From: Ariadne Conill <ariadne@dereferenced.org>
To: Ariadne Conill <ariadne@dereferenced.org>
Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>,
Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>,
Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>,
Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>,
Rich Felker <dalias@libc.org>,
Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>,
Alexander Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>,
linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, stable@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-hardening@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] fs/binfmt_elf: Add padding NULL when argc == 0
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2022 14:46:15 -0600 (CST) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <4df29574-b147-d42d-45f5-a57082d6a2ed@dereferenced.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <af7838bd-4cc1-fc2c-6cb9-8ddd65d5f96@dereferenced.org>
Hi,
On Wed, 26 Jan 2022, Ariadne Conill wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Wed, 26 Jan 2022, Kees Cook wrote:
>
>> Quoting Ariadne Conill:
>>
>> "In several other operating systems, it is a hard requirement that the
>> first argument to execve(2) be the name of a program, thus prohibiting
>> a scenario where argc < 1. POSIX 2017 also recommends this behaviour,
>> but it is not an explicit requirement[1]:
>>
>> The argument arg0 should point to a filename string that is
>> associated with the process being started by one of the exec
>> functions.
>> ...
>> Interestingly, Michael Kerrisk opened an issue about this in 2008[2],
>> but there was no consensus to support fixing this issue then.
>> Hopefully now that CVE-2021-4034 shows practical exploitative use[3]
>> of this bug in a shellcode, we can reconsider."
>>
>> An examination of existing[4] users of execve(..., NULL, NULL) shows
>> mostly test code, or example rootkit code. While rejecting a NULL argv
>> would be preferred, it looks like the main cause of userspace confusion
>> is an assumption that argc >= 1, and buggy programs may skip argv[0]
>> when iterating. To protect against userspace bugs of this nature, insert
>> an extra NULL pointer in argv when argc == 0, so that argv[1] != envp[0].
>>
>> Note that this is only done in the argc == 0 case because some userspace
>> programs expect to find envp at exactly argv[argc]. The overlap of these
>> two misguided assumptions is believed to be zero.
>>
>> [1] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/exec.html
>> [2] https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8408
>> [3] https://www.qualys.com/2022/01/25/cve-2021-4034/pwnkit.txt
>> [4]
>> https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=execve%5C+*%5C%28%5B%5E%2C%5D%2B%2C+*NULL&literal=0
>>
>> Reported-by: Ariadne Conill <ariadne@dereferenced.org>
>> Reported-by: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
>> Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
>> Cc: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>
>> Cc: Rich Felker <dalias@libc.org>
>> Cc: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
>> Cc: Alexander Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
>> Cc: linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org
>> Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
>> Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
>
> Tested-by: Ariadne Conill <ariadne@dereferenced.org>
>
> It seems to work, but I still think bailing early with -EINVAL is a more
> reasonable position to take. For example, the following code, when used with
> BusyBox applets results in a segfault, as the multicall stub does not support
> scenarios where argc < 1:
>
> #include <stdio.h>
> #include <unistd.h>
> #include <sys/syscall.h>
>
> int main(int argc, const char **argv) {
> if (syscall(SYS_execve, "/bin/date", NULL, NULL) < 0)
> perror("execve");
> return 0;
> }
>
Further testing indicates that while things *mostly* work, it results in
memory corruption in various tasks, for example, trying to build a new
kernel hung, and the gcc process's name was a bunch of uninitialized
memory. So, I don't think { NULL, NULL } is a good way to go.
Ariadne
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2022-01-26 20:46 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 12+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2022-01-26 17:57 [PATCH] fs/binfmt_elf: Add padding NULL when argc == 0 Kees Cook
2022-01-26 18:07 ` Jann Horn
2022-01-26 18:42 ` Ariadne Conill
2022-01-26 19:50 ` Jann Horn
2022-01-26 19:58 ` Kees Cook
2022-01-26 20:08 ` Matthew Wilcox
2022-01-26 20:13 ` Kees Cook
2022-01-26 20:31 ` Eric W. Biederman
2022-01-26 19:56 ` Kees Cook
2022-01-26 20:10 ` Ariadne Conill
2022-01-26 20:46 ` Ariadne Conill [this message]
2022-01-26 20:52 ` Rich Felker
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