[PATCH 3/5] exec: Remove recursion from search_binary_handler

[Rob Landley]

On 5/12/20 7:20 PM, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 11:46 AM Eric W. Biederman
> <ebiederm at xmission.com> wrote:
>>
>> I am still thinking about this one, but here is where I am at.  At a
>> practical level passing the file descriptor of the script to interpreter
>> seems like something we should encourage in the long term.  It removes
>> races and it is cheaper because then the interpreter does not have to
>> turn around and open the script itself.
> 
> Yeah, I think we should continue to support it, because I think it's
> the right thing to do (and we might just end up having compatibility
> issues if we don't).
...
>> It is possible although unlikely for userspace to find the file
>> descriptor without consulting AT_EXECFD so just to be conservative I
>> think we should install the file descriptor in begin_new_exec even if
>> the next interpreter does not support AT_EXECFD.
> 
> Ack. I think the AT_EXECFD thing is a sign that this isn't internal to
> binfmt_misc, but it also shouldn't be gating this issue. In reality,
> ELF is the only real binary format that matters - the script/misc
> binfmts are just indirection entries - and it supports AT_EXECFD, so
> let's just ignore the theoretical case of "maybe nobody exposes it".

Would this potentially make the re-exec-yourself case easier to do at some
point? (Which nommu needs to do, and /proc/self/exe isn't always available.)

Here's the first time I asked about that:

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/200612261823.07927.rob@landley.net/

Here's the most recent:

https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/9/5/246

Here's someone else asking and being basically told "chroot isn't a thing":

http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0906.3/00584.html

(See also "CVE-2019-5736" and the workarounds thereto.)

Rob

P.S. Yes I'm aware it would only work properly with static binaries. Not the
first thing that's true for.