Implement invalidation for CacheFiles. This is in two parts:
(1) Provide an invalidation method (which just truncates the backing file).
(2) Abort attempts to copy anything read from the backing file whilst
invalidation is in progress.
Question: CacheFiles uses truncation in a couple of places. It has been using
notify_change() rather than sys_truncate() or something similar. This means
it bypasses a bunch of checks and suchlike that it possibly should be making
(security, file locking, lease breaking, vfsmount write). Should it be using
vfs_truncate() as added by a preceding patch or should it use notify_write()
and assume that anyone poking around in the cache files on disk gets
everything they deserve?
Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Fix the state management of internal fscache operations and the accounting of
what operations are in what states.
This is done by:
(1) Give struct fscache_operation a enum variable that directly represents the
state it's currently in, rather than spreading this knowledge over a bunch
of flags, who's processing the operation at the moment and whether it is
queued or not.
This makes it easier to write assertions to check the state at various
points and to prevent invalid state transitions.
(2) Add an 'operation complete' state and supply a function to indicate the
completion of an operation (fscache_op_complete()) and make things call
it. The final call to fscache_put_operation() can then check that an op
in the appropriate state (complete or cancelled).
(3) Adjust the use of object->n_ops, ->n_in_progress, ->n_exclusive to better
govern the state of an object:
(a) The ->n_ops is now the number of extant operations on the object
and is now decremented by fscache_put_operation() only.
(b) The ->n_in_progress is simply the number of objects that have been
taken off of the object's pending queue for the purposes of being
run. This is decremented by fscache_op_complete() only.
(c) The ->n_exclusive is the number of exclusive ops that have been
submitted and queued or are in progress. It is decremented by
fscache_op_complete() and by fscache_cancel_op().
fscache_put_operation() and fscache_operation_gc() now no longer try to
clean up ->n_exclusive and ->n_in_progress. That was leading to double
decrements against fscache_cancel_op().
fscache_cancel_op() now no longer decrements ->n_ops. That was leading to
double decrements against fscache_put_operation().
fscache_submit_exclusive_op() now decides whether it has to queue an op
based on ->n_in_progress being > 0 rather than ->n_ops > 0 as the latter
will persist in being true even after all preceding operations have been
cancelled or completed. Furthermore, if an object is active and there are
runnable ops against it, there must be at least one op running.
(4) Add a remaining-pages counter (n_pages) to struct fscache_retrieval and
provide a function to record completion of the pages as they complete.
When n_pages reaches 0, the operation is deemed to be complete and
fscache_op_complete() is called.
Add calls to fscache_retrieval_complete() anywhere we've finished with a
page we've been given to read or allocate for. This includes places where
we just return pages to the netfs for reading from the server and where
accessing the cache fails and we discard the proposed netfs page.
The bugs in the unfixed state management manifest themselves as oopses like the
following where the operation completion gets out of sync with return of the
cookie by the netfs. This is possible because the cache unlocks and returns
all the netfs pages before recording its completion - which means that there's
nothing to stop the netfs discarding them and returning the cookie.
FS-Cache: Cookie 'NFS.fh' still has outstanding reads
------------[ cut here ]------------
kernel BUG at fs/fscache/cookie.c:519!
invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP
CPU 1
Modules linked in: cachefiles nfs fscache auth_rpcgss nfs_acl lockd sunrpc
Pid: 400, comm: kswapd0 Not tainted 3.1.0-rc7-fsdevel+ #1090 /DG965RY
RIP: 0010:[<ffffffffa007050a>] [<ffffffffa007050a>] __fscache_relinquish_cookie+0x170/0x343 [fscache]
RSP: 0018:ffff8800368cfb00 EFLAGS: 00010282
RAX: 000000000000003c RBX: ffff880023cc8790 RCX: 0000000000000000
RDX: 0000000000002f2e RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: ffffffff813ab86c
RBP: ffff8800368cfb50 R08: 0000000000000002 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: ffff88003a1b7890 R11: ffff88001df6e488 R12: ffff880023d8ed98
R13: ffff880023cc8798 R14: 0000000000000004 R15: ffff88003b8bf370
FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88003bd00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 000000008005003b
CR2: 00000000008ba008 CR3: 0000000023d93000 CR4: 00000000000006e0
DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
Process kswapd0 (pid: 400, threadinfo ffff8800368ce000, task ffff88003b8bf040)
Stack:
ffff88003b8bf040 ffff88001df6e528 ffff88001df6e528 ffffffffa00b46b0
ffff88003b8bf040 ffff88001df6e488 ffff88001df6e620 ffffffffa00b46b0
ffff88001ebd04c8 0000000000000004 ffff8800368cfb70 ffffffffa00b2c91
Call Trace:
[<ffffffffa00b2c91>] nfs_fscache_release_inode_cookie+0x3b/0x47 [nfs]
[<ffffffffa008f25f>] nfs_clear_inode+0x3c/0x41 [nfs]
[<ffffffffa0090df1>] nfs4_evict_inode+0x2f/0x33 [nfs]
[<ffffffff810d8d47>] evict+0xa1/0x15c
[<ffffffff810d8e2e>] dispose_list+0x2c/0x38
[<ffffffff810d9ebd>] prune_icache_sb+0x28c/0x29b
[<ffffffff810c56b7>] prune_super+0xd5/0x140
[<ffffffff8109b615>] shrink_slab+0x102/0x1ab
[<ffffffff8109d690>] balance_pgdat+0x2f2/0x595
[<ffffffff8103e009>] ? process_timeout+0xb/0xb
[<ffffffff8109dba3>] kswapd+0x270/0x289
[<ffffffff8104c5ea>] ? __init_waitqueue_head+0x46/0x46
[<ffffffff8109d933>] ? balance_pgdat+0x595/0x595
[<ffffffff8104bf7a>] kthread+0x7f/0x87
[<ffffffff813ad6b4>] kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10
[<ffffffff81026b98>] ? finish_task_switch+0x45/0xc0
[<ffffffff813abcdd>] ? retint_restore_args+0xe/0xe
[<ffffffff8104befb>] ? __init_kthread_worker+0x53/0x53
[<ffffffff813ad6b0>] ? gs_change+0xb/0xb
Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Downgrade some debugging statements to not unconditionally print stuff, but
rather be conditional on the appropriate module parameter setting.
Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Downgrade the requirements passed to the allocator in the gfp flags parameter.
FS-Cache/CacheFiles can handle OOM conditions simply by aborting the attempt to
store an object or a page in the cache.
Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Under some circumstances CacheFiles defers the marking of pages with PG_fscache
so that it can take advantage of pagevecs to reduce the number of calls to
fscache_mark_pages_cached() and the netfs's hook to keep track of this.
There are, however, two problems with this:
(1) It can lead to the PG_fscache mark being applied _after_ the page is set
PG_uptodate and unlocked (by the call to fscache_end_io()).
(2) CacheFiles's ref on the page is dropped immediately following
fscache_end_io() - and so may not still be held when the mark is applied.
This can lead to the page being passed back to the allocator before the
mark is applied.
Fix this by, where appropriate, marking the page before calling
fscache_end_io() and releasing the page. This means that we can't take
advantage of pagevecs and have to make a separate call for each page to the
marking routines.
The symptoms of this are Bad Page state errors cropping up under memory
pressure, for example:
BUG: Bad page state in process tar pfn:002da
page:ffffea0000009fb0 count:0 mapcount:0 mapping: (null) index:0x1447
page flags: 0x1000(private_2)
Pid: 4574, comm: tar Tainted: G W 3.1.0-rc4-fsdevel+ #1064
Call Trace:
[<ffffffff8109583c>] ? dump_page+0xb9/0xbe
[<ffffffff81095916>] bad_page+0xd5/0xea
[<ffffffff81095d82>] get_page_from_freelist+0x35b/0x46a
[<ffffffff810961f3>] __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x362/0x662
[<ffffffff810989da>] __do_page_cache_readahead+0x13a/0x267
[<ffffffff81098942>] ? __do_page_cache_readahead+0xa2/0x267
[<ffffffff81098d7b>] ra_submit+0x1c/0x20
[<ffffffff8109900a>] ondemand_readahead+0x28b/0x29a
[<ffffffff81098ee2>] ? ondemand_readahead+0x163/0x29a
[<ffffffff810990ce>] page_cache_sync_readahead+0x38/0x3a
[<ffffffff81091d8a>] generic_file_aio_read+0x2ab/0x67e
[<ffffffffa008cfbe>] nfs_file_read+0xa4/0xc9 [nfs]
[<ffffffff810c22c4>] do_sync_read+0xba/0xfa
[<ffffffff81177a47>] ? security_file_permission+0x7b/0x84
[<ffffffff810c25dd>] ? rw_verify_area+0xab/0xc8
[<ffffffff810c29a4>] vfs_read+0xaa/0x13a
[<ffffffff810c2a79>] sys_read+0x45/0x6c
[<ffffffff813ac37b>] system_call_fastpath+0x16/0x1b
As can be seen, PG_private_2 (== PG_fscache) is set in the page flags.
Instrumenting fscache_mark_pages_cached() to verify whether page->mapping was
set appropriately showed that sometimes it wasn't. This led to the discovery
that sometimes the page has apparently been reclaimed by the time the marker
got to see it.
Reported-by: M. Stevens <m@tippett.com>
Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com>
Make fscache operation to use only workqueue instead of combination of
workqueue and slow-work. FSCACHE_OP_SLOW is dropped and
FSCACHE_OP_FAST is renamed to FSCACHE_OP_ASYNC and uses newly added
fscache_op_wq workqueue to execute op->processor().
fscache_operation_init_slow() is dropped and fscache_operation_init()
now takes @processor argument directly.
* Unbound workqueue is used.
* fscache_retrieval_work() is no longer necessary as OP_ASYNC now does
the equivalent thing.
* sysctl fscache.operation_max_active added to control concurrency.
The default value is nr_cpus clamped between 2 and
WQ_UNBOUND_MAX_ACTIVE.
* debugfs support is dropped for now. Tracing API based debug
facility is planned to be added.
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Acked-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
percpu.h is included by sched.h and module.h and thus ends up being
included when building most .c files. percpu.h includes slab.h which
in turn includes gfp.h making everything defined by the two files
universally available and complicating inclusion dependencies.
percpu.h -> slab.h dependency is about to be removed. Prepare for
this change by updating users of gfp and slab facilities include those
headers directly instead of assuming availability. As this conversion
needs to touch large number of source files, the following script is
used as the basis of conversion.
http://userweb.kernel.org/~tj/misc/slabh-sweep.py
The script does the followings.
* Scan files for gfp and slab usages and update includes such that
only the necessary includes are there. ie. if only gfp is used,
gfp.h, if slab is used, slab.h.
* When the script inserts a new include, it looks at the include
blocks and try to put the new include such that its order conforms
to its surrounding. It's put in the include block which contains
core kernel includes, in the same order that the rest are ordered -
alphabetical, Christmas tree, rev-Xmas-tree or at the end if there
doesn't seem to be any matching order.
* If the script can't find a place to put a new include (mostly
because the file doesn't have fitting include block), it prints out
an error message indicating which .h file needs to be added to the
file.
The conversion was done in the following steps.
1. The initial automatic conversion of all .c files updated slightly
over 4000 files, deleting around 700 includes and adding ~480 gfp.h
and ~3000 slab.h inclusions. The script emitted errors for ~400
files.
2. Each error was manually checked. Some didn't need the inclusion,
some needed manual addition while adding it to implementation .h or
embedding .c file was more appropriate for others. This step added
inclusions to around 150 files.
3. The script was run again and the output was compared to the edits
from #2 to make sure no file was left behind.
4. Several build tests were done and a couple of problems were fixed.
e.g. lib/decompress_*.c used malloc/free() wrappers around slab
APIs requiring slab.h to be added manually.
5. The script was run on all .h files but without automatically
editing them as sprinkling gfp.h and slab.h inclusions around .h
files could easily lead to inclusion dependency hell. Most gfp.h
inclusion directives were ignored as stuff from gfp.h was usually
wildly available and often used in preprocessor macros. Each
slab.h inclusion directive was examined and added manually as
necessary.
6. percpu.h was updated not to include slab.h.
7. Build test were done on the following configurations and failures
were fixed. CONFIG_GCOV_KERNEL was turned off for all tests (as my
distributed build env didn't work with gcov compiles) and a few
more options had to be turned off depending on archs to make things
build (like ipr on powerpc/64 which failed due to missing writeq).
* x86 and x86_64 UP and SMP allmodconfig and a custom test config.
* powerpc and powerpc64 SMP allmodconfig
* sparc and sparc64 SMP allmodconfig
* ia64 SMP allmodconfig
* s390 SMP allmodconfig
* alpha SMP allmodconfig
* um on x86_64 SMP allmodconfig
8. percpu.h modifications were reverted so that it could be applied as
a separate patch and serve as bisection point.
Given the fact that I had only a couple of failures from tests on step
6, I'm fairly confident about the coverage of this conversion patch.
If there is a breakage, it's likely to be something in one of the arch
headers which should be easily discoverable easily on most builds of
the specific arch.
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Guess-its-ok-by: Christoph Lameter <cl@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
Cc: Lee Schermerhorn <Lee.Schermerhorn@hp.com>
* do ima_get_count() in __dentry_open()
* stop doing that in followups
* move ima_path_check() to right after nameidata_to_filp()
* don't bump counters on it
Signed-off-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
When IMA is active, using dentry_open without updating the
IMA counters will result in free/open imbalance errors when
fput is eventually called.
Signed-off-by: Marc Dionne <marc.c.dionne@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
cachefiles_write_page() writes a full page to the backing file for the last
page of the netfs file, even if the netfs file's last page is only a partial
page.
This causes the EOF on the backing file to be extended beyond the EOF of the
netfs, and thus the backing file will be truncated by cachefiles_attr_changed()
called from cachefiles_lookup_object().
So we need to limit the write we make to the backing file on that last page
such that it doesn't push the EOF too far.
Also, if a backing file that has a partial page at the end is expanded, we
discard the partial page and refetch it on the basis that we then have a hole
in the file with invalid data, and should the power go out... A better way to
deal with this could be to record a note that the partial page contains invalid
data until the correct data is written into it.
This isn't a problem for netfs's that discard the whole backing file if the
file size changes (such as NFS).
Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Allow the current state of all fscache objects to be dumped by doing:
cat /proc/fs/fscache/objects
By default, all objects and all fields will be shown. This can be restricted
by adding a suitable key to one of the caller's keyrings (such as the session
keyring):
keyctl add user fscache:objlist "<restrictions>" @s
The <restrictions> are:
K Show hexdump of object key (don't show if not given)
A Show hexdump of object aux data (don't show if not given)
And paired restrictions:
C Show objects that have a cookie
c Show objects that don't have a cookie
B Show objects that are busy
b Show objects that aren't busy
W Show objects that have pending writes
w Show objects that don't have pending writes
R Show objects that have outstanding reads
r Show objects that don't have outstanding reads
S Show objects that have slow work queued
s Show objects that don't have slow work queued
If neither side of a restriction pair is given, then both are implied. For
example:
keyctl add user fscache:objlist KB @s
shows objects that are busy, and lists their object keys, but does not dump
their auxiliary data. It also implies "CcWwRrSs", but as 'B' is given, 'b' is
not implied.
Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Add an FS-Cache cache-backend that permits a mounted filesystem to be used as a
backing store for the cache.
CacheFiles uses a userspace daemon to do some of the cache management - such as
reaping stale nodes and culling. This is called cachefilesd and lives in
/sbin. The source for the daemon can be downloaded from:
http://people.redhat.com/~dhowells/cachefs/cachefilesd.c
And an example configuration from:
http://people.redhat.com/~dhowells/cachefs/cachefilesd.conf
The filesystem and data integrity of the cache are only as good as those of the
filesystem providing the backing services. Note that CacheFiles does not
attempt to journal anything since the journalling interfaces of the various
filesystems are very specific in nature.
CacheFiles creates a misc character device - "/dev/cachefiles" - that is used
to communication with the daemon. Only one thing may have this open at once,
and whilst it is open, a cache is at least partially in existence. The daemon
opens this and sends commands down it to control the cache.
CacheFiles is currently limited to a single cache.
CacheFiles attempts to maintain at least a certain percentage of free space on
the filesystem, shrinking the cache by culling the objects it contains to make
space if necessary - see the "Cache Culling" section. This means it can be
placed on the same medium as a live set of data, and will expand to make use of
spare space and automatically contract when the set of data requires more
space.
============
REQUIREMENTS
============
The use of CacheFiles and its daemon requires the following features to be
available in the system and in the cache filesystem:
- dnotify.
- extended attributes (xattrs).
- openat() and friends.
- bmap() support on files in the filesystem (FIBMAP ioctl).
- The use of bmap() to detect a partial page at the end of the file.
It is strongly recommended that the "dir_index" option is enabled on Ext3
filesystems being used as a cache.
=============
CONFIGURATION
=============
The cache is configured by a script in /etc/cachefilesd.conf. These commands
set up cache ready for use. The following script commands are available:
(*) brun <N>%
(*) bcull <N>%
(*) bstop <N>%
(*) frun <N>%
(*) fcull <N>%
(*) fstop <N>%
Configure the culling limits. Optional. See the section on culling
The defaults are 7% (run), 5% (cull) and 1% (stop) respectively.
The commands beginning with a 'b' are file space (block) limits, those
beginning with an 'f' are file count limits.
(*) dir <path>
Specify the directory containing the root of the cache. Mandatory.
(*) tag <name>
Specify a tag to FS-Cache to use in distinguishing multiple caches.
Optional. The default is "CacheFiles".
(*) debug <mask>
Specify a numeric bitmask to control debugging in the kernel module.
Optional. The default is zero (all off). The following values can be
OR'd into the mask to collect various information:
1 Turn on trace of function entry (_enter() macros)
2 Turn on trace of function exit (_leave() macros)
4 Turn on trace of internal debug points (_debug())
This mask can also be set through sysfs, eg:
echo 5 >/sys/modules/cachefiles/parameters/debug
==================
STARTING THE CACHE
==================
The cache is started by running the daemon. The daemon opens the cache device,
configures the cache and tells it to begin caching. At that point the cache
binds to fscache and the cache becomes live.
The daemon is run as follows:
/sbin/cachefilesd [-d]* [-s] [-n] [-f <configfile>]
The flags are:
(*) -d
Increase the debugging level. This can be specified multiple times and
is cumulative with itself.
(*) -s
Send messages to stderr instead of syslog.
(*) -n
Don't daemonise and go into background.
(*) -f <configfile>
Use an alternative configuration file rather than the default one.
===============
THINGS TO AVOID
===============
Do not mount other things within the cache as this will cause problems. The
kernel module contains its own very cut-down path walking facility that ignores
mountpoints, but the daemon can't avoid them.
Do not create, rename or unlink files and directories in the cache whilst the
cache is active, as this may cause the state to become uncertain.
Renaming files in the cache might make objects appear to be other objects (the
filename is part of the lookup key).
Do not change or remove the extended attributes attached to cache files by the
cache as this will cause the cache state management to get confused.
Do not create files or directories in the cache, lest the cache get confused or
serve incorrect data.
Do not chmod files in the cache. The module creates things with minimal
permissions to prevent random users being able to access them directly.
=============
CACHE CULLING
=============
The cache may need culling occasionally to make space. This involves
discarding objects from the cache that have been used less recently than
anything else. Culling is based on the access time of data objects. Empty
directories are culled if not in use.
Cache culling is done on the basis of the percentage of blocks and the
percentage of files available in the underlying filesystem. There are six
"limits":
(*) brun
(*) frun
If the amount of free space and the number of available files in the cache
rises above both these limits, then culling is turned off.
(*) bcull
(*) fcull
If the amount of available space or the number of available files in the
cache falls below either of these limits, then culling is started.
(*) bstop
(*) fstop
If the amount of available space or the number of available files in the
cache falls below either of these limits, then no further allocation of
disk space or files is permitted until culling has raised things above
these limits again.
These must be configured thusly:
0 <= bstop < bcull < brun < 100
0 <= fstop < fcull < frun < 100
Note that these are percentages of available space and available files, and do
_not_ appear as 100 minus the percentage displayed by the "df" program.
The userspace daemon scans the cache to build up a table of cullable objects.
These are then culled in least recently used order. A new scan of the cache is
started as soon as space is made in the table. Objects will be skipped if
their atimes have changed or if the kernel module says it is still using them.
===============
CACHE STRUCTURE
===============
The CacheFiles module will create two directories in the directory it was
given:
(*) cache/
(*) graveyard/
The active cache objects all reside in the first directory. The CacheFiles
kernel module moves any retired or culled objects that it can't simply unlink
to the graveyard from which the daemon will actually delete them.
The daemon uses dnotify to monitor the graveyard directory, and will delete
anything that appears therein.
The module represents index objects as directories with the filename "I..." or
"J...". Note that the "cache/" directory is itself a special index.
Data objects are represented as files if they have no children, or directories
if they do. Their filenames all begin "D..." or "E...". If represented as a
directory, data objects will have a file in the directory called "data" that
actually holds the data.
Special objects are similar to data objects, except their filenames begin
"S..." or "T...".
If an object has children, then it will be represented as a directory.
Immediately in the representative directory are a collection of directories
named for hash values of the child object keys with an '@' prepended. Into
this directory, if possible, will be placed the representations of the child
objects:
INDEX INDEX INDEX DATA FILES
========= ========== ================================= ================
cache/@4a/I03nfs/@30/Ji000000000000000--fHg8hi8400
cache/@4a/I03nfs/@30/Ji000000000000000--fHg8hi8400/@75/Es0g000w...DB1ry
cache/@4a/I03nfs/@30/Ji000000000000000--fHg8hi8400/@75/Es0g000w...N22ry
cache/@4a/I03nfs/@30/Ji000000000000000--fHg8hi8400/@75/Es0g000w...FP1ry
If the key is so long that it exceeds NAME_MAX with the decorations added on to
it, then it will be cut into pieces, the first few of which will be used to
make a nest of directories, and the last one of which will be the objects
inside the last directory. The names of the intermediate directories will have
'+' prepended:
J1223/@23/+xy...z/+kl...m/Epqr
Note that keys are raw data, and not only may they exceed NAME_MAX in size,
they may also contain things like '/' and NUL characters, and so they may not
be suitable for turning directly into a filename.
To handle this, CacheFiles will use a suitably printable filename directly and
"base-64" encode ones that aren't directly suitable. The two versions of
object filenames indicate the encoding:
OBJECT TYPE PRINTABLE ENCODED
=============== =============== ===============
Index "I..." "J..."
Data "D..." "E..."
Special "S..." "T..."
Intermediate directories are always "@" or "+" as appropriate.
Each object in the cache has an extended attribute label that holds the object
type ID (required to distinguish special objects) and the auxiliary data from
the netfs. The latter is used to detect stale objects in the cache and update
or retire them.
Note that CacheFiles will erase from the cache any file it doesn't recognise or
any file of an incorrect type (such as a FIFO file or a device file).
==========================
SECURITY MODEL AND SELINUX
==========================
CacheFiles is implemented to deal properly with the LSM security features of
the Linux kernel and the SELinux facility.
One of the problems that CacheFiles faces is that it is generally acting on
behalf of a process, and running in that process's context, and that includes a
security context that is not appropriate for accessing the cache - either
because the files in the cache are inaccessible to that process, or because if
the process creates a file in the cache, that file may be inaccessible to other
processes.
The way CacheFiles works is to temporarily change the security context (fsuid,
fsgid and actor security label) that the process acts as - without changing the
security context of the process when it the target of an operation performed by
some other process (so signalling and suchlike still work correctly).
When the CacheFiles module is asked to bind to its cache, it:
(1) Finds the security label attached to the root cache directory and uses
that as the security label with which it will create files. By default,
this is:
cachefiles_var_t
(2) Finds the security label of the process which issued the bind request
(presumed to be the cachefilesd daemon), which by default will be:
cachefilesd_t
and asks LSM to supply a security ID as which it should act given the
daemon's label. By default, this will be:
cachefiles_kernel_t
SELinux transitions the daemon's security ID to the module's security ID
based on a rule of this form in the policy.
type_transition <daemon's-ID> kernel_t : process <module's-ID>;
For instance:
type_transition cachefilesd_t kernel_t : process cachefiles_kernel_t;
The module's security ID gives it permission to create, move and remove files
and directories in the cache, to find and access directories and files in the
cache, to set and access extended attributes on cache objects, and to read and
write files in the cache.
The daemon's security ID gives it only a very restricted set of permissions: it
may scan directories, stat files and erase files and directories. It may
not read or write files in the cache, and so it is precluded from accessing the
data cached therein; nor is it permitted to create new files in the cache.
There are policy source files available in:
http://people.redhat.com/~dhowells/fscache/cachefilesd-0.8.tar.bz2
and later versions. In that tarball, see the files:
cachefilesd.te
cachefilesd.fc
cachefilesd.if
They are built and installed directly by the RPM.
If a non-RPM based system is being used, then copy the above files to their own
directory and run:
make -f /usr/share/selinux/devel/Makefile
semodule -i cachefilesd.pp
You will need checkpolicy and selinux-policy-devel installed prior to the
build.
By default, the cache is located in /var/fscache, but if it is desirable that
it should be elsewhere, than either the above policy files must be altered, or
an auxiliary policy must be installed to label the alternate location of the
cache.
For instructions on how to add an auxiliary policy to enable the cache to be
located elsewhere when SELinux is in enforcing mode, please see:
/usr/share/doc/cachefilesd-*/move-cache.txt
When the cachefilesd rpm is installed; alternatively, the document can be found
in the sources.
==================
A NOTE ON SECURITY
==================
CacheFiles makes use of the split security in the task_struct. It allocates
its own task_security structure, and redirects current->act_as to point to it
when it acts on behalf of another process, in that process's context.
The reason it does this is that it calls vfs_mkdir() and suchlike rather than
bypassing security and calling inode ops directly. Therefore the VFS and LSM
may deny the CacheFiles access to the cache data because under some
circumstances the caching code is running in the security context of whatever
process issued the original syscall on the netfs.
Furthermore, should CacheFiles create a file or directory, the security
parameters with that object is created (UID, GID, security label) would be
derived from that process that issued the system call, thus potentially
preventing other processes from accessing the cache - including CacheFiles's
cache management daemon (cachefilesd).
What is required is to temporarily override the security of the process that
issued the system call. We can't, however, just do an in-place change of the
security data as that affects the process as an object, not just as a subject.
This means it may lose signals or ptrace events for example, and affects what
the process looks like in /proc.
So CacheFiles makes use of a logical split in the security between the
objective security (task->sec) and the subjective security (task->act_as). The
objective security holds the intrinsic security properties of a process and is
never overridden. This is what appears in /proc, and is what is used when a
process is the target of an operation by some other process (SIGKILL for
example).
The subjective security holds the active security properties of a process, and
may be overridden. This is not seen externally, and is used whan a process
acts upon another object, for example SIGKILLing another process or opening a
file.
LSM hooks exist that allow SELinux (or Smack or whatever) to reject a request
for CacheFiles to run in a context of a specific security label, or to create
files and directories with another security label.
This documentation is added by the patch to:
Documentation/filesystems/caching/cachefiles.txt
Signed-Off-By: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Steve Dickson <steved@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Trond Myklebust <Trond.Myklebust@netapp.com>
Acked-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Tested-by: Daire Byrne <Daire.Byrne@framestore.com>
David Howells