[PATCH RESEND v3 bpf-next 01/14] bpf: introduce BPF token object

[Toke Høiland-Jørgensen]

Christian Brauner <brauner at kernel.org> writes:

> On Wed, Jun 28, 2023 at 10:18:19PM -0700, Andrii Nakryiko wrote:
>> Add new kind of BPF kernel object, BPF token. BPF token is meant to to
>> allow delegating privileged BPF functionality, like loading a BPF
>> program or creating a BPF map, from privileged process to a *trusted*
>> unprivileged process, all while have a good amount of control over which
>> privileged operations could be performed using provided BPF token.
>> 
>> This patch adds new BPF_TOKEN_CREATE command to bpf() syscall, which
>> allows to create a new BPF token object along with a set of allowed
>> commands that such BPF token allows to unprivileged applications.
>> Currently only BPF_TOKEN_CREATE command itself can be
>> delegated, but other patches gradually add ability to delegate
>> BPF_MAP_CREATE, BPF_BTF_LOAD, and BPF_PROG_LOAD commands.
>> 
>> The above means that new BPF tokens can be created using existing BPF
>> token, if original privileged creator allowed BPF_TOKEN_CREATE command.
>> New derived BPF token cannot be more powerful than the original BPF
>> token.
>> 
>> Importantly, BPF token is automatically pinned at the specified location
>> inside an instance of BPF FS and cannot be repinned using BPF_OBJ_PIN
>> command, unlike BPF prog/map/btf/link. This provides more control over
>> unintended sharing of BPF tokens through pinning it in another BPF FS
>> instances.
>> 
>> Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii at kernel.org>
>> ---
>
> The main issue I have with the token approach is that it is a completely
> separate delegation vector on top of user namespaces. We mentioned this
> duringthe conf and this was brought up on the thread here again as well.
> Imho, that's a problem both security-wise and complexity-wise.
>
> It's not great if each subsystem gets its own custom delegation
> mechanism. This imposes such a taxing complexity on both kernel- and
> userspace that it will quickly become a huge liability. So I would
> really strongly encourage you to explore another direction.

I share this concern as well, but I'm not quite sure I follow your
proposal here. IIUC, you're saying that instead of creating the token
using a BPF_TOKEN_CREATE command, the policy daemon should create a
bpffs instance and attach the token value directly to that, right? But
then what? Are you proposing that the calling process inside the
container open a filesystem reference (how? using fspick()?) and pass
that to the bpf syscall? Or is there some way to find the right
filesystem instance to extract this from at the time that the bpf()
syscall is issued inside the container?

-Toke