exec: Add a new AT_EXECVE_CHECK flag to execveat(2)

Add a new AT_EXECVE_CHECK flag to execveat(2) to check if a file would
be allowed for execution.  The main use case is for script interpreters
and dynamic linkers to check execution permission according to the
kernel's security policy. Another use case is to add context to access
logs e.g., which script (instead of interpreter) accessed a file.  As
any executable code, scripts could also use this check [1].

This is different from faccessat(2) + X_OK which only checks a subset of
access rights (i.e. inode permission and mount options for regular
files), but not the full context (e.g. all LSM access checks).  The main
use case for access(2) is for SUID processes to (partially) check access
on behalf of their caller.  The main use case for execveat(2) +
AT_EXECVE_CHECK is to check if a script execution would be allowed,
according to all the different restrictions in place.  Because the use
of AT_EXECVE_CHECK follows the exact kernel semantic as for a real
execution, user space gets the same error codes.

An interesting point of using execveat(2) instead of openat2(2) is that
it decouples the check from the enforcement.  Indeed, the security check
can be logged (e.g. with audit) without blocking an execution
environment not yet ready to enforce a strict security policy.

LSMs can control or log execution requests with
security_bprm_creds_for_exec().  However, to enforce a consistent and
complete access control (e.g. on binary's dependencies) LSMs should
restrict file executability, or measure executed files, with
security_file_open() by checking file->f_flags & __FMODE_EXEC.

Because AT_EXECVE_CHECK is dedicated to user space interpreters, it
doesn't make sense for the kernel to parse the checked files, look for
interpreters known to the kernel (e.g. ELF, shebang), and return ENOEXEC
if the format is unknown.  Because of that, security_bprm_check() is
never called when AT_EXECVE_CHECK is used.

It should be noted that script interpreters cannot directly use
execveat(2) (without this new AT_EXECVE_CHECK flag) because this could
lead to unexpected behaviors e.g., `python script.sh` could lead to Bash
being executed to interpret the script.  Unlike the kernel, script
interpreters may just interpret the shebang as a simple comment, which
should not change for backward compatibility reasons.

Because scripts or libraries files might not currently have the
executable permission set, or because we might want specific users to be
allowed to run arbitrary scripts, the following patch provides a dynamic
configuration mechanism with the SECBIT_EXEC_RESTRICT_FILE and
SECBIT_EXEC_DENY_INTERACTIVE securebits.

This is a redesign of the CLIP OS 4's O_MAYEXEC:
https://github.com/clipos-archive/src_platform_clip-patches/blob/f5cb330d6b684752e403b4e41b39f7004d88e561/1901_open_mayexec.patch
This patch has been used for more than a decade with customized script
interpreters.  Some examples can be found here:
https://github.com/clipos-archive/clipos4_portage-overlay/search?q=O_MAYEXEC

Cc: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>
Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Acked-by: Paul Moore <paul@paul-moore.com>
Reviewed-by: Serge Hallyn <serge@hallyn.com>
Reviewed-by: Jeff Xu <jeffxu@chromium.org>
Tested-by: Jeff Xu <jeffxu@chromium.org>
Link: https://docs.python.org/3/library/io.html#io.open_code [1]
Signed-off-by: Mickaël Salaün <mic@digikod.net>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20241212174223.389435-2-mic@digikod.net
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>

1 files changed, 4 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/fcntl.h b/include/uapi/linux/fcntl.h
index 6e6907e63bfc..a15ac2fa4b20 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/fcntl.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/fcntl.h
@@ -155,4 +155,8 @@
 #define AT_HANDLE_MNT_ID_UNIQUE	0x001	/* Return the u64 unique mount ID. */
 #define AT_HANDLE_CONNECTABLE	0x002	/* Request a connectable file handle */
 
+/* Flags for execveat2(2). */
+#define AT_EXECVE_CHECK		0x10000	/* Only perform a check if execution
+					   would be allowed. */
+
 #endif /* _UAPI_LINUX_FCNTL_H */