Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
exec: force single empty string when argv is empty
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
Quoting[1] Ariadne Conill:

"In several other operating systems, it is a hard requirement that the
second argument to execve(2) be the name of a program, thus prohibiting
a scenario where argc < 1. POSIX 2017 also recommends this behaviour,
but it is not an explicit requirement[2]:

    The argument arg0 should point to a filename string that is
    associated with the process being started by one of the exec
    functions.
...
Interestingly, Michael Kerrisk opened an issue about this in 2008[3],
but there was no consensus to support fixing this issue then.
Hopefully now that CVE-2021-4034 shows practical exploitative use[4]
of this bug in a shellcode, we can reconsider.

This issue is being tracked in the KSPP issue tracker[5]."

While the initial code searches[6][7] turned up what appeared to be
mostly corner case tests, trying to that just reject argv == NULL
(or an immediately terminated pointer list) quickly started tripping[8]
existing userspace programs.

The next best approach is forcing a single empty string into argv and
adjusting argc to match. The number of programs depending on argc == 0
seems a smaller set than those calling execve with a NULL argv.

Account for the additional stack space in bprm_stack_limits(). Inject an
empty string when argc == 0 (and set argc = 1). Warn about the case so
userspace has some notice about the change:

    process './argc0' launched './argc0' with NULL argv: empty string added

Additionally WARN() and reject NULL argv usage for kernel threads.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20220127000724.15106-1-ariadne@dereferenced.org/
[2] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/exec.html
[3] https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8408
[4] https://www.qualys.com/2022/01/25/cve-2021-4034/pwnkit.txt
[5] KSPP/linux#176
[6] https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=execve%5C+*%5C%28%5B%5E%2C%5D%2B%2C+*NULL&literal=0
[7] https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=execlp%3F%5Cs*%5C%28%5B%5E%2C%5D%2B%2C%5Cs*NULL&literal=0
[8] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20220131144352.GE16385@xsang-OptiPlex-9020/

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20220201000947.2453721-1-keescook@chromium.org
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Reported-by: Ariadne Conill <ariadne@dereferenced.org>
Reported-by: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
Acked-by: Ariadne Conill <ariadne@dereferenced.org>
Acked-by: Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
Cc: Rich Felker <dalias@libc.org>
Cc: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
Cc: Alexander Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: Shuah Khan <shuah@kernel.org>
Cc: Yang Yingliang <yangyingliang@huawei.com>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Mark Brown <broonie@kernel.org>
  • Loading branch information
kees authored and broonie committed Feb 24, 2022
1 parent 8571b09 commit 969c468
Showing 1 changed file with 25 additions and 1 deletion.
26 changes: 25 additions & 1 deletion fs/exec.c
Expand Up @@ -495,8 +495,14 @@ static int bprm_stack_limits(struct linux_binprm *bprm)
* the stack. They aren't stored until much later when we can't
* signal to the parent that the child has run out of stack space.
* Instead, calculate it here so it's possible to fail gracefully.
*
* In the case of argc = 0, make sure there is space for adding a
* empty string (which will bump argc to 1), to ensure confused
* userspace programs don't start processing from argv[1], thinking
* argc can never be 0, to keep them from walking envp by accident.
* See do_execveat_common().
*/
ptr_size = (bprm->argc + bprm->envc) * sizeof(void *);
ptr_size = (min(bprm->argc, 1) + bprm->envc) * sizeof(void *);
if (limit <= ptr_size)
return -E2BIG;
limit -= ptr_size;
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1897,6 +1903,9 @@ static int do_execveat_common(int fd, struct filename *filename,
}

retval = count(argv, MAX_ARG_STRINGS);
if (retval == 0)
pr_warn_once("process '%s' launched '%s' with NULL argv: empty string added\n",
current->comm, bprm->filename);
if (retval < 0)
goto out_free;
bprm->argc = retval;
Expand All @@ -1923,6 +1932,19 @@ static int do_execveat_common(int fd, struct filename *filename,
if (retval < 0)
goto out_free;

/*
* When argv is empty, add an empty string ("") as argv[0] to
* ensure confused userspace programs that start processing
* from argv[1] won't end up walking envp. See also
* bprm_stack_limits().
*/
if (bprm->argc == 0) {
retval = copy_string_kernel("", bprm);
if (retval < 0)
goto out_free;
bprm->argc = 1;
}

retval = bprm_execve(bprm, fd, filename, flags);
out_free:
free_bprm(bprm);
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1951,6 +1973,8 @@ int kernel_execve(const char *kernel_filename,
}

retval = count_strings_kernel(argv);
if (WARN_ON_ONCE(retval == 0))
retval = -EINVAL;
if (retval < 0)
goto out_free;
bprm->argc = retval;
Expand Down

0 comments on commit 969c468

Please sign in to comment.