[PATCH v4 1/2] ima: Simplify ima_lsm_copy_rule

[Mimi Zohar]

Hi Scott,

On Fri, 2022-09-09 at 09:15 +0800, GUO Zihua wrote:
> Currently ima_lsm_copy_rule() set the arg_p field of the source rule to
> NULL, so that the source rule could be freed afterward. It does not make
> sense for this behavior to be inside a "copy" function. So move it
> outside and let the caller handle this field.
> 
> As of now, the only user of ima_lsm_copy_rule() is
> ima_lsm_update_rule(). In ima_lsm_update_rule(), we would like to free
> only the lsm.rule in the old rule entry, and leave arg_p untouch. In
> this case, it's better to use ima_filter_rule_free() directly and not
> introduce another for loop to set arg_p to NULL.
> 

This needs to be re-written from a higher perspective.  Perhaps base it
on the existing comment in ima_lsm_update_rule().
 
ima_lsm_copy_rule() shallow copied all references, except for the LSM
references.  Only the LSM references and the entry itself need to be
freed.  Instead of calling ima_lsm_free_rule() to free the LSM
references and also the args_p field, directly free the LSM references.


> Signed-off-by: GUO Zihua <guozihua at huawei.com>
> ---
>  security/integrity/ima/ima_policy.c | 10 +++-------
>  1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/security/integrity/ima/ima_policy.c b/security/integrity/ima/ima_policy.c
> index a8802b8da946..8040215c0252 100644
> --- a/security/integrity/ima/ima_policy.c
> +++ b/security/integrity/ima/ima_policy.c
> @@ -398,12 +398,6 @@ static struct ima_rule_entry *ima_lsm_copy_rule(struct ima_rule_entry *entry)
>  
>  		nentry->lsm[i].type = entry->lsm[i].type;
>  		nentry->lsm[i].args_p = entry->lsm[i].args_p;
> -		/*
> -		 * Remove the reference from entry so that the associated
> -		 * memory will not be freed during a later call to
> -		 * ima_lsm_free_rule(entry).
> -		 */
> -		entry->lsm[i].args_p = NULL;
>  
>  		ima_filter_rule_init(nentry->lsm[i].type, Audit_equal,
>  				     nentry->lsm[i].args_p,
> @@ -417,6 +411,7 @@ static struct ima_rule_entry *ima_lsm_copy_rule(struct ima_rule_entry *entry)
>  
>  static int ima_lsm_update_rule(struct ima_rule_entry *entry)
>  {
> +	int i;
>  	struct ima_rule_entry *nentry;
>  
>  	nentry = ima_lsm_copy_rule(entry);
> @@ -431,7 +426,8 @@ static int ima_lsm_update_rule(struct ima_rule_entry *entry)
>  	 * references and the entry itself. All other memory references will now
>  	 * be owned by nentry.
>  	 */
> -	ima_lsm_free_rule(entry);
> +	for (i = 0; i < MAX_LSM_RULES; i++)
> +		ima_filter_rule_free(entry->lsm[i].rule);
>  	kfree(entry);
>  
>  	return 0;