[PATCH v5 3/5] userns: check the opener and the writer before mapping uid 0

Josef Bacik josef at toxicpanda.com
Fri Oct 23 16:30:09 UTC 2026


verify_root_map() looks at the cred that opened the map file: it asks
whether it has CAP_SETFCAP over the parent, or, for an opener inside the
namespace, whether the creator had.  Two things are missing.

The writer isn't checked.  For every other privileged mapping
new_idmap_permitted() wants the capability from the opener and from the
task that calls write(), but a map that consists of the single line
"0 0 1" takes the unprivileged branch, where only the opener's euid
counts.  So an open uid_map file is a token for mapping uid 0:

  task A: uid 0, full caps          task B: uid 0, no CAP_SETFCAP
  fd = open("/proc/<pid>/uid_map")
  B gets fd by inheritance
  or SCM_RIGHTS
                                    write(fd, "0 0 1")
                                      opener had CAP_SETFCAP -> allowed

And the check only happens for a map with an extent that starts at the
parent's uid 0, and only asks for CAP_SETFCAP over the parent.  But the
root user of an ancestor can be mapped into the parent at any uid, and
the parent's own root user can be the root user of ancestors further up.
A task without CAP_SETFCAP that unshared a namespace, which a privileged
task then mapped "1000 0 1" for, can unshare again and map "0 1000 1":
host uid 0 is uid 0 of the new namespace, and nothing was checked.

Find every ancestor whose root user the new map contains, at whatever uid
it has in the parent, and require that the opener and the writer both
reach the topmost of them: by ns->setfcap_level for a task in the
namespace that is being mapped, by cap_setfcap_level() for one outside
it.

This only affects maps that contain the root user of the parent or of
one of its ancestors.  A write by a task without CAP_SETFCAP to a file
opened by one with it, and a map by a task whose CAP_SETFCAP stops short
of the root user it passes on, now fail with -EPERM.

Fixes: db2e718a4798 ("capabilities: require CAP_SETFCAP to map uid 0")
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Josef Bacik <josef at toxicpanda.com>
---
 kernel/user_namespace.c | 82 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
 1 file changed, 60 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/user_namespace.c b/kernel/user_namespace.c
index 7bd3692c2f3e..661d7e9b72d5 100644
--- a/kernel/user_namespace.c
+++ b/kernel/user_namespace.c
@@ -881,15 +881,55 @@ VISIBLE_IF_KUNIT int uid_gid_map_sort(struct uid_gid_map *map)
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_IF_KUNIT(uid_gid_map_sort);
 
+static bool map_has_id(struct uid_gid_map *map, u32 id)
+{
+	struct uid_gid_extent *extent;
+	int idx;
+
+	for (idx = 0; idx < map->nr_extents; idx++) {
+		if (map->nr_extents <= UID_GID_MAP_MAX_BASE_EXTENTS)
+			extent = &map->extent[idx];
+		else
+			extent = &map->forward[idx];
+		if (id >= extent->lower_first &&
+		    id - extent->lower_first < extent->count)
+			return true;
+	}
+
+	return false;
+}
+
+/*
+ * The lowest ->level among @parent and its ancestors whose root user @new_map
+ * maps, whatever uid that root user has in @parent; INT_MAX if there is none.
+ */
+static int map_root_level(struct user_namespace *parent,
+			  struct uid_gid_map *new_map)
+{
+	struct user_namespace *p;
+	int level = INT_MAX;
+	uid_t id;
+
+	for (p = parent; p; p = p->parent) {
+		id = from_kuid(parent, make_kuid(p, 0));
+		if (id != (uid_t)-1 && map_has_id(new_map, id))
+			level = p->level;
+	}
+
+	return level;
+}
+
 /**
  * verify_root_map() - check the uid 0 mapping
  * @file: idmapping file
  * @map_ns: user namespace of the target process
  * @new_map: requested idmap
  *
- * If a process requests mapping parent uid 0 into the new ns, verify that the
- * process writing the map had the CAP_SETFCAP capability as the target process
- * will be able to write fscaps that are valid in ancestor user namespaces.
+ * If a process requests mapping the root user of the parent ns, or of one of
+ * its ancestors, into the new ns, verify that the process that opened the map
+ * file and the process writing the map had the CAP_SETFCAP capability as the
+ * target process will be able to write fscaps that are valid in ancestor user
+ * namespaces.
  *
  * Return: true if the mapping is allowed, false if not.
  */
@@ -897,42 +937,40 @@ static bool verify_root_map(const struct file *file,
 			    struct user_namespace *map_ns,
 			    struct uid_gid_map *new_map)
 {
-	int idx;
 	const struct user_namespace *file_ns = file->f_cred->user_ns;
-	struct uid_gid_extent *extent0 = NULL;
-
-	for (idx = 0; idx < new_map->nr_extents; idx++) {
-		if (new_map->nr_extents <= UID_GID_MAP_MAX_BASE_EXTENTS)
-			extent0 = &new_map->extent[idx];
-		else
-			extent0 = &new_map->forward[idx];
-		if (extent0->lower_first == 0)
-			break;
-
-		extent0 = NULL;
-	}
+	int level;
 
-	if (!extent0)
+	level = map_root_level(map_ns->parent, new_map);
+	if (level == INT_MAX)
 		return true;
 
 	if (map_ns == file_ns) {
 		/* The process unshared its ns and is writing to its own
 		 * /proc/self/uid_map.  User already has full capabilites in
 		 * the new namespace.  Verify that the parent had CAP_SETFCAP
-		 * when it unshared.
+		 * when it unshared, as far up as those root users go.
 		 * */
-		if (file_ns->setfcap_level >= file_ns->level)
+		if (file_ns->setfcap_level > level)
 			return false;
 	} else {
 		/* Process p1 is writing to uid_map of p2, who is in a child
 		 * user namespace to p1's.  Verify that the opener of the map
 		 * file has CAP_SETFCAP against the parent of the new map
-		 * namespace */
-		if (!file_ns_capable(file, map_ns->parent, CAP_SETFCAP))
+		 * namespace, and as far up as those root users go.
+		 */
+		if (!file_ns_capable(file, map_ns->parent, CAP_SETFCAP) ||
+		    !cred_setfcap_reaches(file->f_cred, map_ns->parent, level))
 			return false;
 	}
 
-	return true;
+	/* The file may have been handed to someone else since it was opened,
+	 * so the same goes for the process that is doing the write.
+	 */
+	if (map_ns == current_user_ns())
+		return map_ns->setfcap_level <= level;
+
+	return ns_capable(map_ns->parent, CAP_SETFCAP) &&
+	       cred_setfcap_reaches(current_cred(), map_ns->parent, level);
 }
 
 /*

-- 
2.55.0




More information about the Linux-security-module-archive mailing list