Re: [PATCH v3 2/2] tty: Allow TIOCSTI to be disabled

[Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault@ens-lyon.org>]

Kees Cook, le mar. 27 juin 2023 19:48:45 -0700, a ecrit:
> On Sun, Jun 25, 2023 at 05:56:25PM +0200, Samuel Thibault wrote:
> > > Can we perhaps just introduce a CAP_TIOCSTI that the brltty daemon would
> > > be able to use? We could even make it only allow TIOCSTI on the linux
> > > console (tty->ops == con_ops).
> 
> Does brltty run with CAP_SYS_ADMIN?

ATM most often, yes, though we are trying to reduce the CAP_* privileges
to what it actually needs.

> > *Please* comment on this so we can progress. ATM people are
> > advising each other to set dev.tty.legacy_tiocsti=1, which is just
> > counter-productive in terms of security...
> 
> So is there really no solution for brltty and TIOCSTI being disabled?

No, there is no way to simulate characters on the Linux console. The
alternative would be to use uinput, but that simulates keycodes, not
characters, thus requiring backtranslating first, which is very fragile.

> What is FreeBSD doing? I imagine it's the same situation there too,
> though maybe there is just no support?

There is just no support in the kernel, only a patch against "screen".

> > Really, this a serious regression for the people affected by this.
> 
> Can you send a patch adding a CAP_SYS_ADMIN exception?

Sure!

Samuel