CVE-2011-4080 (published 2012-05-24T23:55Z)

The sysrq_sysctl_handler function in kernel/sysctl.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39 does not require the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability to modify the dmesg_restrict value, which allows local users to bypass intended access restrictions and read the kernel ring buffer by leveraging root privileges, as demonstrated by a root user in a Linux Containers (aka LXC) environment.

Severity: MEDIUM
CVSS v2 base score: 4.0 (AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:C/I:N/A:N)

Weakness information:
cwe_id: CWE-264
cwe_name: Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls
description: Weaknesses in this category are related to the management of permissions, privileges, and other security features that are used to perform access control.

Fix information:
repo_url: https://github.com/torvalds/linux
commit_details: repo_url: https://github.com/torvalds/linux
author: Richard Weinberger
author_date: 2011-03-23 16:43:11-07:00
msg: sysctl: restrict write access to dmesg_restrict

When dmesg_restrict is set to 1 CAP_SYS_ADMIN is needed to read the kernel
ring buffer.  But a root user without CAP_SYS_ADMIN is able to reset
dmesg_restrict to 0.

This is an issue when e.g.  LXC (Linux Containers) are used and complete
user space is running without CAP_SYS_ADMIN.  A unprivileged and jailed
root user can bypass the dmesg_restrict protection.

With this patch writing to dmesg_restrict is only allowed when root has
CAP_SYS_ADMIN.

Signed-off-by: Richard Weinberger <richard@nod.at>
Acked-by: Dan Rosenberg <drosenberg@vsecurity.com>
Acked-by: Serge E. Hallyn <serge@hallyn.com>
Cc: Eric Paris <eparis@redhat.com>
Cc: Kees Cook <kees.cook@canonical.com>
Cc: James Morris <jmorris@namei.org>
Cc: Eugene Teo <eugeneteo@kernel.org>
Cc: <stable@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
repository: repo_url: https://github.com/torvalds/linux
repo_name: torvalds/linux
description: Linux kernel source tree
repo_language: C
owner: torvalds
file_changes: filename: sysctl.c
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -170,6 +170,11 @@ static int proc_taint(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
 			       void __user *buffer, size_t *lenp, loff_t *ppos);
 #endif
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_PRINTK
+static int proc_dmesg_restrict(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
+				void __user *buffer, size_t *lenp, loff_t *ppos);
+#endif
+
 #ifdef CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ
 /* Note: sysrq code uses it's own private copy */
 static int __sysrq_enabled = SYSRQ_DEFAULT_ENABLE;
@@ -707,7 +712,7 @@ static struct ctl_table kern_table[] = {
 		.data		= &kptr_restrict,
 		.maxlen		= sizeof(int),
 		.mode		= 0644,
-		.proc_handler	= proc_dointvec_minmax,
+		.proc_handler	= proc_dmesg_restrict,
 		.extra1		= &zero,
 		.extra2		= &two,
 	},
@@ -2394,6 +2399,17 @@ static int proc_taint(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
 	return err;
 }
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_PRINTK
+static int proc_dmesg_restrict(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
+				void __user *buffer, size_t *lenp, loff_t *ppos)
+{
+	if (write && !capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN))
+		return -EPERM;
+
+	return proc_dointvec_minmax(table, write, buffer, lenp, ppos);
+}
+#endif
+
 struct do_proc_dointvec_minmax_conv_param {
 	int *min;
 	int *max;

programming_language: C