
fs/Kconfig | 15 ++++++++++
fs/namei.c | 61 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
kernel/sysctl.c | 10 +++++++
4 files changed, 101 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/fs.txt b/Documentation/sysctl/fs.txt
index 6268250..9986bce 100644
--- a/Documentation/sysctl/fs.txt
+++ b/Documentation/sysctl/fs.txt
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ Currently, these files are in /proc/sys/fs:
- nr_open
- overflowuid
- overflowgid
+- protected-sticky-symlinks
- suid_dumpable
- super-max
- super-nr
@@ -158,6 +159,20 @@ The default is 65534.

==============================================================

+protected-sticky-symlinks:
+
+Opening symlinks in sticky world-writable directories (like /tmp) can be
+dangerous due to time-of-check-time-of-use races that frequently result
+in security vulnerabilities.
+
+The default value is "0", leaving the behavior of symlink opening
+unchanged from POSIX. A value of "1" will enable the protection, causing
+symlinks to be openable only if outside a sticky world-writable directory,
+or if the symlink and the opener's uid match, or if the symlink and its
+directory are owned by the same uid.
+
+==============================================================
+
suid_dumpable:

This value can be used to query and set the core dump mode for setuid
diff --git a/fs/Kconfig b/fs/Kconfig
index 5f85b59..b2cdff3 100644
--- a/fs/Kconfig
+++ b/fs/Kconfig
@@ -256,3 +256,18 @@ source "fs/nls/Kconfig"
source "fs/dlm/Kconfig"

endmenu
+
+config PROTECTED_STICKY_SYMLINKS
+ bool "Protect symlink opening in sticky world-writable directories"
+ help
+ A long-standing class of security issues is the symlink-based
+ time-of-check-time-of-use race, most commonly seen in
+ world-writable directories like /tmp. The common method of
+ exploitation of this flaw is to cross privilege boundaries
+ when opening a given symlink (i.e. a root process opens a
+ malicious symlink belonging to another user).
+
+ Enabling this solves the problem by permitting symlinks to only
+ be opened when outside a sticky world-writable directory, or
+ when the uid of the symlink and opener match, or when the
+ directory and symlink owners match.
diff --git a/fs/namei.c b/fs/namei.c
index 868d0cb..ee9d493 100644
--- a/fs/namei.c
+++ b/fs/namei.c
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
#include <linux/fcntl.h>
#include <linux/device_cgroup.h>
#include <linux/fs_struct.h>
+#include <linux/ratelimit.h>
#include <asm/uaccess.h>

#include "internal.h"
@@ -530,6 +531,60 @@ static inline void path_to_nameidata(struct path *path, struct nameidata *nd)
nd->path.dentry = path->dentry;
}

+int protected_sticky_symlinks = CONFIG_PROTECTED_STICKY_SYMLINKS;
+
+/**
+ * may_open_sticky_symlink - Check symlink opening for unsafe situations
+ * @dentry: The inode/dentry of the symlink
+ * @nameidata: The path data of the symlink
+ *
+ * In the case of the protected_sticky_symlinks sysctl being enabled,
+ * CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE needs to be specifically ignored if the symlink is
+ * in a sticky world-writable directory. This is to protect privileged
+ * processes from failing races against path names that may change out
+ * from under them by way of other users creating malicious symlinks.
+ * It will permit symlinks to only be opened when outside a sticky
+ * world-writable directory, or when the uid of the symlink and opener
+ * match, or when the directory owner matches the symlink's owner.
+ *
+ * Returns 0 if opening the symlink is allowed, -ve on error.
+ */
+static __always_inline int
+may_open_sticky_symlink(struct dentry *dentry, struct nameidata *nameidata)
+{
+ int error = 0;
+ const struct inode *parent;
+ const struct inode *inode;
+ const struct cred *cred;
+
+ if (!protected_sticky_symlinks)
+ return 0;
+
+ /* owner and opener match? */
+ cred = current_cred();
+ inode = dentry->d_inode;
+ if (cred->fsuid == inode->i_uid)
+ return 0;
+
+ /* check parent directory mode and owner */
+ spin_lock(&dentry->d_lock);
+ parent = dentry->d_parent->d_inode;
+ if ((parent->i_mode & (S_ISVTX|S_IWOTH)) == (S_ISVTX|S_IWOTH) &&
+ parent->i_uid != inode->i_uid) {
+ error = -EACCES;
+ }
+ spin_unlock(&dentry->d_lock);
+
+ if (error) {
+ char name[sizeof(current->comm)];
+ printk_ratelimited(KERN_NOTICE "non-matching-uid symlink "
+ "opening attempted in sticky world-writable "
+ "directory by %s (fsuid %d)\n",
+ get_task_comm(name, current), cred->fsuid);
+ }
+ return error;
+}
+
static __always_inline int
__do_follow_link(struct path *path, struct nameidata *nd, void **p)
{
@@ -1844,6 +1899,12 @@ reval:
goto exit_dput;
if (count++ == 32)
goto exit_dput;
+
+ /* check if this symlink is in a sticky world-write dir */
+ error = may_open_sticky_symlink(path.dentry, &nd);
+ if (error)
+ goto exit_dput;
+
/*
* This is subtle. Instead of calling do_follow_link() we do
* the thing by hands. The reason is that this way we have zero
diff --git a/kernel/sysctl.c b/kernel/sysctl.c
index 997080f..56affd6 100644
--- a/kernel/sysctl.c
+++ b/kernel/sysctl.c
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ extern int sysctl_oom_kill_allocating_task;
extern int sysctl_oom_dump_tasks;
extern int max_threads;
extern int core_uses_pid;
+extern int protected_sticky_symlinks;
extern int suid_dumpable;
extern char core_pattern[];
extern unsigned int core_pipe_limit;
@@ -1455,6 +1456,15 @@ static struct ctl_table fs_table[] = {
#endif
#endif
{
+ .procname = "protected-sticky-symlinks",
+ .data = &protected_sticky_symlinks,
+ .maxlen = sizeof(int),
+ .mode = 0644,
+ .proc_handler = proc_dointvec_minmax,
+ .extra1 = &zero,
+ .extra2 = &one,
+ },
+ {
.procname = "suid_dumpable",
.data = &suid_dumpable,
.maxlen = sizeof(int),
--
1.7.0.4

--
Kees Cook
Ubuntu Security Team
--
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