[PATCH v2 0/3] landlock: Restrict renameat2 with RENAME_WHITEOUT

[Günther Noack]

Hello!

As discussed in [1], the renameat2() syscall's RENAME_WHITEOUT flag allows
the creation of chardev directory entries with major=minor=0 as "whiteout
objects" in the location of the rename source file [2].

This functionality is available even without having any OverlayFS mounted
and can be invoked with the regular renameat2(2) syscall [3].

In V1 [5], it was discussed that whiteout objects are not the same as
character devices, and should therefore be guarded with a separate access
right.  We are therefore guarding the operation with the new access right
LANDLOCK_ACCESS_FS_MAKE_WHITEOUT now.

By introducing a new access right, that change is also exposed by
incrementing the ABI level and does not require a Landlock erratum.

Motivation
==========

The RENAME_WHITEOUT flag side-steps all of the existing Landlock access
rights, which are designed to restrict the creation of directory entries.
It is desirable to restrict that.

This patch set fixes that by adding a check in Landlock's path_rename hook.


Tradeoffs considered in the implementation
==========================================

* Should the access right check be merged into the longer
  current_check_refer_path() function?

  I am leaning towards keeping it as a special case earlier.  This means
  that we traverse the source path twice, but as we have seen in Debian
  Code Search, there are apparently no legitimate callers of renameat2()
  with RENAME_WHITEOUT who are calling this from within a Landlock domain.
  (fuse-overlayfs is legitimate, but is not landlocked)

  It doesn't seem worth complicating our common rename code for a corner
  case that doesn't happen in practice.


[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/adUBCQXrt7kmgqJT@google.com/
[2] https://docs.kernel.org/filesystems/overlayfs.html#whiteouts-and-opaque-directories
[3] https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/renameat2.2.html#DESCRIPTION
[4] https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=rename.*RENAME_WHITEOUT&literal=0
[5] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260411090944.3131168-2-gnoack@google.com/


Changelog
=========

v2:
 - Introduce LANDLOCK_ACCESS_FS_MAKE_WHITEOUT access right
   and guard it with that.
 - Bump ABI version

v1:
 - initial version
   https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260411090944.3131168-2-gnoack@google.com/


Günther Noack (3):
  landlock: Require LANDLOCK_ACCESS_FS_MAKE_WHITEOUT for RENAME_WHITEOUT
  selftests/landlock: Add test for RENAME_WHITEOUT denial
  selftests/landlock: Test OverlayFS renames w/o
    LANDLOCK_ACCESS_FS_MAKE_WHITEOUT

 include/uapi/linux/landlock.h                |  3 ++
 security/landlock/audit.c                    |  1 +
 security/landlock/fs.c                       | 15 ++++++
 security/landlock/limits.h                   |  2 +-
 security/landlock/syscalls.c                 |  2 +-
 tools/testing/selftests/landlock/base_test.c |  4 +-
 tools/testing/selftests/landlock/fs_test.c   | 50 +++++++++++++++++++-
 7 files changed, 71 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

-- 
2.54.0.563.g4f69b47b94-goog